Baltic Metalworking April- May 2018

April-May 3/2018

METALWORKING

BALTIC

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The Magazine of Baltic Metalworking Industry

www.balticmetalworking.com

SYSTEMAIR

INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS: AN EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS

4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION –

BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN DIGITAL AND REAL

LARGEST INDUSTRIAL ROBOT MANUFACTURER OF THE NORDIC COUNTRIES

CONTINENTAL AND HELLA DID NOT COME HERE FOR NOTHING

High performance lubricants “made in Germany” for reliable metalworking

Georg Oest Mineralölwerk GmbH & Co. KG has been developing and manufacturing high quality lubricants in Germany since 1915. Metalworking media have been part of our product portfolio from the outset.

Today, the development and production of media for machining and forming metalworking processes are an essential core competence of Oest. In addition to the capacity, which is perfectly adapted to each application, the development places a special focus on the use of ecologically and physiologically harmless ingredients. Continuous further development and adaptation to changes in raw materials availability and technical progress always ensure modern products in line with the state of the art. Work in associations within national and international committees and collaboration in research projects at different institutes allow Oest to be involved in the solutions for future requirements.

Specialist know-how and experience ensure efficient and trouble-free processes – from product selection that takes into account all process requirements and close support for products in use to managing all technical questions. Competent global support through technically experienced local partners is the basis for the successful use of Oest metalworking media all over the world. Due to the expansion path of the company, the number of international representations is continuously growing and we are always looking for additional, new international sales partners. The partners do not only benefit from top products, but can also rely on a strong support – from application technology to logistics and delivery.

Pioneering products for metalworking processes Oest products cover all metalworking technologies: water miscible and non-water miscible cooling lubricants for machining with defined and non-defined cutting edges, spray mist lubricants for minimum quantity applications as well as forming lubricants with a variety of different formulations for sheet metal, tube and massive forming.

As a system supplier, Oest furthermore meets the demand for virtually all processing media for metalworking processes: starting with all lubricants for machine tools and forming presses to cleaning media for component cleaning and corrosion protection solutions. The strength of Oest lies in the overall consideration of the process requirements and in the use of coordinated product concepts. This minimises interface problems and achieves best possible process efficiency.

www.oestgroup.com

Dear Readers, As you know, we participated in KONEPAJA exhibition and introduce the second edition of our magazine to the Finnish audience. The exhibition wasn’t very large, but compared with our local fair in Baltics, we found one major difference. The exhibition had a smaller number of visitors than was the case for example in Riga trade show, but it was only a target audience, employees and executives of production companies whose purpose was to visit suppliers, to get acquainted with latest news, to discuss the annual investment plans. A short information about the exhibition can be found in the magazine.

Time is running fast, and everyone is trying to keep up. Probably happy those who nowadays can stop and look around to see what's going on. Life is booming and not the exception is metalworking industry as well. We believe that many people working in this field are observing that market demand is increasing. Equipment suppliers are not able to meet customer needs with delivery times. Manufacturers are also trying to keep up with orders.

BECOME

VISIBLE

You are reading our third magazine publication. With this edition we are participating at BALTTECHNIKA 2018 exhibition in Vilnius. We would like to invite you to visit the exhibition and at same time to meet us, participate in discussion about Industry 4.0 (more information you will find inside the magazine). Companies are showing a lot of interest because they do not want to lag behind with global trends. If we consider the metalworking sector, we get the impression, that not all companies have developed fully Industry 3.0 at their production technology. It's going to be interesting to watch how the Baltic States companies will be able to re-shape and jump a few steps in a short time span.

Lithuania was chosen as one of 12 participating regions/countries for The Smart specialization pilot actions for regions in industrial transition. The pilot actions provides support from Europe Commission experts, which will help regions draw up economic transformation strategies, identify opportunities for interregional cooperation and exchange good practices. This is all part of strategy, that Europe has to become more competitive and resilient in the context of major changes by globalization, emerging and digital technologies. This pilot action will feed into the reflection on Cohesion Policy support to economic modernization and smart specialization after 2020.

At the current trends we are waiting for the interesting stage. Rapid technological progress doesn’t let you to relax, even for small companies, because if you don’t adapt to the rules of new world, you will be simply uncompetitive Baltic Metalworking team

BALTIC METALWORKING Subscribe: info@balticmetalworking.com www.balticmetalworking.com issuu.com/balticmetalworking Circulation 6000 printed units How to reach us Published by Baltmedus UAB, Europos pr. 122, LT-46351 Kaunas, Lithuania. +370 37 430401 +370 67767176

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www.balticmetalworking.com

CONTENTS

BALTIC

METALWORKING APRIL- MAY 3/2018

11

6 6 8

8

The new sizes of parting off tools

Innovative solutions: an example for others

11 4th Industrial Revolution - blurring the lines between digital and real

16

Empowering Metalworkers for Smart Factories of the Future

18

Y-axis parting maximises potential of CNC machinesGreater productivity and tool life among major benefits

18

22 Developments of coatings for agri-

culture, construction and earth - moving machinery and equipment

26

NTM – Production occurs by the largest industrial robot manufacturer of the Nordic countries

26 www.balticmetalworking.com

April-May 3/2018

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GERMANY

THE NEW SIZE OF PARTING OFF TOOLS With Walter Cut MX and GX34, Walter the machining specialist is expanding its range of grooving tools

W

alter, provides customers all over the world with high-quality tools for demanding milling operations. A lesser-known fact in the metalworking industry to date is: The Tübingen-based company also offers solutions in the fields of turning and grooving. Walter has now developed two new systems to complete its range of products for grooving and parting off. According to Markus Stumm, Product Manager for Grooving/Thread Turning, “Walter now offers its customers an excellent and comprehensive product range in the area of grooving.”

Due to the current expansion of its portfolio, Walter can now cover an extremely wide range of applications for multi-edged grooving operations: From parting off tiny workpieces up to 12 mm in diameter with four cut-

Markus Stumm

ting edges (Walter Cut MX) to workpieces with a diameter of 65 mm – here with two cutting edges (Walter Cut GX34).

“Our Walter Cut GX24 double-edged grooving inserts are ideal for machining medium-sized workpieces up to 46 mm in diameter. These inserts have been included in our range for a few years now. The newly available systems complement our portfolio of multi-edged grooving inserts at both ends. As a result, our customers can now perform 90 percent of all grooving applications with Walter Standard tools,” says Markus Stumm.

The inserts in the “small” Walter Cut MX system have four precision-ground cutting edges. In the standard range, insert widths between 0.8 and 3.25 mm and cutting depths up to 6 mm are possible. The company can provide special sizes and designs, e.g. grooving with chamfer, on request via Walter Xpress with very short delivery times. The new system for larger workpieces, Walter Cut GX34, completes the GX range with grooving inserts with two cutting edges and widths of 3 or 4 mm.

These can be used for cutting depths up to 33 mm.

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Significant improvements achieved The development engineers at Walter were not content with simply adding new sizes to the product range.

They made it their goal to supply their customers with significantly improved new tools, compared with other grooving tools available on the market.

