Toolmaker upgrades capabilities with Mazak VMC

Toolmaker SJ Dimmock has upgraded its manufacturing capabilities with the purchase of the company’s first UK-made Yamazaki Mazak VCN 530C vertical machining centre.The family-owned firm, based in Dunstable, was set up in 1985, since building a reputation for manufacturing high-specification injection moulding tools for the aerospace, medical, food and drink, automotive, and Formula One industries.

Company director Jamie Dimmock says: “Following the retirement of one of our long-serving employees, I found myself in the position of having three machines that I’d need to train myself to operate. As they were older machines, I thought it would be more effective to sell the machines to finance a new, larger vertical machining centre.After a lot of careful consideration and time spent evaluating the performance of comparable machines, I chose the VCN 530C vertical machining centre from Mazak. Each day that goes by confirms it was a fantastic decision.”

The VCN 530C is a high productivity vertical machining centre made at Mazak’s European manufacturing facility in Worcester. Equipped with a 40-taper spindle, Mazak says the machine excels at delivering high-speed machining with maximum stability and rigidity thanks to its heavy-duty casting.

Typically, SJ Dimmock is working to exceptionally tight tolerances of ±0.005 mm to meet the surface finish requirements of its customers. Here,Dimmock says the VCN has transformed the company’s machining operations. “We’ve replaced three machines with one and vastly improved the surface quality of the moulds, while reducing the volume of second operation work. The processing speeds are exceptional with the Mazak, which has not only helped with the quality of work, but has also doubled our capacity.”
For further information www.mazakeu.co.uk

Stockholder cuts lead times with Kasto automation

A steel and non-ferrous metals stockholder in Germany, is using a new sawing centre from Kasto for the close-tolerance cutting to length of its various bar, tube, profile and other products. At Bieber + Marburg, the demand for sawing in particular is increasing enormously, so the company needed to examine how best to expand this side of its business and determine what technology to target.

During a demonstration, the impressive speed of an automatic production circular saw from the KASTOvariospeed range impressed the stockholder’s management and it quickly became apparent that it would be the optimum solution to the shortfall in cutting capacity.

Nextto the circular saw, a KASTOsort robot is responsible for cut piece container management. The robot recognises the containers, which already contain the relevant delivery label, and loads the required parts into them automatically, even unattended over the weekend.

Bieber + Marburg’s new KASTOcenter Varioplus 4 warehouse is 50 m long by 7 m wide and 9 m high. It contains about 1500 shelves with space for material up to 7 m long and 330 mm in diameter. A gantry crane stores and retrieves stock at up to 60 m/min. It serves both the KASTOvariospeed C 18 automatic circular sawing centre and a bandsawing area, where a newly installed KASTOtec SC4 is part of the expansion.

“The KASTOcenter varioplus 4 has enabled us to reduce set-up time from 15-20 minutes on the bandsaws, to less than two minutes on the circular saw,” reveals Marcel Finkernagel, director of administration and organisation at Bieber + Marburg.“Operation is then automatic, with consistent quality of cut on material up to the saw’s maximum capacity of 330 mm diameter.”
For further information www.kasto.com

ULTRA-HIGH SURFACE QUALITY AND SHORT CUTTING CYCLES SECURE MACHINING CENTRE SALE

The installation of a Roeders five-axis machining centre at Circle GmbH in Weilmünster, Germany, is transforming the engineering service provider’s ability to deliver machined prototypes and small batches of components in short lead times. Roeders machines are available in the UK and Ireland through sole sales and service agent Hurco Europe.

Circle started out in 1998 as a design service provider, initially to the automotive industry and subsequently to the medical, aerospace, optical and other sectors. Customers asked mainly for 3D-printed samples, which it would source from third parties offering stereolithography or selective laser sintering.

In 2007, the company’s first milling machine arrived for producing machined samples of metal parts, mostly from aluminium but also steel, stainless steel and titanium. The company expanded this service consistently and now has three milling centres and four lathes, including a turn-mill centre. In addition, injection moulding machines and equipment for vibratory finishing and shot blasting are in use.

Heiko Legner, managing director of Circle, says: “Our speciality is the production of very high quality, complex, demanding turned and milled parts to tight tolerances in quite small quantities.Examples are components for luxury cars and aircraft interiors in first-class areas, as well as medical apparatus and high-end measuring systems.”

Circle provides engineering expertise prior to part production. The company scrutinises everything, from the CAD file supplied by the customer, through workholding and machining strategies, to identifying cutters that will achieve a certain surface quality. Circle says its engineers help to achieve optimal results, technically as well as economically. Customers certainly appreciate the advantages of this overall package.

