As the COVID-19 pandemic pushes healthcare services to their limits, the Tornos SwissNano is helping a US-based subcontract machine shop, Petron Automation, to supercharge its production of a complex, tight-tolerance component for much-needed ventilators.

Many manufacturers of small, challenging medical device components turn to Petron Automation for the quality required in the risk-averse medical sector. By the same token, Petron Automation has turned to Tornos for precise manufacturing solutions, including four SwissNano 4, two EvoDeco 32, two EvoDeco 16, two MultiSwiss 6×32 and three Deco 13 models.
“In early March, we were at the end of our first-quarter 2020 order for a specific ventilator part for an important customer, who told us we were going to have a huge uptake in these components.”
At this point, Petron Automation had been producing 5000 ventilator armatures per week for that customer, which asked the business to ramp up to 20,000. The SwissNano sliding-headstock lathe helped the business double its production capacity for the armature within a week. Machined from bars of 430FR stainless steel, the part carries critical tolerances ±0.0088 mm.
Paul Thornberg, VP of business development at Petron, says: “It’s got some tight tolerances and we must maintain very sharp edges with maximum edge breaks of 0.0127 mm and surface finish under Ra10 μm. We are producing 2000 pieces per machine, 10 hours per day, holding those tolerances.
“The reliability of our SwissNano machines allows us to run these parts lights out with very little tolerance deviation,” he continues. “One of our SwissNanos ran for 23.9 hours on 13-14 May, and the other ran for 23.4 hours on the same day. That’s a testament to the capability of these machines.”
For further information www.tornos.com

A new distribution agreement between Nikon Metrology Europe and Wenzel sees two of the biggest global players in metrology create a new partnership. The agreement provides customers with a combination of Wenzel CMMs and Nikon Metrology’s laser-scanning solutions.

As a result of the arrangement, Wenzel becomes an official Nikon Metrology partner for the sales and distribution of Nikon Metrology laser-scanning products in the European market.
Carsten Georgi, laser radar and laser scanning sales director at Nikon Metrology, says: “The partnership between Nikon Metrology Europe and Wenzel brings two innovative companies together to meet the increasing market demands of our mutual customers.”
Dr Heike Wenzel, CEO of the Wenzel Group, adds: “By using Nikon sensors on a Wenzel CMM, Wenzel provides its customers with an additional benefit. Due to the extended portfolio of optical sensors, the right sensor for each customer can be offered in terms of measuring time, accuracy and level of detail. Furthermore, existing CMMs can be upgraded by Wenzel with the new optical sensors. All this is rounded off by the use of our measuring software WM Quartis, in which the complete Nikon Metrology sensor portfolio is integrated.”
With Industry 4.0 practices integrating all areas of manufacturing to improve the efficiency of production processes, laser scanning is a key component in its implementation. In the production environment, laser scanning helps to obtain a rapid insight into deviations, a significant benefit of high-speed digital data capture. With the support of Wenzel’s CMMs, this new partnership is set to deliver precise and innovative solutions, ready for Industry 4.0.
For further information www.nikonmetrology.com

Creaform has released the latest addition to its MetraScan 3D line up. Pitched by Creaform as the fastest and most accurate portable optical CMM scanner, the MetraScan Black can be seamlessly integrated in any quality control, quality assurance, inspection, MRO or reverse engineering workflow. Moreover, the company says the device can be operated by users of any skill level in any type of environment.

The MetraScan Black dimensional metrology system has been developed to measure complex parts and assemblies from an array of manufacturing processes and industries, such as automotive, aerospace, power generation, heavy engineering, casting, forging, sheet metal, injection moulding and composites.
MetraScan Black features 15 blue laser crosses for larger scanning areas that take up to 1,800,000 measurements per second and perform live meshing, ultimately cutting down the time between acquisition and workable files. The device also features a measurement resolution of 0.025 mm to generate highly detailed scans of any object.
Accuracy of 0.025 mm is based on VDI/VDE 2634 part 3 to ensure complete reliability and full traceability to international standards. To enhance shop-floor accuracy, MetraScan Black features patented dynamic referencing that compensates for the instabilities of surrounding environments.
When paired with the Creaform HandyProbe, the MetraScan Black lets users harness the capabilities of both 3D scanning and probing for a complete, streamlined inspection process. Customers can choose from two models – Black and Black Elite – based on speed, part complexity and accuracy requirements.
“Product quality issues impact scrap rate, production ramp-up, production rate and downtime, ultimately affecting manufacturing costs and overall profitability,” says Guillaume Bull, product manager at Creaform. “Manufacturers need to rely on innovative 3D measurement technologies, like MetraScan 3D, to refine their product development and quality control processes.”
For further information www.creaform3d.com

Based on many years of positive experience with products from clamping device specialist Röhm, BoKa Automation GmbH is relying on two-jaw grippers for its newest development. With these products, a robot grips individual workpieces for further part handling directly on the machine.
Following its formation in 2014, BoKa Automation GmbH has grown into a €1.8m turnover concern. Co-founder Severin Bobon describes the company mission: “Our main goal has always been to provide the best possible service and solutions to customers.” This is a principle that was followed in the development of CodaBot, the newest product from BoKa.
CodaBot stands for ‘Collaborative Discharge Assistant Robot’. Since a wide variety of workpieces are to be handled by CodaBot, flexibility is the top priority, even for the grippers.
A system located near Hamburg shows how CodaBot operates. There, medical products – namely bone pins made of titanium – are removed from a turning machine automatically. Afterwards, a titanium chip is removed from a frontal thread bore, in order to clean the bone pin in an ultrasonic bath. A device then cleans and blow dries the bone pin in order to then deposit the sensitive workpieces free of damage and scratches. This objective is a challenge, even for the Röhm grippers.
Machining is performed from conventional 3 m bar; the workpieces can be up to 100 mm in diameter. A two-jaw gripper is deployed, the RPP50 from Röhm, which has been modified with special features according to customer requirements. Depending on the workpiece dimensions, smaller or larger grippers are used, which can be pneumatically actuated and are designed to be self-holding.
A wide variety of such two-jaw grippers is available from Röhm. Equipped with two parallel fingers, they are especially suited for gripping round and angular-shaped workpieces.
For further information www.roehm.biz

Mack Brooks Exhibitions has postponed EuroBLECH 2020, which was scheduled to take place at the Hanover Exhibition Grounds in Germany on 27-30 October.

The new date for the show, which focuses on sheet metalworking technology, is 9-12 March 2021. However, a digital innovation summit will take place on the original date.
Nicola Hamann, managing director of Mack Brooks Exhibitions, says: “Following feedback from our exhibitors and visitors indicating the need to participate in an event, even if not in physical form, we will organise a digital innovation summit taking place on 27-30 October. This event will provide our exhibitors with a platform to demonstrate their latest machines and solutions, and arrange virtual meetings with international visitors. We believe it is our duty to assist the industry through these extraordinary times by offering a marketplace as a platform for innovations and a starting point for the recovery of industry.”
For further information www.euroblech.com