Markus Stumm on the matter: “Most standard grooving tools have weaknesses that have been known for years.

One of the main issues is the fixing of the indexable inserts. This is often awkward, imprecise and not strong enough. This is particularly crucial because many materials are becoming more and more demanding and feature increasingly difficult cutting properties.” Also, the chip breaking, chip removal and cooling processes of many common grooving tools are not ideal.

Among experts, parting off or deep grooving is therefore considered a particularly difficult machining process.

“Such applications are generally performed with cutting values that are too low, to avoid tool breakage or other problems. We want to eliminate these weaknesses and fine-tune our tools to achieve top performance, i.e. efficiency. We have succeeded,” declares Markus Stumm, confidently.

New type of clamping: User-friendly and reliable The new clamping of the MX system, developed by Walter, is considerably more user-friendly and reliable than previous solutions. The tangentially clamped insert aligns itself independently and completely accurately in the machining direction. One of the reasons for this is that there is a dowel pin in the insert seat, which ensures a highly accurate and completely secure fixing of the tool.

Incorrect installation of the inserts is therefore impossible. Even inexperienced machine operators can use Wal-

Walter Cut GX34-R

ter tools simply and correctly. It is easy to change the inserts, even in demanding machining situations. The type of fixing also makes a significant contribution to high stability and repeat accuracy. Both factors, together with the precision-ground cutting edges, ensure a very high www.balticmetalworking.com

centre height accuracy and plane parallelism – and make the work significantly more reliable.

The holder for the Walter Cut MX indexable inserts is designed to protect inactive cutting edges. If one cutting edge breaks off, the other cutting edges can still be used. In addition, the same cutting insert type is suitable for both right and left tool holders. Walter Cut MX is therefore ideal for the efficient and reliable production of high-precision small parts. The potential of the system was demonstrated successfully with a tool life test in large-scale series production on a Swiss type auto lathe.

Here, precision stainless steel pipes with an outer diameter of 5 mm and made of 1.4301 material are parted off.

The width of the cutting edge used was 1 mm. “With the new Walter Cut MX system, we succeeded in more than tripling the tool life – while maintaining full reliability,” according to Markus Stumm.

The robust design of the GX34 system guarantees high stability and process reliability. Marcus Stumm adds: “This is of particular importance for our large tools. With the long insert guidance, we can also avoid uncleanly ma-

the cutting speed by a factor of 2, while keeping the tool life constant.”

The precision cooling integrated in the tool holders is designed for coolant pressures between 10 and 80 bar. Wal-

Walter Cut – MX, G3011-P

ter Cut MX grooving tools for miniature applications – for instance in medical technology – operate with a large coolant outlet, due to the design. Both the GX24 and the new GX34 tools feature two coolant outlets integrated in the tool holders. Manual alignment of the nozzles is therefore not required – and the system cools the rake face and flank face at the same time. “The second coolant jet aimed directly at the flank face gives us significantly better results once again,” says Markus Stumm.

The precision cooling also has a positive effect on the for-

G3011-P, G1011…GX24-P, G1011…GX34-P

chined, convex surfaces. Generally, rework after parting off is therefore no longer necessary. This also increases efficiency during parting off of diameters up to 65 mm with two cutting edges.”

The new system demonstrated its process reliability during a machining test on site with the customer. The wellknown customer from the supply industry manufactures nitriding steel drive shafts with diameters up to 60 mm.

Until now, these have been parted off with a single-edged system; however, process reliability was not satisfactory.

There were repeated cutting edge breakages and variable tool life quantities. In series production on several machines, this is highly critical. As a result, the new Walter Cut GX34 system was used. The excellent stability of the system reduced vibrations during machining.

The feed Sargasas UAB could therefore be increased by 30%Popieriaus and the tool g. 15life by 100%. A result that has also been confirmed byVilnius long-term LT- 08404 testing.

Lithuania Precision cooling increases cutting values by a5factor of 2 Tel. +370 277 6591 info@sargasas.lt Highly-efficient precision cooling is Email: used for all tools in the Walter Cut range, even the new www.sargasas.lt ones. The coolant is routed directly into the cutting zone. This guarantees optimum cooling and high productivity. “For ISO-S materials, we can use targeted high-pressure cooling to increase www.balticmetalworking.com

Walter Cut MX with precision-ground cutting edges

mation of chips. The chips break in a controlled way so that they are relatively short. Furthermore, the two jets of coolant ensure a constant film of lubricant, so that the chips can be transported out of the groove with less friction. As a result, we see high process reliability and maximum surface quality. In short: Cost-effective machining with peak performance.

INFO Baltijos Pramoninis tiekimas UAB Mindaugas Pipynė +37060826989 mindaugas@baltpt.lt www.walter-tools.com April-May 3/2018

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LITHUANIA

Innovative solutions: an example for others In manufacturing, the success is determined by striving for efficiency, timely solutions and the choice of partners. These principles are followed by Systemair UAB, a company established in Ukmergė and producing domestic and industrial heat recovery equipment.

T

he subsidiary of Systemair company, a leading producer of the ventilation equipment, established in Lithuania in 2005, has already grown into a team of 250 employees and expanded its export to 20 countries worldwide. The main share of the company’s production comprises residential and industrial heat recovery units,

quality management system according to the ISO 9001 standard, an environmental management system according to the ISO 14001 standard and an integrated operations management system based on the LEAN methods.

This enables the company to manufacture complex air handling systems.

Sheet metal preparation: an important part of the process Sheet metal preparation is the initial and very important part of the Systemair production process. If the machines are idle, it will affect all other processes, therefore it is vitally important to reduce the risk of failures, as well as to have the reliable equipment and services available for this stage. “Currently, we cooperate with credible partners, Prima Power company, therefore we have assurance that we can work effectively and focus on the product quality,” said Mindaugas Martišius, the Managing Director of the company.

Our production scope is already large enough to stop purchasing certain subcontracting services from the third parties. The sheet steel processing equipment is the Introduction of next generation geniox air han- basis of the production process of Systemair, therefore dling unit to customer from czeck republic different technological processes have been successfully adapted and integrated for the purposes of the company fans, heating products etc. operations.

Non-standard and innovative manufacturing soluThe acquisition of new and modern equipment entions allowed Systemair to successfully implement a abled to significantly reduce the production costs and 8|

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www.balticmetalworking.com

increase the efficiency, especially since the solutions offered by the main suppliers have been custom-tailored to meet the actual manufacturing needs of Systemair.

Absence of hydraulic machinery at the manufacturing plant results in the significantly lower energy consumption and maintenance costs. “The working environment at the plant is obviously healthier. We are happy that by preserving the energy we also preserve the nature,” added he.

Bold technological solutions A large part of equipment used in Systemair production are the solutions offered by Prima Power - the manufacturer of sheet metal processing machines. “The decision to acquire a metal decoiling line some ten years ago was what encouraged cooperation with the manufacturers of this equipment. At that time, we decided to try and connect the decoiling and punching lines for the first time,” shared Martišius. Today, the system used by Systemair enables to decoil the material from the coils, roll

Sargasas UAB

“Prima Power servoelectric Combi machineg.(punchPopieriaus 15 press + integrated shears)” LT- 08404 Vilnius

Lithuania

+370the 5 277 6591 it out and punch to shape, as well asTel. to sort finished Email: info@sargasas.lt parts. According to him, the cost efficiency has proven to www.sargasas.lt be obvious – is the decoiling line allows to save up to 20 % on material consumption, not to mention the significant difference between the coil and sheet prices, as well

New Prima Power installation Cut-to-length line + servo-electric Combi machine

as more available storage space.