Many of the products Circle manufactures have to meet exceptionally high demands in terms of surface quality, not only across flat and freeform areas but also at transitions after a tool change or workpiece re-clamping. So when the procurement of another machining centre was due in 2021, these criteria figured prominently in the list of requirements.

The visual quality of the surfaces after machining was important, but it was also crucial that no witness marks should be visible after anodising. With the machines in operation at the time at the Weilmünster factory, it was often necessary to polish for up to three days after completion of milling to ensure acceptable results for a customer.

In its search for a new machining centre, Circle looked at numerous manufacturers. The number of candidates was initially narrowed down to seven and finally to a shortlist of three, including Roeders. All had to produce a test part from free-issue material to Circle’s precise specifications, which included the NC program and tools. For the production of a second workpiece, the machine manufacturers were invited to attempt a fast cycle time and achieve a high-quality result using their own software and tools.

Nikolaj Sterzer, production manager at Circle says: “After Roeders had produced by far the best result in terms of surface quality in these trials, we evaluated the machine’s endurance at the manufacturer’s premises in Soltau. We put it through a process of extremely hard roughing using a 16 mm milling cutter, and it passed this test well. At the same time, we were able to establish which of the spindle options best suited our requirements.”

The Roeders RXP 601 DSH trunnion-type, five-axis machining centre has been in operation at the Weilmünster facility since April 2022. Sterzer states that installation and training went smoothly and the subsequent telephone hotline support has been exemplary.

He has had no problems with the new control system and found that it offers many interesting options. For example, dripping of coolant from cutters, which can interfere with in-process measurement, is preventable using specific commands.

The efficiency of the RXP 601 DSH derives from its high stiffness and optimal mass inertia layout, reports Roeders. There is two-sided support of the C axis for high stability and precision, while the counter bearing can support up to 7 tonne load. All axes offer high-resolution optical encoders in all axes and wear-free direct drives.

The machining centre offers 540 x 635 x 400 mm in the linear X, Y and Z axes, and a swivelling range of ±115°. Rotation is almost unlimited. The machine supports components weighing up to 200 kg and comes with a 36,000 rpm spindle as standard.

Legner summarises: “We’ve seen cycle time savings of up to 25% using the Roeders machining centre and surface quality is so good after milling that manual finishing is greatly reduced. The benefits are most noticeable at transitions and on freeform surfaces.Another important factor is the quality of the machine manufacturer’s aftersales service. A quick response to problems is just as essential as the equipment’s performance during production. At the end of the day, the best machine is of little use if you have to wait weeks for repairs.”

He adds: “The next phase in the near future will be to automate the RXP 601 DSH with Roeders’ own system so we can switch from the double-shift to 24-hour operation.”
For further information www.hurco.com/gb

SHOP FLOOR MONITORING SOFTWARE BOOSTS AEROSPACE SUBCONTRACTOR’S OUTPUT

It is enormously helpful for production managers to check remotely on the status of machine tools in their factory and find out whether or not a cutting cycle is in progress and the reasons for idle times. One subcontractor that has taken advantage of monitoring software that feeds data back automatically from the shop floor to an office is aerospace subcontractor Automatic Industrial Machines (AIM) in Clevedon, Somerset. The company’strio offive-axis automated production centres (YCM, Hedelius and Mikron) and 19three-axis and five-axis stand-alone machines, all controlled by Heidenhain CNC systems, network with the control manufacturer’s StateMonitor software.

Detailed knowledge of what is happening in every machining centre and collection of data for immediate troubleshooting and long-term analysis has increased output considerably. It is now possible to rectify stoppages quickly, while analysis over time of production centre usage allows the company to try different ways of increasing throughput. Operators know the software is installed and relaying information on their actions over the network, so productivity tends to be higher than it would otherwise be. The long-term records are also useful for planning machine maintenance.

Rob Kendall, managing director of AIM says: “Having access to data in real time is part of what Industry 4.0 is all about. It makes you question why things are being done the way they are and prompts you to think of how production might be improved to raise efficiency.”

He describes the analysis of data from one of the company’s automated five-axis machining centres, a YCM NFX380 served by an Erowa Leonardo pallet storage system. It showed that over a 24-hour period of unmanned running, depending on the mix of components and the cycle times, which can be as short as 15 minutes, the machine was often idle for the last three to four hours as it had run out of work. Six extra Erowa pallets were purchased, bringing the total capacity to 66 positions, to enable the cell to run for a full 24 hours, right up to the 07:00 start of the next day shift. The extra parts produced per day have quickly started to amortise the cost of the additional pallets.

Kendall is a long-time user of Heidenhain-controlled machining centres, dating back to the days of operating Bridgeport mills, and has been close to staff at the German control manufacturer’s UK headquarters in Burgess Hill for more than 25 years. Consequently, the subcontractor was chosen in 2018 as a beta test customer to evaluate an early version of StateMonitor. It was less functional at the time and use of the software lapsed.

