BTCs are manufactured on this "state of the art" computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tool. The Mazak 625 is a CNC lathe with twin horizontally opposed spindles that can perform all conventional turning operations as well as secondary milling operations on the same machine tool.
To make the threaded half of our coupling, a solid bar is fed through the spindle on the left and is machined including drilling, boring, turning, threading and tooth milling without ever being taken out of the first spindle. Once the first end is done the spindles (3 jaw chucks) come together in the center and the part is transferred to the second spindle while it is still connected to the bar. The part is then cut off from the bar and is completed in the second spindle which includes drilling, boring, turning and milling. While the second spindle is completing the operations it performs, the first spindle is simultaneously machining a new part. By completing the part in one machine we can maintain accuracies that are impossible to achieve commercially with more common CNC machining methods that would require moving the part from machine to machine.