Mr Martišius highlights the fact that their system is individual, featuring the customized punching programs.

These programs perform automatic calculations, not demanding any additional human resources, which considerably reduces the probability of errors.

The company is expecting to receive another new machine from their Prima Power partners. The second cutto-length line will have no restrictions, i.e. it will carry out the logistics for two separate systems simultaneously, and will not have the standard solutions that would limit the production of more complex industrial heat recovery equipment. A panel bender will also be connected to the newly designed line, which will further simplify the processes, reduce the time input, storage costs and emissions.

It appears that the Systemair factory in Ukmergė has become a technology innovator of the group, since the applied non-standard solutions were able to meet the expectations, while the similar systems were implemented by other companies of the group in Denmark, Turkey, Canada and other countries.

INFO Systemair UAB info@systemair.lt www.systemair.lt

Finn-Power Oy mindaugas.vasiliauskas@primapower.com www.primapower.com

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4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN DIGITAL AND REAL

Y

ears ago there were three industrial revolutions – Steam, Science, Digital Technology and right now it is happening again, for the fourth time. There is no shortage of enthusiasm as well as non-stop talk about 4th Industrial revolution, or as our interviewee Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO of Dassault Systemes' SOLIDWORKS would rather call it – Industrial Renaissance. Why the Renaissance rather than revolution? Because during revolutions something is always lost, while Renaissance is an era of innovations, where humans are at the center of the action. Some fear exists, that automation and entering technologies could take people’s jobs and stability, however G. P. Bassi on the contrary thinks, that automation has the potential to simplify or eliminate tasks rather than entire jobs, so the technology is helping people to do their jobs easier.

These technological changes are inevitable and while we are living in very competitive world, every business must continuously innovate their businesses and accommodate the changes.

There are significant changes occurring in terms of technology, manufacturing, design and in almost every other area related to digitalisation and 4th Industrial Revolution. Could you name some of the most significant changes that we will be seeing soon?

I think there are four significant changes that will occur in relation to the 4th Industrial Revolution. The first one is ‘The Age of Experience’. Designing and manufacturing will start to focus more on the products and services that deliver a superior experience, rather than a set of functionalities, and this includes connecting all products with real time data collection and feedback to constantly monitor the customer experience and expectations, and to adapt in real time to the changing requirements.

The second change is ‘mass customisation’. Higher flexibility in the production processes will lead to what I call mass customisation, which is a movement away from the mass production that we see today. People want to own unique things, and we can already see today the proliferation of online, on-demand product configurations.

For instance, you can order cars with an increasingly large and customisable array of features and finishes. This will evolve into the real time manufacturing of all types of goods. We are already seeing a huge impact in health care, where custom implants are being designed and manufactured for each patient based on MRI 3D data, with documented better clinical outcomes.

Third, we will begin to see circular economies. Manufacturing will be more decentralised, and this means that circular economies will be possible. Circular economies are those that produce locally the goods and products that are consumed locally, and this is already in the radar of developing countries like Rwanda and Bhutan.

And finally, there will be the invention and use of new materials. New manufacturing technologies, like the sevwww.balticmetalworking.com

Gian Paolo Bassi

eral varieties of 3D printing, will make it possible to create innovations in the material sciences, and this has the potential to extend to new synthetic bio-materials.

In every Industrial Revolution throughout history, there always has been some level of uncertainty about people’s jobs; however, there has always been work that needs to be done by a person. What about now – what do these changes hold for the future of the labour market and for people’s experiences in it? Are the technologies a threat; or is it the contrary?

New technologies and automation have been affecting people and societies since the dawn of civilisation.

I think that the very definition of civilisation is the progressive march towards the means and methods that will improve life for everybody. We could say that the overall the march of progress has brought more good than harm.

However, today less people live in poverty, health calamities like widespread epidemics are pretty much a thing of the past, and food production techniques have the potential to reduce hunger on a wide scale.

In more practical terms, ‘yes’ some jobs will disappear, or will become less necessary; for instance, bank clerks are largely being displaced by ATM machines. On the other hand, there is a greater need for competent financial advisors. New opportunities will also emerge. A few years back, jobs like social media communication experts or big data analysts were unheard of.

There was a very interesting McKinsey research report published on the impact of automation on jobs in North America (it is widely documented online), which pointed out that automation has the potential to simplify or eliminate a number of tasks rather than entire jobs, and this potential is very much spread across all income level and job roles, from food processing employees to CEOs April-May 3/2018

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(I can certainly relate to these findings!). In the same report, it was found that only 4% of tasks truly rely on the most human and non-automatable assets: emotional intelligence, creativity and imagination. Today, we are still facing enormous problems: congested cities, a housing crisis, exploding costs of healthcare and education. Too many people are still lacking basic needs like food, shelter and safety, while we also have a looming energy crisis and constant pressure to secure scarce resources, as well as the problem of climate change. We certainly need to

The Lithuanian Engineering Industries Association, or LINPRA, with the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce AHK and the Information and Communication Technologies Association INFOBALT will host the 3rd Industry 4.0 Conference under the motto ‘Adding value with Industry 4.0’. The conference will be held on the 17th of May 2018 in Vilnius, on the occasion of the Balttechnika 2018 exhibition.

After a successful event last year, over 350 experts will be participating in the third conference. This year’s gathering will provides an opportunity to hear first-hand reports from international experts on the newest developments and innovations. There will also be reports about what has happened in Lithuania since the inauguration of the national working group INDUSTRIE 4.0, and the progress of the aim to set up a platform for smart production and international cooperation, illustrating practical approaches and the implementation of Industry 4.0 in production processes.

The conference will be an opportunity to get in touch with other participants in a wide range of fields and to hear more about the European digital competence, centres and innovation hubs, data security and the transformation of labour and education in the digital age. Included among the speakers are representatives of the Lithuanian government authorities and of leading international companies.

In order to ensure the successful participation of Lithuania in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we are working to connect the different stakeholders in our platform. Our goal is to contribute to the technological progress of companies, by increasing their corporate digital maturity as well as by developing a creative ecosystem and sharing best practices.

More information is available here: WWW.INDUSTRIE40.LT

Industrie 4.0 conference 2017

have more people dedicated to working on solving these problems, and to do that we need to democratise two things: knowledge and tools. People with the knowledge and the tools to realise their dreams will surprise us with the innovations they can come up with, which will make everybody’s lives better.

Actually, I often see many examples of amazing innovations among our customers. For example, Blokable is a manufacturer of modular and highly energy-efficient houses that could likely help alleviate the housing crisis that we are seeing in so many communities. Freight Farms is also worth a mention. They have invented automatic hydroponic mini-farms that can be housed in a discarded freight container. The yield of each mini-farm is equivalent to two acres or more, making it possible to grow food very close to the consumption site and in unfavourable environments. And last but not least is Boom.

