PCBN tools for FSW processes

Element Six (E6), part of the De Beers Group, will participate as a tooling solutions provider in an EU research initiative to scale friction stir welding (FSW) for mass adoption in the shipping industry.

RESURGAM (Robotic Survey, Repair and Agile Manufacture) is a programme established to improve the productivity of how shipyards fabricate new, advanced technology vessels and increase their access to specialist repair and maintenance. As part of the initiative, Element Six will develop specialised PCBN FSW tools in a range of sizes for welding steels that are required for various marine applications.

For further information www.e6.com

Investment with impact

Siemens Mobility is developing a new train manufacturing plant and supply chain rail village in Goole, East Yorkshire. The facility will provide the location for new-build Piccadilly line tube and future mainline trains. Phased development of the 67-acre site is now underway.

With an investment potential of up to £200m, the new factory could create as many as 700 skilled jobs in engineering and manufacturing, as well as employing an additional 250 people during the construction phase. Estimates also suggest the UK supply chain will benefit from 1700 indirect jobs. Plans in the proposal include the construction and commissioning of buildings, warehouses, offices and stabling sidings.

For further information
www.mobility.siemens.com

Miniature sensors aid tool change

In modern machining centres, inductive sensors are the components of choice for monitoring the motor spindle clamping process. Integrated into the spindle, they must be exceptionally small and offer high repeatability to ensure smooth tool changing at all times.

Baumer offers a portfolio of miniature sensors for the intelligent design of effective spindle solutions. Products can either involve a classic concept with three switching sensors, or a smart design with one measurement sensor.

Tool change in fully automated machining centres, from removal until insertion of the new tool in the spindle, takes less than a second. To achieve maximum system effectiveness, this process must function with ultimate reliability. The error-free functioning of the smallest inductive sensors plays a major role in ensuring this attribute. For the machine to function error-free, the control requires the following key information regarding the status of the collet chuck: open and no tool clasped; closed and no tool clasped; or closed and tool clasped. The answer to this challenge are inductive sensors.

In drive and clamping solutions, the sensor technology integrates into the motor spindle. Given the confined space, sensors must be as small as possible, yet very powerful. One example is the IFRM 03 inductive proximity sensor, which has a diameter of only 3 mm. This product is available in various lengths starting at a mere 12 mm. Yet its miniature housing contains the complete evaluation electronics that are responsible for high repeatability switching points, as well as precise analogue measurement values. In addition, these industrial-grade sensors are robust, EMC-stable and comply with protection class IP67. The sensors remain unaffected by the heat, oil and vibrations that normally occur in machine tools.

For further information
www.baumer.com

Serving work holding on a plate

Following the recent installation of a DMU 85 MonoBlock five-axis machining centre at the manufacturing facility of Cambridge University’s Whittle Laboratory, the search began for a flexible, comprehensive work-holding system. Given the important projects undertaken by the busy department, the proposed work holding needed to exhibit robust, high-precision characteristics and support rapid changeovers.

After considering several alternatives, the answer arrived in the form of Lang Technik’s Quick Point, a durable, baseplate-centred system that acts as an accurate interface between a machine tool’s table and work-holding devices. To enable Quick Point to accommodate and mount the facility’s diverse work-holding applications, the Whittle Laboratory purchased a further range of work-holding devices from Lang Technik UK, including a stamping unit, Makro-Grip five-axis vices, Avanti base jaws and soft top jaws.

Dr James Taylor, compressor research fellow at the Whittle Laboratory, which specialises in turbomachinery research, says: “In addition to the Quick Point and associated clamping devices satisfying our efficiency and precision criteria, as Lang Technik’s solution cost less than certain other less technically capable systems, our purchasing decision was relatively easy.

“Given the generous 1000 mm diameter of our new machine tool’s table, we have now located Quick-Point baseplates across the whole of the available area. Each of the baseplates is fitted with Lang Technik clamping devices. These set-ups allow us to quickly change between, for instance, vice-type machining and larger fixtures that hold the roots of our different blade designs. It helps that, in addition to accommodating our new work holding, the flexible Quick-Point system is also able to securely hold our existing work-holding devices. The speed and simplicity of Lang Technik’s Quick Point and clamping devices means that we have now achieved our aims of significantly reducing time lost between machining jobs and increasing our productive cycle times.”

For further information
www.lang-technik.co.uk

Pallet full of benefits for saw manufacturer

Wisconsin-based Integrity Saw & Tool has purchased a Vollmer CHX 840 circular saw blade sharpening machine with the Vollmer HS automated loading station to provide capacity for a significant order the company has won from a new pallet manufacturing customer. The Vollmer machine has increased productivity by 60%, permitted unmanned running and improved blade quality. Without the new CHX 840, fulfilling the new order “would have been impossible”.

