Carbon-neutral production at DMG Mori

DMG Mori will manufacture all machines in a completely climate-neutral manner – from raw materials to delivery – beginning in 2021. Christian Thönes, chairman of DMG Mori, says: “This move makes DMG Mori one of the first industrial companies worldwide to have a climate-neutral ‘product carbon footprint’.”

Since May 2020, the ‘company carbon footprint’ of DMG Mori, which covers its own value creation, has been climate-neutral. The company avoids emissions in all areas, among others through modern heating, ventilation and cooling concepts. At the same time, DMG Mori uses self-generated regenerative energy and purchases exclusively green electricity at almost all locations. The remaining CO2 emissions that the company has been unable to avoid thus far, are compensated by investments in sustainable, certified climate protection projects.

For further information www.dmgmori.com

Metal-forming knowledge days

This November, GOM UK is hosting its ‘Metal Forming Knowledge Days’, bringing together all of the company’s optical metrology knowledge and expertise in a series of free online events. The days will take place on 24, 25 and 26 November, and will be held via an online portal. Each session will cover different areas of metrology within the metal-forming industry, showing where GOM has identified potential manufacturing problems and developed the tools to solve them.

For further information R.Watt@gom.com

Calling on tool production expertise

Machines from both Walter and Ewag, and nowadays especially Ewag’s Laser Line Ultra and Laser Line Precision models, have consistently proven effective in the manufacture of successive generations of new mobile phones – producing tools from 1.8 to 8 mm diameter to machine the plastic or metal cast housings.

Very often – says Walter Ewag UK, a member of the United Grinding Group – the die-cast moulds are machined using tools produced by Walter Helitronic tool grinders/erosion machines and Ewag laser-based tool-manufacturing machines.

These so-called 3C tools (tools for computer, communication and consumer electronics) also now embrace PCD types. On the Apple iPhone 6, for instance, the bevel on the aluminium housing is machined using PCD profile cutters produced on Ewag laser-based machines. However, on the iPhone X, stainless steel is integrated into the housing frame, so CBN cutters (also produced on Ewag laser machines) are used rather than diamond-coated tools.

With new demands on design and technology, materials such as glass and ceramic are increasingly specified. However, due to their brittleness, hardness and low thermal conductivity, glass and ceramic place particular demands on the tools needed for machining. As a result, Ewag regularly receives customer requests for 3C tools with highly specific geometries – tools that are capable of producing very small internal radii and shoulders, as well as tiny turned parts.

In conventional tool manufacture, such tools would have to be manufactured and assembled from a variable number of parts but, using a Laser Line Ultra machine, for example, they can be produced fully automatically in one set-up.

For further information www.walter-machines.com

Reinventing the wheel

Carruthers Renewables has teamed up with the University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) to explore manufacturing methods for a patented water wheel capable of combating electricity scarcity in developing countries. The one-year £250,000 project, funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the EPSRC through the Innovate UK Energy Catalyst, is helping the company to exploit the AFRC’s expertise in advanced manufacturing methods before selecting the most cost-effective and sustainable way of making the wheels.

For further information https://is.gd/ezuhan

Dressing software updated

Responding to customers seeking solutions to optimise grinding cycles for their production needs, Anca has developed a tailored dressing solution in a software update with optimised dressing from solid through the removal of air passes.

This intelligent solution can help customers improve and streamline their production processes. Applications like tap, punch, keyhole punch and drill require a lot of in-process dressing on the machine, so customers will benefit significantly from this new software feature in terms of time and cost.

In the existing implementation of solid dressing, the final wheel profile is offset in the radial direction, such that the first pass only dresses the wheel by the specified infeed per pass. This method results in a significant amount of air dressing, where the dresser roll is not in contact with the grinding wheel. A particular customer request was to find a solution to reduce solid-dressing cycle time.

The solution was implemented by trimming sections of the dressing path that lie above the wheel radius, and increasing the feed rate of moves where the roll is not in contact with the grinding wheel.

This update is compatible with any machines offering wheel-dressing capability that are running the ToolRoom RN33.2 release onwards. The feature is available for all solid-dressing surface types, including form, periphery and segment dressing. Optimised dressing has replaced the existing implementation of dressing, which will no longer be available due to the longer cycle times. Optimisations will automatically be calculated for dressing a profile on to a new or flat-profile wheel, and only air dressing beyond the wheel radius will be optimised.

For further information www.anca.com