This is a small team that is reinventing supersonic commercial aviation, to make travel much more convenient and to shorten the distances between people. Today, design and simulation tools for complex aircrafts are very much accessible to everyone.

To be able to move forward in the development of technology, education is a key element. What is the role of higher education institutions in fostering all the abilities and knowledge needed in students and our future profes12 |

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sionals? What should the higher education institutions be doing?

Yes, education is a key element, and all societies must expand what we call the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects at all levels. Today, this is not confined to higher education, as there are amazing initiatives underway even at the high school level like the FIRST Robotics competitions, where students can design and build very capable robots to perform highly complex

Industrie 4.0 conference 2017

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tasks. I think that education in STEM is also the responsibility of commercial enterprises. For instance, Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS has always been involved in education initiatives. In addition to providing our tools to schools from any background at very affordable rates, we are working with teachers to build the right curriculums for a variety of courses. We train the educators and maintain a certification programme to test and keep everybody’s skills up-to-date in the fields of design to

Industrie 4.0 conference 2017

manufacturing, and we also have a very large library of online training courses, part of which are available to everybody.

Even though there will be always some cautious and prudent CEOs and leaders, do you think that digitalisation and the growth of technology are unavoidable, and that every industry will eventually accommodate these changes? Why is this so?

Even cautious and prudent CEOs must continuously develop innovations in their business processes, as today we are living in a very competitive world. We live in an era of constantly increasing expectations, global competition and ruthless online scrutiny of products and services. Digitalisation can make the companies more agile and shorten the distance to their customers. Not long ago the mantra was the ‘time to market’, but now the catchphrase is increasingly becoming the ‘right to market’ – which means a company really needs to understand what its customers need and want and deliver this very quickly.

Digitalisation and connectivity will be a tremendous help in this direction.

What do businesses and entrepreneurs need to do, and what do they need to change in order to achieve all the goals and technologies we are talking about when we discuss the 4th Industrial Revolution?

I think we need to constantly educate ourselves, to create a “Chief Innovations Officer” role (seriously!) and to tolerate failure, meaning they need to experiment often, as this will cause them to fail fast and learn faster.

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The agility of organisations and their tolerance to failure is the key to success. I read somewhere that some Google products did not last for more than a day on the marketplace.

Are there any risks involved in the 4th Industrial Revolution?

By their nature, revolutions are not gentle, and somebody is always left behind. Something precious may be

Balttechnika exhibition of manufacturing, innovations and engineering solutions, 2017

lost, and this is why we prefer to talk of an Industrial Renaissance. The Renaissance was an era of incredible innovations, both in art and technology; but the true novelty of this time period was that humans were at the centre of the action. This is clearly reflected by the paintings of the era and by the emergence of a new class of merchants and artisans. Let’s not forget that the printing press was invented in the fifteenth century, and it is likely the most important innovation of the millennium because it made knowledge so much more accessible.

I think that the risks involved in automation and new technologies can be mitigated by a parallel increased access to knowledge and tools, and in this way we can really transform a revolution for a few into a Renaissance for everybody.

You have been working in the 3D, CAD and PLM industries for over 25 years, and now you are a CEO at Dassault Systemes SolidWorks. How has this industry changed over time? I know it’s not an old industry, but maybe even the industries which began along with the 4th Industrial Revolution are having to adapt and change over time?

The innovations that have taken place in our industry, just like the invention of the printing press, are among the engines of the digital transformation that is at the core of Industry 4.0. We benefit from and rely upon the dramatic shifts taking place in information technology: the ubiquitous computing industry, the mobile–cloud convergence, and the growing availability of large bandwidths. The result is that our industry is progressing from www.balticmetalworking.com

one that is composed of isolated solutions to a truly integrated multi-disciplinary approach, where for instance mechanical, electrical and electronic designs are converging on the same platform. We are making sophisticated multi-scale simulations available to every designer, and by doing so we are blurring the boundaries between the digital and the real, and between bits and atoms to the point that we will be able to easily go from bits to atoms (and vice versa) at the click of a button, as was famously said by Prof. Neil Gershenfeld, Director of the Centre for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with whom we are collaborating. We are also supporting a new trend in our society where there is a lot of interest in personal fabrications. The FabLab movement, which is also a creation of the Centre for Bits and Atoms of MIT, is an example of this trend where design and manufacturing tools really need to be adapted and simplified for mass adoption.

What is Dassault Systemes trying to create and achieve? It’s obvious that the corporation is trying to help businesses create new things in order to accelerate innovation, but how is this achieved?

Our stated mission is to ‘Inspire Innovation’. You are right: today, our customers don’t ask for more productivity as they did in the past, but instead ask for more innovations. What we are doing in order to help them be more innovative can be summarised in two words: integration and automation. Integration means simplifying and closing the knowledge gap, by bringing multiple designs in the manufacturing disciplines together in the simplest possible way; for instance, by combining mechanical and electrical designs, as mentioned previously.

Automation is about massively leveraging the use of simulations to help engineers make the right decisions, and it is also about using the power of Machine Learning to reduce the need for repetitive tasks. Let me give you an example: designers often need to document their design decisions in drawings, and they need to write down the dimensions and tolerances neatly on a sheet of paper. We now believe that it is possible to automatically analyse the patterns that many designers follow in creating this kind of documentation and to automate most of these processes.

Interestingly, one of our customers said that our platform (it is called the ‘3DEXPERIENCE platform’) could deliver to every engineer the brain power of hundreds of scientists, and this is actually what we are trying to achieve through integration and automation.

Do you believe that adaptation of innovations could be the key for businesses to successfully take advantage of and use the new technologies?

Innovations don’t happen in a vacuum, so ‘yes’ continuous adaptations are actually necessary for the innovations to become breakthroughs. The businesses need to develop a culture of continuous innovation. There is much talk about ‘design thinking’, but design as a discipline is about exploring and experimenting to make the impossible possible, and failure is an inevitable part of this process. I love a quote from Thomas Edison: when he was asked why he failed thousands times before successfully inventing the light bulb, he answered that he didn’t actually fail, he just successfully found one thousand solutions that didn’t work!

Paulius Vertelka, Head of the INFOBALT Association It is very relevant to INFOBALT that the Lithuanian manufacturing industry is able to find the most suitable technological solutions to increase its competitiveness. The Industry 4.0 member group consists of companies that have state-of-theart technological solutions and that operate within the association, and we therefore believe that we could be beneficial to the Lithuanian manufacturing industry by sharing our knowledge and advice.

The companies that are the most adaptable, not the biggest or the strongest, are those that will survive in the competitive global struggle. This is evidenced by the global statistics. For example, 89% of the companies that were listed as the TOP 500 largest companies in 1955 are no longer active. Also, only 3 of the companies included in the list of the TOP 10 TECH companies in 2000 are still continuing their activities today.

