2011 Okuma MB5000H CNC Horizontal Machining Center

The Okuma MB5000H is Okuma's 500 mm horizontal machining center, a SPACE CENTER series platform built around thermal stability and a control designed to stay serviceable for decades. This 2011 example runs a 500 x 500 mm pallet rated to 1,100 lbs, 29.92 inch travels in X and Y, 31.89 inches in Z, and 2,362 IPM rapids on all three axes. Its No. 40 taper spindle reaches 12,000 RPM on a 40 HP drive and draws from a 110-position automatic tool changer. A twin-pallet automatic changer with full 4th-axis rotation lets an operator break down and re-fixture one pallet while the other runs under the spindle. The machine is controlled by the Okuma OSP-P200M and equipped with an MP Systems high pressure coolant system, through-spindle coolant, a ConSep 2000 chip conveyor, tool breakage detection, and a spindle probe.

Compared with the Okuma MA-500HB that preceded it in this size class, the MB5000H is the machine that made unattended horizontal work practical for a mid-size shop. The MA-500HB turned slower and traversed slower; the MB5000H's 12,000 RPM spindle and 2,362 IPM rapids cut both the cutting time and the non-cutting time on the same part. More consequential is the OSP-P200M, whose Thermo-Friendly thermal compensation is what lets a horizontal hold tolerance from the first part of a shift to the last as the shop heats up - the kind of stability the MA generation asked the operator to manage by hand. Pair that with 110 tool pockets and a twin-pallet changer and the MB5000H stops being a machine an operator tends and becomes one a shop schedules.