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 Unless you’ve just awoken from a 10-year coma (and welcome back, by the way), you know quite well that manufacturing is down. Every week, every day brings another report of a company downsizing, or disappearing entirely. The backwash +is terrible — sales of goods are down, in turn reducing the demand to make those goods, in turn reducing the demand to make the equipment to make those goods.
Many major companies have kept alive by contracting more and more work out to medium and small shops. These second- and third-tier contractors stay in business because of their flexibility, their ability to adapt to changes in design and quantity. Because of the operating
space of these shops, there’s not a lot of room for elaborate collections of machinery to handle complex tasks. Not unless they use machines that combine several functions into one apparatus.
Combining jobs
Producing large complex parts that require turning, five-axis machining, contouring and other mill work, usually demands a combination of CNC lathes, horizontal and vertical machining centers and, in some cases, radial arm drill presses. Moving and setting up a single part between the different machines, particularly if the component is large (like a stationary diesel engine block), takes a significant amount of time. Moreover, such movement between machines can introduce variations for which corrections and compensations must be created, even if the part is transferred with a robotic arm.
Multitasking can be defined as the ability to perform various manufacturing operations without manual intervention. This would be comparable to a home laundry machine that washes and dries clothing without changing machines.
By way of example, Custom Machining Services, a shop in Valparaiso, IN, that provides manufacturing services for a variety of industries, was looking to increase production levels by expanding their milling and turning capabilities. They brought in two multi-tasking machines, primarily because many of their jobs involved multi-faced, prismatic parts that required turning, milling, drilling and tapping on each face. One job, of producing automotive pump bodies from 4 in. x 6 in. dia. slugs of steel, was reduced from 90 to 50 minutes start to finish. Another job, involving 37 different tools to machine every feature and detail of a
 fixture used in magnetizing components for magnetic-drive systems, went from a production schedule of 35 to 40 hours, to just 15 hours.
Large-scale multitasking
The two machines in the above case were an Integrex 30Y and an Integrex 200Y from Mazak Corp, a Japanese company with a US headquarters and manufacturing facility in Florence, KY. The company has been developing and building multi-tasking machines for many years, with recent models handling ever-larger machining tasks. One of these, Mazak’s Integrex e1060V, which combines a vertical turning with a five-axis machining center, received several major design awards from manufacturing industry publications in the US and Japan in 2002.
The e1060 V6 provides a good example of a multitasking machine. The machine’s table handles blanks up to 3,315 lbs, on a surface of 24.8- x 24.8-in. (an optional table measures 31.5- x 31.5-in.). For the milling function, the X-axis can travel 60 in., the Y-axis travels nearly 42 in., while the vertical Z-axis can move almost 53 in. The e1060V offers to machine shops the same level of milling capability — 50 hp at 10,000 rpm, among the highest speeds for this type of machine — as would be found in a standalone machining center. Combined with this is a powerful turning machine, with its own 50 hp motor. Overall, the machine stands more than 14 ft tall, and occupies a floor space of nearly 18- x 23-ft. This 35 ton behemoth is merely the smaller version — the e1850 V12 model, introduced in May 2003, handles workpieces up to 15, 342 lbs, and measuring 7.71- x 5.9-ft. From such a blank, one can create jet engine cases, industrial pump bodies, tractor drive components and other jobs that would benefit from being machined from a billet rather than being cast. The machines are all-electric — there are no hydraulic or pneumatic systems for workholding or directing any of the machining components.
A new operator’s station
One innovation, introduced in 2002, was Mazak’s e-Tower, a multimedia communication system developed specifically for the Integrex e-series of machines. The tower’s PC allows a production manager, using a remote office PC, to monitor machine operation status and job status in real time, download individual machine production scheduling data via the factory network, and quickly modify the schedule in order to meet an urgent deadline or to simply improve the flow of production. At the e-Tower itself, the operator can type in personal data relating to specific components or machining operations, so that he or a colleague working on the same machine can optimize future repeat machining operations.
 The e-Tower provides the operator a comprehensive range of information. Every alarm switch on the machine issues a verbal and written warning with corrective actions also displayed. Eleven function keys along the base of the screen provide easily accessible data about the machine tool and its most productive operating modes. All machine operating and maintenance manuals are available on-screen in multimedia mode, along with a virtual training program that covers every aspect of machine utilization from component drawings to optimized metal cutting. Areas covered include tool and fixture selection, machine setups, all aspects of programming, cutting simulation, prove-out details and troubleshooting. The tutorial is animated with a “voice over” and written instructions displayed on the screen.
There is a section devoted to virtual tooling recovery and the automatic tool changer (ATC) — the latter being an area traditionally associated with lengthy and time consuming remedial action in the event of a breakdown or problem. This action permits the operator to undertake his own recovery without resorting to calling in specialists. Cameras in the ATC and machining envelope provide a view of the machining activity from the e-Tower screen. These images can also be transmitted via an electronic link to a Mazak Technical Service Center, where specialists can communicate with the machine operator to diagnose problems. A third mobile camera supplied with the e-Tower can be manipulated by the operator for face-to-face communication, or to show problem areas to a third party at a remote site.
 A machining philosophy
Mr Teruyuki Yamazaki, 71-year-old chairman of Yamazaki Mazak — who has worked at his company for 51 years, taking over the top job from his father in 1958 — cannot quite accept the idea that, in the wired society, manufacturing is old hat. It is not as though the world is losing its appetite for manufactured products: witness the sales of everything from jet engines to supermarket trolleys. However, making things is becoming more competitive — and companies like his have a part to play.
“Because of the convergence of machining and information technology, there will be big business opportunities for companies such as Yamazaki,” he says.
In the digital world, machine tools are only a form of computer terminal, albeit one capable of cutting and forming metal. How systems are linked to pass on information at increasing speeds will be crucial, Mr Yamazaki believes.
The machine-tool industry, with global sales of about 35 billion dollars a year, still conjures up 19th-century images of dismal factories full of sweating laborers. However, a visit to Yamazaki Mazak’s Oguchi plant near Nagoya shows how wrong this view can be. In this “cyberfactory,” a few workers move quietly around as rows of silver- and marine-colored Mazak machinery automatically turn out parts for Yamazaki’s own products. Technicians in a nearby control room supervise the operation. Their computers provide a seamless flow of information between the operators at the plant and customers who may be thousands of kilometers away.
Besides manufacturing parts for new multitasking machines, the factory is demonstrating what Mazak believes are the benefits of such a shop — they have reduced workholding cost, power requirements, in-process inventory, burden rates, necessary manpower for total number of set-ups, and tooling duplication from machine to machine. On the other hand, there is an increase of throughput for small to medium lot sizes, and there is greater flexibility to handle changing part features. In effect, then, the Oguchi facility becomes a von Neumann machine, an intelligent device that can replicate itself. Unlike its predecessors, it does so with greater economy and efficiency.
For more information:
Mazak,
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