Professor Wolfgang Wahlster, General Director of the German Artificial Intelligence Research Centre, was the first to describe Industry 4.0 with the term ‘Smart Production’, the main feature of which is declining limitations in the use of physical and digital devices. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a complex phenomenon that will combine many technologies and processes. There are five elements that can be used to identify it in a more precise way: Big Data, Smart Factories, Cyber-Physical Systems, Internet of Things and Interoperability. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the manufacturing industry will be encouraged to apply new measures for greater efficiency, accuracy and reliability.

www.balticmetalworking.com

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Empowering Metalworkers for Smart Factories of the Future

T

oday nobody doubts that digital transformation will make manufacturing processes more transparent, easy to manage and optimize. It will also enable the industry to significantly increase productivity and reduce resources in all stages of the value chain. Digital technologies have already dramatically changed the nature of the development, production and sales of various goods and services. Studies reveal that significant challenge for the metalworking sector is attracting skilled people, which is essential for developing the competitive position of the EU metalworking sector. Metalworkers operating computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines represent high-tech future of manufacturing and they are in high demand in the EU. Therefore project „Industry 4.0 CHAlleNGE: Empowering Metalworkers For Smart Factories Of The Future (4CHANGE)“ will make a significant contribution to facilitate the digitization process in Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and German companies. The project will strive for tackling skills gaps of metalworkers, enhancing the responsiveness of VET systems to the manufacturing sector-specific labour market needs and demand for new digital and entrepreneurial skills. The project will achieve an appropriate match between skills and labour market needs resulting in learning outcome-oriented VET curriculum, applying ECVET that will cover technical competence, coaching techniques, development of digital and entrepreneurial skills, and include periods of work-based learning.

Project is being implemented by 12 partners from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Germany: • Engineering Industries Association of Lithuania LINPRA, • Vilnius Jerusalem Labour Market Training Centre, • Qualifications and Vocational Education and Training Development Centre, • Baltec CNC Technologies JSC, • Association of Mechanical Engineering and Metalworking Industries of Latvia, • Federation of Estonian Engineering Industry, • Zemgale Region Human Resource and Competences Development Centre, • National Centre for Education VISC, • Tallinn Lasnamae School of Mechanics, • Education Network for the Northern German Metal and Electrical Industries NORDBILDUNG, • North Technical Academy, • Mathematical Technical Software Development JSC.

http://change4industry.eu/en/

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www.balticmetalworking.com

www.takumicnc.eu

SWEDEN

Y-AXIS PARTING MAXIMISES POTENTIAL OF CNC MACHINES GREATER PRODUCTIVITY AND TOOL LIFE AMONG MAJOR BENEFITS Greater productivity and tool life among major benefits

W

ith the advent of new blade technology and new process methodology, manufacturers have much to gain from Y-axis parting on multi-task machines and turning centres. Along with significantly enhanced process security, impressive gains in both productivity and tool life are further benefits of this notable industry breakthrough.

Process security and stability are vital as parting off is typically the final turning operation; any blade breakage here can lead to the scrapping of parts that already feature a lot of added value. Moreover, with greater process security comes the potential for increased feed rates and, subsequently, more productivity.

Another prerequisite of parting off is that blades should be slender to minimise material wastage and optimise tool reach on large work diameters. However, narrow tools suffer from poor stability and consequently from vibration and noise, leading to a compromise in precision and surface finish. Y-axis parting with new CoroCut® QD blades from Sandvik Coromant overcomes these issues by increasing blade stiffness by 600% or more. The result? Machining companies can not only achieve straight cuts with great surface finish, but make game-changing gains in their parting-off operations.

Simple principle Today, the Y axis has become a standard feature on nearly all multi-task machines and optional on many new turning centres. Adding a Y axis to a turning centre provides 90° angularity between the three linear axes, in a way much similar to a three-axis machining centre.

Y-axis parting is based on a quite simple principle.

While conventional parting-off tools align with the X axis of the machine tool, the Y-axis tool has simply been rotated 90° anti-clockwise to align with the Y axis. In conventional parting-tool configurations, the relatively long and slender cutting blade and holder is fed at a 90° angle into the rotating workpiece. Here, cutting force is divided in two vectors, where the tangential vector is approximately two times larger than the feed vector. The resultant force vector is directed diagonally into the tool at an angle of roughly 30°; in other words across its second weakest section (only the width of the blade is weaker). This is conventionally counteracted by reducing blade overhang and increasing blade height. The downside of both remedies is potentially compromised usability of the tool.

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Corocut QD Y-axis parting with coolant - Action

Instead, by turning the tip seat 90° and utilising the Y axis, the newly designed CoroCut QD blade can cut its way into the workpiece essentially with its front end, which nearly aligns the resulting cutting-force vector with the longitudinal axis of the blade. The FEM analyses carried out by the Sandvik Coromant R&D team confirmed that the more favourable distribution of forces eliminates critical stresses typical to conventional blades and increases bending stiffness at a maximum cutting depth of 60 mm (2.36 inch) by more than six times. Or, conversely, susceptibility to plastic deformation and instability is as low as one-sixth in the Y-axis design compared with the deformation typical to conventional parting blades.

Y-axis parting benefits The more than 600% increase in blade stiffness allows

slant Bed Machine for y-axis parting

substantially higher feed rates and longer overhangs without any loss in stability, which consequently improves the www.balticmetalworking.com

Y-axis parting

Y-axis parting

productivity of the tool in equal measure. Thanks to this performance characteristic, parts can be parted off closer to the sub-spindle to save raw material and improve the stability of the operation. Rather than the rigidity of the parting blade and tool holder, it is the insert that now represents the bottleneck for increasing the performance of parting operations. The general recommendation for parting off bars is to minimise overhang or, at a long overhang, use a light cutting geometry or reduce the feed.

A common threshold value for reduced feed is an overhang exceeding 1.5 times the blade height. However, with Y-axis tooling, longer overhangs can be achieved without settling for less than optimal feed rates, cutting geometries or tool dimensions.

Many successful customer case studies have already been completed involving parts that range from magnetic valves and bolts, through to bearing rollers and pump housings. In all cases, the Y-axis parting feed could be at least doubled against the existing method, leading to productivity increases of 100-200%, along with tool life gains up to 70%. In another customer test case highlighting the potential of Y-axis blades to part off larger diameters than previously possible, the process successfully replaced band sawing for a 180 mm diameter Inconel bar, resulting in a productivity improvement of 550% due to dramatically shorter machining times.

Machine-specifics of Y-axis parting In short, customers can reach the full potential of their multi-task or CNC turning machine through better utilisation of the Y axis. Turning centres are generally used for mass production from bar stock, typically up to 65 mm (2.56 inch) in diameter, and in this type of machining the biggest benefits of Y-axis parting are improved productivity and surface quality.