It is a familiar tale when an engineer leaves his job and sets up a business from his garage. In the case of Integrity Saw & Tool, a saw sharpening, HSS drill and end-mill regrinding company, the story begins in a basement in 1986. However, it was the move to a 13,000 sq ft factory in 1998, the appointment of Paul Reetz as the fresh-faced sales engineer (now the company’s owner) and investment in its first Vollmer CNC sharpening machine in 2000 that set the company on a new growth trajectory. With 13 staff and an output of 100 saw blades a week back in 2000, this figure quadrupled to almost 400 blades a week by 2005.

“We bought our first machine in 2000, a Vollmer Akemat B4 and, over the next eight years, more Vollmer machines followed,” says Reetz.

In fact, the company acquired a further three machines, with an Akemat U10 and B10 arriving in 2005, followed by an additional Akemat U10 in 2006.

The Vollmer Akemat machines sharpened TCT saw blades while the company’s manual machines manufactured and serviced HSS blades. This investment completed the purchasing of Vollmer machines until the 2019 arrival of the CHX840+HS.

Says Reetz: “The saw sharpening side of the business had grown for almost 10 years, but unfortunately the 2008-09 global recession wiped out a lot of small businesses. Many of our circular saw blade customers witnessed the collapse of their companies. However, the production of round tools such as drills, end mills, router bits and special tools for the manufacturing industry weathered the market far better. Round tooling for industry currently accounts for 80% of our business. With the COVID-19 pandemic, our round tooling business has slowed down. However, as more people are confined to staying at home, they are investing in their homes and the saw division of our business is once again benefitting.”

The pandemic situation has seen people confined to their homes all around the world, with everyone spending more time and money on groceries and eating at home. This situation has delivered a unique opportunity for Integrity Saw & Tool. With millions of wooden pallets in circulation in the US food industry, Integrity is regrinding TCT saw blades for a leading pallet manufacturer. This new customer has ambitious plans to build multiple manufacturing facilities across Canada, the US and Mexico, with each plant capable of producing a pallet every minute.

Integrity Saw can support the new customer with its five-axis Vollmer CHX840+HS for machining the tooth faces and tooth tops of the TCT saw blades in a single clamping. The HS automation solution enables Integrity Saw to load and process 28 blades unmanned. With a customer that will run its operations 24/7 and will require a new saw blade for every shift at every facility, the opportunity for Integrity Saw & Tool is considerable.

Following the arrival of the Vollmer CHX840+HS, Integrity has rapidly ramped-up to the stress-relieving and re-grinding of 400 TCT blades every week from May 2019 – an impossible feat without the new machine.

The 457 mm (18”) diameter TCT blades have 70 teeth per saw and it is possible to re-grind each blade up to seven times before being replaced or re-tipped. Before the arrival of the CHX840+HS, Integrity Saw was conducting four operations on three machines to complete a saw blade in 75 minutes – a machining time not inclusive of set-ups and changeovers.

“When it came to programming time and repeated set-ups, it was approximately 90 minutes for each blade,” says Reetz. “The Vollmer CHX840+HS has cut this time by more than 60% to 35 minutes with just one stress-relieving operation before the CHX840 completes all tooth and face grinding in a single set-up.”

For the 27-employee company to have just two skilled operators running four Vollmer Akemat machines and the CHX840+HS; the new machine has doubled the weekly output with the same number of staff.
“The two operators previously had the capacity to do 40-50 TCT blades a day on the Akemat machines, but adding the Vollmer CHX840+HS means we can now re-grind over 100 blades a day,” explains Reetz. “We work from 05:00 to 15:00 and the HS automation system allows us to set the CHX840 machine so it processes up to 28 saws unmanned throughout the evening.”

Although the new Vollmer has increased productivity and capacity; the benefits reach much further. Integrity Saw has recognised that the ability to grind tooth tops and faces in a single operation has the potential to make single-purpose machines redundant in the future. With a single ‘compact-footprint’ Vollmer machine, Integrity can significantly increase output while reducing machine inventory and running costs.

From a programming perspective, the operators undertook 2½ days of training on the CHX840+HS.
“While the older machines have all the programs stored, the Vollmer CHX840+HS didn’t initially have that luxury,” says Reetz. “However, the easy-to-use CNC interface means our operators don’t have to program every blade from new – they can simply edit one of the hundreds of stored program templates within the software to generate a suitable wheel path. This means it is possible to program a stack of 28 saws for unmanned running in just over 5 minutes.”

Additionally, the operators no longer have to be concerned about grinding wheel offsets as the CHX840+HS automatically compensates for wheel degradation. The combination of probing, automated wheel offset calibration and the intelligent software on the CHX840 also eliminate the potential for operator error and collisions.

With the pandemic gradually subsiding, the Vollmer CHX840+HS will eventually reach capacity in line with customer demands for more saw blades. Integrity already has its sights set on a second Vollmer TCT saw sharpening machine with automation to meet these production demands. Furthermore, the company has been so impressed with the CHX840+HS that it is now considering the latest generation Vollmer machine for its rotary tool division.

For further information
www.vollmer-group.com