Since then, Heidenhain has invested heavily into its digital shop-floor department to develop StateMonitor software further, based on machine shop needs and customer feedback. The product is now fully fit for purpose, providing the user with all the tools and information needed to make strategic decisions. When Heidenhain presented the improved software to Kendall in the latter part of 2022, it had progressed to such an extent that AIM was happy to evaluate it again on five platforms, both automated and stand-alone. By January 2023, the subcontractor had purchased 22 licences for all the machining centres on the shop floor.

Heidenhain (GB) provided a turnkey installation and commissioning service, during which it installed the software on AIM’s server where all the subcontractor’s programs are resident. Every machine’s Heidenhain TNC control is connected by Ethernet cable, although not necessarily directly. Two of six factory units on the other side of Concorde Drive in the Clevedon business centre communicate with the other four units over Wi-Fi to allow the server access to data from the remote machines.

AIM is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023. The business has grown organically and consistently over the years, hence the fragmented location of its various operating units. Some 85% of turnover comes from the aerospace sector, the Airbus Filton site being less than 20 miles away. The company mainly machines aluminium structures such as stringers and skin panels up to 6.5 m long, plus some steel and titanium parts for conventional and electric aircraft. AIM also regularly processes aluminium, aluminium-bronze and plastics. The subcontractor additionally supplies the automotive, motorsport, electronics, food processing, packaging and fluid control industries.

Dave Kinch, operations manager at AIM, takes a pragmatic approach to his use of StateMonitor. Although 22 machining centres are connected, he tends to focus on operation of five or six of them, notably the three automated cells, one or two stand-alone five-axis machines and a three-axis model often devoted to the production of a critical titanium aerospace component. Regarding the latter, he was able to spot that the cutting parameters were 1% below optimal and adjust them accordingly. It represented only a small rise in metal removal rate, but over the course of a year it is adding up to a measurable increase in throughput. There would have been little chance of picking up on the productivity shortfall without StateMonitor.

Generally speaking, there is no monitoring of machines that are preparing billets or carrying out minor skimming operations in the Clevedon factory, only those that are performing major finishing operations. However, periodic checks on all the other machines are able to identify inefficiency and trigger intervention. Concentration on keeping an eye on high added-value work avoids having to sift through a large amount of data. So also does restriction of information emailed to Kinch’s smartphone, which essentially only receives a notification if a machine has alarmed out or has been idle for an extended period.

A vast amount of additional data is available if wanted, including job changes, program status and run time, tool changes, spindle speed and feed rates, override settings and other machining parameters, all of which may be useful for some companies but is information that AIM does not presently require routinely. All data is available not only on smartphones but also on tablets, laptops, PCs and on the screen of Heidenhain controls on the shop floor. For the time being, Kinch relies on a single PC in the programming office connected to a wall-mounted screen to monitor the six production areas.

“We have been using StateMonitor for just over six months, so it is still rather early to quantify its benefits,” he says. “However, its utility is clear in respect of our automated prismatic machining cells. For example I have calculated that the YCM NFX380 five-axis production centre, served by the recently expanded Erowa Leonardo store with 66 pallet positions, is already 26% more productive due to the changes we have implemented based on information collected from the Heidenhain StateMonitor software.”

He adds that the output from stand-alone machining centres is more difficult to assess, but his estimate is that they are running and producing parts during the day shift for 83% of the time, versus an industry average of 65%. It is down to better planning of work going on the machines.

While StateMonitor has long been able to connect with many makes of CNC system other than Heidenhain’s via OPC UA, umati, MTConnect, Modbus TCP, or using additional hardware, the latest version 1.5.0 includes for the first time a FOCAS interface for connecting machines with a FANUC control. It means that AIM has the possibility to connect its lathes and turn-mill centres fitted with FANUC CNC systems into the monitoring software to obtain similar optimisation benefits.
For further information www.heidenhain.co.uk

$1bn investment castings contract

Doncasters, a global manufacturer of high-precision components, has won a multi-year contract with Siemens Energy for the supply of complex precision investment castings that will find use on gas turbine platforms. With an anticipated value exceeding $1bn, the contract will seeDoncasters leverage its vertically integrated alloy manufacturing and casting capabilities in both the UK and Germany.

Mike Quinn, CEO at Doncasters, says: “This renewal of Doncasters’ contract with Siemens Energy reflects the hard work of all our employees and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to cement our relationship with one of our oldest and largest customers.This agreement forms the backbone to the significant capital investments in capacity and capability currently underway or planned to support growth in our airfoil casting plants.”
For further information www.doncasters.com