For multi-task machines, Y-axis parting blades primarily offer increased accessibility Sargasas and capability for UAB larger diameters. A pre-test confirmed a 50% increase in Popieriaus g. 15 the overhang when cutting a conventional 120 mm diLT- 08404 Vilnius Lithuania ameter bar at the maximum feed capacity of the insert. A Tel. +370 277 6591 300% productivity increase was achieved with5no process Email: info@sargasas.lt security complications. www.sargasas.lt In a multi-task machine, typical tool assemblies, such as a Coromant CaptoÂŽ C6 or HSK63T blade adaptor, are often relatively long to enable sufficient reach between the

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Y-axis parting fny and Vc y-axis blade

Y-axis parting

main chuck and sub-chuck. As a result, the total set-up is weak in the X direction compared with the Y-axis load, where the cutting force is directed into the tool assembly and machine spindle. Similar conditions apply to many turning centres equipped with a driven tool/milling option on the Y axis. Typical Y-axis tool assemblies, usually based on a VDI adaptor or bolt-on blade adaptor for the machine-adapted clamping unit, are long and slender to reach between main- and sub-chuck, and allow parting off close to chuck. Again, the result is a weak set-up in the X direction compared with the Y axis, where the cutting force is directed into the tool assembly and turret. Y-axis parting can help to eliminate both of these problems.

Getting started An investment in Y-axis parting is first and foremost a change in the approach to parting operations and the related ways of working. The process offers a way to more fully utilise the capabilities of machines already fitted with a Y axis. Alternatively, it is an option that can substantially increase the productivity of parting operations in a new machine or a modified process set-up.

Remember, nearly any multi-task machine or turning centre equipped with a Y-axis and bar feeder has the potential for Y-axis parting, which can even offer the chance to reduce tool inventory as there is less need for dedicated blades. Further advantages of Y-axis parting include a requirement for only minimal changes to typical production set-ups; use of the same program for all components; and the potential to make genuine time savings when the workpiece is clamped at both ends as no other operations are possible during parting-off.

Ultimately, with Y-axis parting there exists the opportunity to make a significant ROI thanks to very low initial investment through initial programming and normal tool costs. ROI will also be aided by significant productivity improvements with higher cutting data.

INFO Gespa UAB ramunas@gespa.lt +370 67 220855 www.gespa.lt

April-May 3/2018

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Multi-Rail RM Combo-Rail Multi-Rail RH Grid Fixturing Blank Fixturing Clamp modules Stop modules Riser blocks Side guides

Hydraulic Clamping

Sales: www.ok-vise.com/distributors

www.ok-vise.com

www.vaivora.com

CNC MILLING AND TURNING, GRINDING, POWDER COATING AND ASSEMBLY SERVICES

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www.balticmetalworking.com

GERMANY

SOLID MODEL IMPORT OPTION SIMPLIFIES PROGRAMMING FOR HURCO MACHINES Reduce programming time, avoid programming errors: Using a solid model import option, 3D models available as STEP-files can be now be imported directly from HURCO machines. This greatly simplifies 5-side machining.

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rogramming on 5-axis machines from HURCO can be performed easily and quickly. New and less specially-trained employees can be trained in a short period of time. The new "solid model import" option further reduces the steps. Machine tool manufacturer HURCO has enabled con-nection of its machines to a solid model import.

The programming time is reduced and simplified through simple data importing in the STEP 3D model format. The import option interprets the data and makes production programming directly at the machine possible. The path from workpiece to component becomes more secure as well. The potential for error during programming is reduced many times over, partly because the ma-chining simulation of the written program is shown together with the solid model in a single view. Thus, users can immediately see if the programming matches the finished component and can refinish this component if necessary.

Increased profitability through fast programming HURCO machines are equipped with the intuitively operable "Max5" conversational control sys-tem. "Our control system is an absolute highlight and unique feature of ours", Michael Auer, Managing Director of HURCO GmbH, emphasizes. "It is the fastest in the industry and vastly increases the machine's efficiency." DXF files can be directly imported into the CNC control sys-tem.

Drawings or sketches are imported quickly into a finished program, which contributes to increased profitability in

Sargasas UAB Popieriaus g. 15 LT- 08404 Vilnius Lithuania Tel. +370 5 277 6591 Email: info@sargasas.lt prototype, single piece and small series production. www.sargasas.lt

About HURCO HURCO Companies Inc. was founded in 1968. The company specializes in industrial technology, devel-oping and manufacturing interactive computer control syswww.balticmetalworking.com

HURCO control system: optimally geared toward the user's needs and experiences

tems, software and computer-aided machine tools and components. The end market is primarily customer-focused single piece and small series pro-duction within larger companies in industries such as aerospace, defense, medical devices, energy, transport and computer engineering. The company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the Unit-ed States, with production facilities in Taiwan, Italy and the USA, and sells its products in Europe, Asia and North America. Subsidiaries in Germany, Italy, France, England, Poland, China, India, Singapore, South Africa and the United States handle sales, application support and customer service. www.hurco.com HURCO GmbH Deutschland in Pliening near Munich is a HURCO subsidiary that performs an important function by handling sales and customer support throughout Europe. The subsidiary in Germany was established in 1988 and now employs just under 100 people. www.hurco.eu

INFO HURCO GmbH, Gewerbestrasse 5 a, 85652 Pliening, Germany Klaus Hรถlzl Phone +43 664 4252603 khoelzl@hurco.de

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SLOVENIA

DEVELOPMENTS OF COATINGS FOR AGRICULTURE, CONSTRUCTION AND EARTH-MOVING MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT “Eco-friendly” and “economical” are popular catchwords. At first glance, they seem brimming with emptiness. In fact, after a closer look, they can be identified as the real drivers of a very dynamic segment – the coating sector for ACE (agriculture, construction and earth-moving machinery and equipment). Even though the European market of coating solutions for ACE is stable and competitive, it is affected by various aspects. Most of them are not in the responsibility area of the coating industry. The variety of current product solutions meet the requirements of ACE manufactures to a certain extent – especially in the regard of corrosion protection, mechanical and chemical resistance and weathering. Furthermore, design and appearance have always been a sales argument – mainly in the agricultural field. Thus, an improvement of the product quality is not the main aspect in future trends for the ACE industry, while a further focus on eco-friendly products and cost-saving solutions, will remain strong.

I

n the coatings sector, EU-compliant product development and the match with EU-wide and national or local VOC-regulations is nothing worth to specifically point out. It is a requirement. REACH legislation even raises the requirements for raw materials, which has a deep impact on the coating sector. Some of the require-

The development will be mostly driven by environmental demands and overall painting process costs reduction.

ments were expected. Others were new and may require significant R&D investments for both, coating producers and raw material suppliers. There are more, not only legal aspects, which push the environmental friendly trend above state of the art. Like in many other industries, also manufacturers of agriculture, construction and earth-moving machinery and equipment focus on their 22 |

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environmentally friendly company development in order to follow the general expectations of “green companies”.

Thus, they also choose their suppliers wisely. So coating producers will focus on the production of products with less VOC content and less other dangerous substances also in the future. It can be expected that their performance will not differ much from the state of the art materials today.

Carbon footprint and life cycle analysis Carbon footprint is another key factor in this discussion. The carbon footprint measures resources used for a product or an activity expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent. The precision of its calculation improves continuously as the data amount about energy use, transportation, raw material and other elements is growing regularly. In the coatings sector, not only this carbon footprint is important, but to keep an eye on the total coating process, as the resources used for the paint applications are closely linked to the material properties. A life cycle analysis could be the right tool to identify the impact of a coating through its manufacturing, application, use and disposal. The collected data within this process could become a decision factor in paint selection process in the future – similar to VOC content.

