By: Scott Walker, President, Mitsui-Seiki U.S.A. Inc. and Mark Huston, Vice President, Global Engineered Solutions, Kennametal Inc.

UK choice for machine tool fabrications

14 Sep 2011

 

Kidderminster-based Beakbane has invested in new plant and facilities and taken on new staff after winning a contract from Heller UK to manufacture hundreds of heavy fabrications for machining centre tool magazines.

Beakbane is producing one magazine fabrication a day for Heller UK – and is already planning for increased volumes.

Beakbane is a leading supplier of machine protection equipment, supplying components such as slideway covers, bellows and armoured aprons for all kinds of machine tools. It complements this with a contract manufacturing service and has been supplying Heller with machine tool components and fabrications such as door sets since the 1990s.

The magazine fabrications had previously been made 100% in-house at Heller’s plant in Germany and the decision to re-source them in the UK came as part of Heller’s move to make Redditch its worldwide centre of excellence for chain-type tool magazines.

Heller’s UK machine tool factory produces four models of four-axis horizontal machining centre – the H2000, H4000, H5000 and H6000. Magazine fabrications supplied by Beakbane will be used on all of these machining centres, which are exported around the world.

In addition, the fabrications from Beakbane will be incorporated in tool magazines supplied from Redditch to Heller’s other machine tool manufacturing plants in Germany and Brazil. Altogether, Beakbane is producing six variants of magazine fabrication, the heaviest weighing 1.25 tonnes.

It is now Heller’s sole external supplier of fabrications for magazines, and only fabrications for the very largest machines and non-standard items are made in-house in Germany.

Beakbane has invested approximately £80,000 on plant and equipment solely to support this project. This includes welding equipment, fume extraction and compressors, as well as the installation of a pit and lift table to allow welding to be carried out at a safe and convenient height without the need for platforms or ladders. Beakbane has also added a new overhead crane in its Number 7 workshop to allow the new work to be carried out alongside existing production.

Five new jobs have been created so that the factory can work a full twin-shift system producing the magazine fabrications.

Heller has supplied Beakbane with a special welding jig and engineers from its fabrication shop in Germany worked closely with Beakbane to qualify it as a supplier.

Components for the fabrications are laser cut and then formed to a high degree of precision before being assembled in the jig. The jig ensures that the required tolerances in terms of dimensions, parallelism and concentricity are maintained without the need for further machining. All assembly holes and additional mating surfaces are then masked off before the fabrications are sent out for wet painting. They are then supplied to Heller for final assembly of mechanisms such as gears, sprockets, chains, tool pockets and so on.

Heller UK’s Logistics Manager Tobias Grimm commented: “We started working with Beakbane over 15 years ago when they supplied slideway covers for a previous range of machines, so we knew they were a good supplier. We started giving them fabrications too, more and more complicated work, and they did a good job for us. Then we at Heller made a strategic decision to have our centre of competence for chain type magazines here in the UK. So we wanted a local supplier for the fabrications and naturally thought of Beakbane.”

Beakbane’s Managing Director Mike Southwell added: “We are delighted that Heller has decided to entrust us with this major project. This adds yet another strand to our portfolio of services and products for machine tool manufacturers and shows that we are prepared to make major investments in time and resources to meet the needs of our customers.”

 

 

Precisely Tuned Machining System

CONTRACT MANUFACTURING, MATERIALS, MULTI-SPINDLE TURNING, SPINDLES, TOOLHOLDING, TOOLING/CUTTING,ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, AUTOMOTIVE, AEROSPACE, COMPOSITES, MILLING TOOLS, MACHINING CENTERS, NORTH AMERICA,INDUSTRY NEWS

A machine tool runoff cutting titanium confirms advantages of ultimate tuned system.

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Manufacturing GroupJANUARY 14, 2013

By: Scott Walker, President, Mitsui-Seiki U.S.A. Inc. and Mark Huston, Vice President, Global Engineered Solutions, Kennametal Inc.

When it comes to sourcing capital equipment for machining specialty materials, many organizations would do well to remember the 10-speed bicycle analogy. People shop and buy a 10-speed bike for recreational or workout goals, but when riding rarely go beyond two or three of the most comfortable gears. Tour de France riders and other finely tuned athletes both size and operate all their components (frame, pedals, shifters, wheels, etc.) to get the absolute most out of their equipment, whether climbing mountains or racing in the flats.

Machining high-strength, high-temperature alloys like titanium is a significant mountain to climb for many shops. Machine tool builders have responded with milling and turning centers that feature improved stiffness and damping on spindles and sizable machine structures and motors, all to provide the significant cutting forces required while minimizing undesirable vibrations that deteriorate part quality and tool life.

Achieving the ultimate system for machining titanium for maximum metal removal means paying close attention to the machine tool that provides the force, the cutting tool characteristics where the cutting edge meets the workpiece, and the spindle connection – the handshake between the machine tool and the cutter.

In April 2012, machine-tool builder Mitsui Seiki, Franklin Lakes, NJ, in connection with tooling and tooling systems provider Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, PA, conducted a test cut on a titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) workpiece on the Mitsui-Seiki HPX63 CNC horizontal machining center equipped with four Kennametal tools, each using the KM4X 100 spindle connection.

The Machine
Key design criteria of the HPX63 include a large work capacity featuring a swing diameter up to 1,050mm and available work height (Y-axis) up to 1,050mm. Axis stroke is 1,000mm in X and 900mm in Z. Pallet size is 630mm. The B-axis rotary table offers 12rpm and high-torque, high-acceleration availability. Rapid travel rates are 32m/min with 0.5G acceleration/deceleration, and the cutting feed rate is 12m/min.

