With a tool change in as little as 0.5 seconds, the FZ08 machining center has held an unbroken record since 1996. CHIRON has been the synonym for “seconds ahead“ since then.

The idea occurred to Eugen Rütschle while he was gardening. At the factory, the now long retired CHIRON designer then went to work – and developed the legendary FZ16 machining center in 1981. The “basket changer“ became a successful product with sometimes more than a 50 percent share of sales. The unparalleled
fast machining center set standards from the outset. Over the years, the product program has been perfected to the last detail. Since 1996, the series has held a singular record, because twenty years ago CHIRON brought the FZ08 series with a basket changer on the market with a tool change time 0.5 seconds! This has still not been matched.

Despite intelligent advancements, one thing has remained the same: The basket changer still holds 20 tools. That‘s enough for most cutting tasks in a work process. For larger tool requirements, there are now also integrated chain magazines available that store up to 128 tools depending on the configuration and also provide them in record time.

After a quarter century of continuous technical evolution, the basket changer has matured to a highly reliable and cost-effective tool in the sector for automatic tool change. The fastest tool change ever has resulted in excellent rationalization effects among users, in the cutting industry as well. One only has to visualize: The rapid tool change saves about three seconds compared in the cutting process. That does not sound like much. But even with only one tool change per minute, the time adds up
to 24 minutes after eight hours, over 220 working days, savings of 88 hours are achieved. In series production, tool changes typically take place 3 to 5 times per minute. thus the CHIRON basket changer achieves a capacity gain of more than 400 hours per year – a huge time advantage. And that just for one basket changer. The lead in seconds, however, grows exponentially with the number of basket changers in a production plant.

Fast, precise and reliable the advantages of a quick tool change only yield their maximum rationalization effect when the actual cutting operations are also carried out by high-quality spindles and highspeed feeds with high quality as well as great speed and long-term reliability. CHIRON keeps working on this and matches the systems perfectly. Dynamics, speed, precision and reliability are now optimally combined in the procedures of CHIRON machining centers.
For example, the tool changer always exchanges the tools at the current spindle position. This direct tool retrieval significantly reduces the chip-to-chip times even more.
When it comes to a lead in seconds, the basket changer is still first choice for users, even after 35 years.