The disposal of coating will remain a great challenge.

“Bio-sourced” raw materials could be an answer to the need for closure the material loop through a natural carbon circle. Bio-based raw materials are available on the market albeit to a lesser extent due to insufficient process capabilities. Europe faces a lack of full-size bio refineries who would allow the transition from oil to sustainable resource based economy. The responsibility in this regard is not only in the hands of the coating industry but will significantly affect it in the next years.

Cost-cutting and productivity raising with mono-layer coating systems Manufacturers in all industries focus not only on their www.balticmetalworking.com

green philosophy but to become or to remain competitive and cost-efficient. As no huge growth in the European ACE segment can be predicted in the close future obviously there is only one way to increase profits and this is cost-cutting and to save costs in all possible processes.

The coating process can be divided into two main cost factors: material costs and process or application costs.

The painting industry tends to put the main effort in R&D in order to develop materials that allow cost-saving application processes. The increase of productivity and the decrease of energy demands for the manufacturer are the main drivers in this development. Both of them seem quite simple at first glance. In fact, they are more complex than expected.

Productivity usually defines the ratio between output and input. In a production process, like the coating production, inputs are different resources. In case of a coating line, it is not possible to change the basic process type without significant investment. So material consumption must be reuced. The coating sector offers solutions for this demand, which are already well established on the market. By switching the coating system from a multi-layer system to a one-layer (monolayer) system ACE manufacturer can save costs and raise their productivity at the same time. This is not a new concept but still, it is often seen as inferior to traditional multilayer system. However, direct-to-metal materials often deliver higher performance than multilayer systems of the same chemical type. Thus, a continuously growth of new generations of monolayer systems on the ACE market can be predicted for the future.

Decrease of energy demands for curing is another very popular method of cost-cutting in the coating industry. A decrease of curing temperature, reduction in oven dwelling time or combination of both is the current method in this regard. More advanced methods of energy needs reduction such as different methods of introducing energy into the curing coating are also available.

(N)IR, UV or electron beam curing are well-established, but some of them may be impractical for the ACE industry making the reduction of oven temperature the most widely used method of energy savings not just now but also in close future.

Stagnation in the application process development – Sargasas UAB progress in surface pre-treatment Popieriaus g. 15 There are hardly any indications LTfor a08404 radical change Vilnius in coating application processes forLithuania the ACE segment.

Generally spoken, there are five basic application Tel. +370 5 277 meth6591 info@sargasas.lt ods used in ACE segment: E-coat Email: (electrodeposition), www.sargasas.lt dipping, solvent-borne and water-borne spraying methods as well as the application of powder coatings.

Certainly, there will be no real changes of any of these methods in the close future, while the fields of application could change. Advanced products could lead to a www.balticmetalworking.com

replacement of traditional more expensive processes and economical processes could be implemented in various fields. A more widespread use of alternative sources for introduction of energy needed for curing such as (N)IR or UV can be expected.

While application processes more or less remain the same, the pre-treatment industry offers a variety of new materials. They allow a better, faster, greener and more efficient surface pre-treatment and prepare the surface even better for the coating. The development is following the general green eco trend but but asks for a more precise process control. Paint producers should better con-

Drivers for future developments of ACE coatings – no significant increase of performance compared state-ofthe art situation can be forecasted.

sider at least some adaptions in their products in order to make them fit to the differently pretreated surfaces.

The impact of developments in ACE coating sector varies widely, depending on the perspective. From manufacturer´s point of view, they can face new possibilities and chances to improve their productivity and save costs.

The coating producer is facing several challenges in regard of raw material developments, paint technologies and environmental legislations, but his is nothing new for this segment as coating chemists always have to be aware of and adapt to fast developments in dynamic segments. End users will hardly feel any big changes at all.

INFO Helios TBLUS, d.o.o.

Količevo 65, 1230 Domžale, Slovenija (SI) +370 655 00157 andrius.sipavicius@helios.si Andrius Sipavičius April-May 3/2018

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Continental and Hella did not come here for nothing: Lithuania is one of the most attractive countries for manufacturers and is only surpassed by China Dalius Simėnas Verslo žinios

A

breakthrough in the field of foreign manufacturing investments in today's Lithuania is not an exaggeration. According to the assessments of greenfield investment experts, Lithuania is currently the most attractive location for manufacturers in Europe, and, on a global scale, is only surpassed by China.

This year, for the first time, Lithuania was included in the Manufacturing Risk Index 2018 prepared by Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) analysts. Up to now, the scoreboard of the most attractive greenfield investment locations, which has been formed since 2014, compared 30 largest industrial countries. By including smaller promising industrial countries into the scoreboard this year, Lithuania placed second among 42 countries.

Lithuania is the only European country that was included in the top five most attractive locations together with China (1st place), Malaysia (3rd), Taiwan (4th) and Canada (5th), which are then followed by USA, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey (6-10th places).

Our neighbour Poland received 17th place, while Latvia and Estonia were not included in the index of 42 countries.

2017 was the year of manufacturing investment breakthrough in Lithuania, which culminated with the decision of Continental to open an electronic car component factory with 1.000 job openings in Kaunas FEZ in 2019. Investment hunters in Lithuania have been trying to attract this German company off and on for around fifteen years.

Its competitor – Hella, which announced the greenfield investment a year ago, is already building a factory in the same FEZ and will begin manufacturing car electronics as early as in August this year. It expects to hire 250 people at first, and may expand to up to 2.000 employees within four stages.

"Invest Lithuania" points out that production and service projects, as well as their created jobs were approximately equal in 2017, and this is a welcome balance. Up to now, the projects of business service centres were the dominating ones.

What did the experts assess According to the C&W baseline scenario, countries were assessed based on three criteria: investment envi-

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Martin Meggle, Vice President of Hella

ronment (40% of weight in the index), operational risks (20%) and operating costs (40%).

"Labour costs in Lithuania are 14% lower than in Poland and 30% lower than in the Czech Republic", – indicates the research of C&W. Bruno Berretta, research co-author and Associate Director of the C&W Industrial and Logistics Research Unit in the United Kingdom, provided a comment to VŽ stating that, in the future, index compilers will also take into account market size, therefore Lithuania's position may change.

"It is likely that, according to labour market size, Lithuania is closer to the lower end of the index rather than at the top of it. Therefore, so far we are cautious about comparing Lithuania with larger industrial countries.

However, your country is truly becoming interesting for investors of certain industries, as can be seen from several projects that caught our attention", – says Mr. Beretta.

In recent years, wages in Lithuania grew faster than its labour productivity. There were fears that the country's exporters may lose their competitiveness because of this.

However, latest Eurostat data shows that, in 2017, productivity in Lithuania grew faster than in any other EU country (4.4%), because companies were actively investing in more efficient equipment.

