Advanced manufacturing – now: that is the motto of Chiron Group’s latest open house, which will take place on 10-12 May. The three-day exhibition in Tuttlingen, Germany, will focus on pioneering manufacturing processes that match user specifications, products and industries, including automotive, medical technology, aerospace andtoolmaking.

The guiding principle is the special combination of four attributes that characterise the future-oriented actions of the Chiron Group and influence how the company develops and offers tailored solutions to meet individual requirements: competent, smart, innovative, sustainable. These attributes are represented on the one hand by the six brands -Chiron, Stama, CMS, Factory5, Greidenweis and HSTEC – which are showing their specific or combined expertise at the open house.

Regarding machine highlights: mill-turn expertise taken a step further in the DZ 22 S mill-turn system 8 for the double-spindle machining of large volumes,or the complete machining of six sides with high autonomy using the MT 715 two+. Visitors can experience the full range of manufacturing solutions, from micro-machining with the Micro5 with a reduced environmental footprint, to maximum productivity per unit area when machining high-volume components for automotive oraerospace with the 22, 25 and 28 Series.

“In addition to showcasing exemplary pioneering machining processes for all industries, our main focus is on the lively dialogue with our guests,” emphasises Matthias Rapp, global head of marketing.

Each visitor will be personally attended and given an exclusive tour of the exhibition with targeted advice. And of course the event not only offers an excellent platform for experiencing this year’s motto ‘advanced manufacturing – now’, it is also an opportunity for inspiring exchanges, for example with catering and live music at the end of the second day of the exhibition.
For further information https://chiron-group.com/open-house

Known as a ‘green’ joining technology for non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, friction stir welding (FSW) has established itself in a number of industries. In future, manufacturing companies using Heller machines will no longer need any additional hardware for this technology. Instead, they will be able to perform this process in a single set-up on their four-axis or five-axis machining centres.

FSW is a good choice when it comes to producing high-quality, cavity-free and tight welded joints with excellent fatigue properties. Accordingly, this process is often applied in the manufacture of reservoirs, tanks and containers, as well as in shipbuilding and aerospace engineering. In addition, FSW is increasingly establishing itself in the electrical industry and in automotive engineering with the growth of e-mobility, for the welding of battery housings.

Due to the comparatively low heat input, a very fine-grained structure results without cracks or pores in the material, while distortion in the component is minimal. The welded seam therefore meets the highest standards in terms of tightness and crash behaviour.

FSW also offers a number of key advantages with regard to the environment and health.Compared with conventional welding methods, there are no dangerous light flashes or hazardous fumes, for example.

The welding process becomes a particularly interesting technology with the successful integration into Heller machine tools. It allows users to eliminate an additional work step and only requires inexpensive tools, activation of the Heller technology cycle and the ‘adaptive control function’ in the Sinumerik 840D sl control.The machine operator can easily program the welding path at the CNC control panel using G code, while the transfer of CADCAM data is also possible without any problems.
For further information www.heller.biz

MyFastems is a complementary service for all existing and new Fastems customers, providing more advanced digital services especially for those using Manufacturing Management Software (MMS) version 6+. Fastems´ first software-as-a-service provides digital tools to support all Fastems customers in increasing their availability and productivity, making sure their systems are up and running 24/7.

The digital service is built as a progressive web application for easy access via web-browser on the PC, tablet or smartphone.It can also be combined with other services such as 8760 support, preventive maintenance and software maintenance agreements for optimised solutions throughout the whole lifecycle. MyFastems is available for all current Fastems automation systems and will be pre-installed for new systems in the future.

Notably, MyFastems brings transparency to any Fastems systems service history and spare parts usage, and includes comprehensive system overview for connected systems, as well as alarm-based recovery instructions and support request tickets. The system overview provides updated statuses of all connected Fastems systems, making it easy for users to stay on top of production activities and solve any issues in a timely manner. Whatever situation occurs, Fastems support is only one click away: MyFastems provides convenient access to creating support and service request tickets. Having all necessary information, Fastems’ technical support can understand the situation on site better and faster, to reduce the critical downtime of the systems.

For connected systems, MyFastems provides more advanced digital services. These include access to alarm history, key performance indicators such as utilisation rate, tools for advanced troubleshooting, and analyses via ‘Incidents’ view, which groups system-wide alarms based on the actual root cause and provides specific recovery instructions.
For further information www.fastems.com

Market changes and mutual dependencies between value creation stages require both new technical and economical solutions. How can companies face these challenges with greater resilience and exploit the benefits of increased cost effectiveness? This question is posed by the transnational ‘EuProGigant’ project with the aim of ensuring smart, sovereign use of data for production.

In order to obtain meaningful data, users of WFL machines are part of the consortium. Plasser & Theurer, for example, bought a WFL machine with automation in 2022. The machine is supposed to run without human interference and use process monitoring to move data from the machine to a control level. Thanks to the Gaia-Ccommunication standard, this is set to take place beyond the company’s borders to enable integration in a production network and the exchange of information – on tolerance values, for example.

Other machine manufacturers in the consortium include Heller and Arburg. At Heller, a WFL machine is in spindle production, where it performs essential turning. Arburg has other machines which perform turning/milling processes for hydraulic functions when introducing the subsequent injection moulding tools. At the IFT (Institute for production technology) in Vienna, there is a WFL M35MillTurn, which performs tests and evaluations. The aim is to transfer the results its partners’ production sites.

The M35 MillTurn, which is at the IFT at Vienna University of Technology, integrates with a data communications network as part of a collaboration line.

Research-related testinghas now reached its conclusion. The next phase concerns implementation. Together, the aim is to demonstrate concrete success in implementation, such as with the further development of demonstrators in the area of ‘perfect component matching. WFL machines are available in the UK from Kyal Machine Tools.
For further information www.kyalmachinetools.com

Hamar Laser Instruments is releasing its L-703S four-axis lathe andturning centrespindle alignment system. The L-703S mounts directly into spindle chucks and collets for aligning headstock spindle axes to guideways, sub-spindles and tailstocks on lathes, turning centres, and similar machines. It is also useful for guideway straightness checks during preventive maintenance and assembly, and for checking surface plates.

“The next-generation L-703 laser design features significantly higher accuracy and a few nice improvements over earlier models,” says Rod Hamar, president of Hamar Laser Instruments. “Our team’s design allowed us to reduce size, cost and complexity, increase accuracy and get rid of annoying wires by adding Bluetooth communications. With a 40% reduction in axial space over our previous L-700 model, the L-703S is much better suited to smaller lathes and turning centres. To top it all off, the price of the new system is significantly less than our older L-700 spindle kit.”

Small and lightweight, the L-703S laser is suitable for all kinds of turning applications, from small CNC turning centres and Swiss-type machines, to large-bed lathes. With a range of up to 15 m, the laser can also quickly and easily check the alignment of even very large machines.

The L-703S system features Hamar’s next-generation T-1296 five-axis wireless spindle andscan target, which can easily check all four alignment axes of a headstock spindle relative to the tailstock. The T-1296 offers a centre resolution of 0.00025 mm and angular resolution of up to 0.002 mm/m. This extremely high level of accuracy can significantly improve machine performance, reduce scrap rates and increase productivity.
For further information www.hamarlaser.com