Made for precision work, metallurgically configured castings deliver the utmost stiffness, its box way axis slides are hardened, ground, and hand-scraped. Positioning accuracy and repeatability is 0.001mm. The spindle, Mitsui’s own, automatically compensates for thermal changes and does not require a warm up period. The company offers several spindle options to meet user needs for direct or gear drives and the amount of torque and rpm requirements.

Overall, the ruggedness, rigidity, and precision of the HPX-63 make it ideal for machining titanium, Inconnel, tool steels, stainless steels, and aluminum for the aerospace, energy, compressor, mold and die, fixtures and tooling, automotive prototyping, and general precision machining industries.

A spindle connection that makes the best utilization of available power possible is an important consideration to achieving the ultimate system. Most tools in the market are solid and the spindles have relatively low clamping force. Connection stiffness is limited, as radial interference needs to be kept to a minimum. The required tolerances to achieve consistent face contact are thus very tight, leading to high manufacturing costs.

The Spindle Connection
KM4X from Kennametal represents the next generation of KM. Some systems may be able to transmit a considerable amount of torque, but cutting forces also generate bending moments that will exceed the interface’s limits prior to reaching torque limits. By using three-surface contact for improved stability and optimized clamping force distribution and interference fit, KM4X engineering results in three times the bending moment resistant capacity compared to other tool systems.

In the test cut, the HPX63 was equipped with a high-torque, high-power spindle with maximum 26/22kW power and 1081 Nm torque. The KM4X100 spindle connection generated 85kNm clamping force, more than twice an HSK100 and three times that of a BT50 (40kNm and 25kNm, respectively).

The Cutting Tools
The four different cutting tools employed in the test were:

1. A 203.2mm diam. face mill with seven square indexable inserts;

2. The same diameter face mill with seven round inserts;

3. A 76.21mm diam., 228.6mm long helical (HARVI Ultra) cutter with five helical rows of 11 inserts each;

4. A flat-bottom indexable (FBI) drill unit at 125mm diameter with six indexable inserts.

With the power of the machine tool and spindle and superior clamping force of the spindle connection, test cut results were phenomenal across the board. For the square-insert face mill, the material-removal rate reached 88.74cc/min. at 64min-1 spindle speed, 12mm depth of cut, and 45mm cutting width, feeding at 164.3mm/min.

At 73min-1 spindle speed, 177.8mm cutting width, 3mm depth of cut, and 88.9mm/min cutting feed, the round insert face mill achieved a 47.42cc/min. material-removal rate.

The HARVI Ultra helical cutter, cutting in X and Y directions simultaneously, topped 309cc/min. material-removal rate at a spindle speed of 171min-1, 101.6mm/min. cutting feed, 40mm depth of cut and 76.21mm cutting width.

The FBI drill made a flat-bottomed hole in the titanium workpiece at 102min-1 spindle speed, 10.2mm/min. feed, and 125mm hole diameter at 125.2cc/min. material-removal rate. Following the first hole, the workpiece was rotated 45° away from the spindle in order to drill an angled hole pushing through the edge of the previous hole. In spite of the heavy interrupted cuts, both machine tool and drill performed well.

To the Max
Compared to commodity or general-purpose machine tools, the HPX63 is able to reach between one-and-a-half and two times the material-removal rate in machining titanium alloy. In addition, the KM4X spindle connection had enough clamping force and interference fit to allow a customer to use the higher RPMs and torque levels the machine tool and spindle can provide. Gains from the machine tools are more productivity potential while gains from the tools are additional cutting performance.

Moreover, a KM4X100 spindle connection will reach performance levels of an HSK125, but makes unnecessary the longer spindle, bigger tool-changer arm, larger tool magazine, and all the related increases a larger-footprint machine would require. Sizing the right machine tool with the right tools and connection can result in an ultimate productivity system for cutting titanium and other difficult-to-machine alloys. The connection can stay viable right up to the machine tool’s performance potential, which will drive the most out of the cutting edge, Milling, drilling, and even turning just got more productive.

 

 

Micro Hybrid Battery

CONTRACT MANUFACTURING, ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, AUTOMOTIVE, NORTH AMERICA, UNITED STATES, INDUSTRY NEWS

Johnson Controls officials demonstrate module at North American International Auto Show.

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Manufacturing GroupJANUARY 17, 2013

Johnson Controls Power Solutions President, Alex Molinaroli, unveiled the company’s 48V Micro Hybrid battery module during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. This development is part of the company’s full spectrum of advanced energy storage solutions for automobiles

"Johnson Controls sees opportunities for the development of evolutionary energy storage systems that offer even more fuel efficiency than Start-Stop at less cost than a hybrid or electric vehicle," Molinaroli states. "Even as Start-Stop vehicles become part of the mainstream in Europe and start to take hold in the U.S., Micro Hybrid technology has the potential to deliver the next level of fuel efficiency along the spectrum of vehicle performance, reaching upwards of 15% to 20% in fuel economy."

Leveraging a dual voltage architecture, Johnson Controls' Micro Hybrid battery system would involve a low voltage lead-acid battery and a 48V Lithium-ion battery that enable optimization of energy generation and consumption, thus saving fuel.

In prospective development programs with key automakers, the 48V battery could support higher power loads such as electric air-conditioning, active chassis technologies and the capture of direct regenerative power energy braking. The 12V battery would continue to provide power to the vehicle starter, interior and exterior lights, and entertainment systems such as radios and DVD players.

"We expect this technology to be adopted in Europe first, due to more stringent fuel economy and emissions standards, and then quickly move to U.S. markets in the next few years with mass adoption by 2020," Molinaroli states.