CNC machines rely on certain fundamentals to achieve peak performance for maximum productivity. This not only includes the machine but, importantly, the infrastructure of the facility – specifically ancillary services such as power, air and coolant.
Tru-Edge Grinding, a specialist in precision tool manufacture and reconditioning, found out first-hand what could be achieved by setting up a facility to ensure the high performance of its machines, where the company reduced power consumption by 4% while increasing productivity by double digit gains.
David Balster, director of manufacturing at Tru-Edge, which is based in St Henry, Ohio, USA, says: “At Tru-Edge we struggled for years with electrical related problems and the failure of machine electronics. After reviewing the three-phase electrical supply to our 16 Anca machines, we upgraded the power boards and replaced the cables to a higher quality with large gauge wires.”
Director of engineering, Frank Seger adds: “Replacing power boards and rewiring our facility proved to be more than a worthy investment from a view of machine uptime and, importantly, cutting costs.”
The key benefits achieved by changing the power include: greater power efficiencies, with overall power consumption reduced by 4%; increased machine uptime; reduced spare part costs; and less service related costs.
“We no longer turn off the power to the machines at the weekends as this was creating problems when they were powered back up again due to spikes in the supply,” says Balster. “With Anca’s idle shutdown feature, we found that there was no increase in our overall power usage by leaving the machines powered on.”
For further information www.anca.com