Analysts state that, even though wages are growing in the Central and Eastern Europe, its costs still remain the lowest in the entire Europe. Production costs in Central Europe were twice as high than in China and India, however they were lower by as much as 60% than in the USA. In turn, experts working with foreign investors point out that, for the initiators of new greenfield projects in Lithuania, the cost component is no longer as important as it was to the manufacturers that came before. Cur-

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rently, companies give higher priority to the investment environment, because they are looking at whether the location chosen for the investment will be attractive to the company's operations even after 10 years.

According to the alternative C&W assessment for investors who give priority to the operating cost component when choosing a location to invest (which comprises 60% of weight in the manufacturing risk index), Lithuania is placed 3rd. For those who are mostly influenced by the investment environment (60%), Lithuania is placed 5th.

Investing closer to buyer markets Investors themselves emphasize that, in most cases, the decision on where to invest is dictated by the location where products manufactured in the new factory will be sold.

In his interview for VŽ, Martin Meggle, the Vice President of Hella responsible for the electronic engineering field, said that he is taking care of innovations in the group and his mission is to determine the products that the company will be able to manufacture for customers five years from now. In this case, Lithuania, where the Hella factory is being built, is also included.

"However, I cannot decide where to manufacture", – he continues.

If, for example, a new car sensor is being developed, then, first of all, research is carried out for several years, and then experimental development is performed later on. In this stage of development, communication is maintained with customers who later decide on the location of the manufacture of the new product.

"For example, if we win a "Geely" order, it is likely that we will manufacture the new product in Asia. However, if the customer will be "Daimler", production may be carried out in Lithuania in order to have a supply of these sensors in Europe", – says Mr. Meggle. The Vice President of Hella is responsible for the operation of 4 units in Germany and 8 units abroad – in Romania, India, China and the United States.

The opportunities of Lithuania to attract foreign investors have increased over the past years.

In 2017, Lithuania attracted a record number of direct foreign investment projects – 61, which is 27.1% more than in 2016 (48). Their implementation within three www.balticmetalworking.com

years will result in the creation of 8.949 job positions and investment of nearly 1 billion EUR (1,26 billion USD), states fDi Magazine, the publication of The Financial Times group. The publication uses the data provided in the FDI monitoring database of fDiMarkets.com. It is indicated that the FDI number increased on average by 17.1% each year between 2012 and 2016.

C&W report indicates that various political, economic and operating cost factors are assessed when forming the manufacturing risk index. For example, the investment environment component includes the labour market, market accessibility and business environment criteria, as well as how soon can production begin after making an investment decision. Assessed risk: likelihood of natural disasters, sustainability of the macroeconomic environment, power supply reliability, and impact of an investment project on company finances. Operating costs are assessed according to the labour, electricity, construction and property registration price.

Location 2018, baseline scenario

China Lithuania Malaysia Taiwan Canada USA Hungary Czech Republic Slovakia Turkey Peru Philippines Colombia Russia Thailand Romania Poland Singapore Bulgaria Indonesia

Source: Cushman

Index 2018

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Location 2018, costsensitive scenario

Location 2018, investment environment sensitive scenario

1 3 2 16 25 27 13 18 19 12 6 5 11 4 14 10 20 30 17 7

4 5 11 7 3 1 12 13 14 20 23 27 25 23 24 29 21 2 28 33

& Wakefield Manufacturing Risk

Note: According to the C&W baseline scenario, countries were assessed based on three criteria: investment environment (40% of weight in the index), operational risks (20%) and operating costs (40%).

According to the alternative C&W scenario for companies which give priority to competitive production cost when choosing a location to invest, the operating cost component comprises 60% of weight in the manufacturing risk index. And, accordingly, the investment environment is 20% and the operational risk is 20%.

According to the third scenario, when the decision of the investor is mostly influenced by the investment environment, this component comprises 60% of weight in the index. Accordingly, the operational risk is 20% and the operating costs are 20%.

A total of 42 industrial countries were assessed.

April-May 3/2018

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FINLAND

NTM – Production occurs by the largest industrial robot manufacturer of the Nordic countries The technical enterprise NTM manufactures trailers for heavy transport, superstructures and refuse collectors. Every product must fulfil the customer’s requirements, and therefore product development is carried out in close cooperation with the customer. Customers will get their product on a turnkey principle, ready-to-use.

R

efuse collector are the fastest growing product group for NTM, and the proportion of their turnover for the enterprise is currently at approximately 70%. To the product group belong both familiar rear loaders as well as side and front loaders with different model and equipment alternatives. The importance of being environmentally friendly in waste treatment industry is constantly growing. This can be seen also in NTM’s product development and production. Globally, more and more garbage trucks are nowadays powered by natural gas or electrically driven.

NTM is specialized especially in the development of models suitable for collecting sorted waste materials.

Features of such models include: multi-compartment collector, various trash can lifts and scales for sorting and measuring the weight of collected waste. Refuse collector can handle 6 – 35 cubic meters of compressed waste, and newest refuse collector empty a trash can in less than 10 seconds, while the driver is sitting in the cab. At the same time, a computer registers information from the customer’s microchip and logs the weight of the collected waste.

In different countries, there are varying requirements and customers have miscellaneous equipment: therefore there is a lot of alternation in the production. The start-

Fanuc M-2000iA/2300 26 |

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ing point is usually that a customer informs NTM of the make and model of a car and makes the purchase. From that moment on, the whole production chain takes place in Närpes. Behind all products of good quality is – in addition to a committed personnel – a refined production process which follows each order starting from the time an order is placed until the final delivery to the customer. Modern technology is utilized in production which is alternating and demanding when, amongst other things, item weights are concerned. The demand has been constantly increasing. Fluctuations of the economy do not have hardly any influence to the amount of generated waste.

Growth target requires intelligent solutions There has been set a growth target of 10 – 15% for production. Fulfilment of targets requires a continuous active development cycle. Searching for a new solution for the welding of waste packer bodies was started in August 2016.

- We decided to invite to tender for the project and asked, how different suppliers could work out our needs, tells project director Simon Grönqvist.

Of the received solutions was selected the one, where the welding is carried out in a cell of two robots.

– We considered other alternatives, but MTC Flextek’s proposition utilizing robots was the most creative and flexible. It can be applied to 24/7 production, and considering the future, robots adapt to many kinds of changes in production, states NTM’s production manager Steve Westerlund.

– At this moment, there is free capacity in the cell which recently was put into operation in a two-shift work rotation, but the full capacity will surely be reached. Now the production is 350 pieces in a year, and the solution provides capacity for up to 1000 pieces in a year, continues Grönqvist.

Parts to be handled in a cell have a weight of 800 – 1800 kg, and therefore there is free capacity even in this respect. Fanuc was the only manufacwww.balticmetalworking.com

Semi-finished refuse collector manufactured by the new cell

Item storage of a cell

turer who had a strong enough industrial robot, when its effective load was concerned: Fanuc M-2000iA/2300. Its capacity is 2300 kg. In the cell, the welding is performed by a smaller Fanuc ARC Mate 100iC/8L, to which a welding apparatus of Fronius is connected.

Fanuc’s robots are familiar to NTM, because a cell with such a configuration has already been in use for about ten years.

Grönqvist and Westerlund tell that the delivery went well from the very beginning and according to a timetable. A proposed solution was followed by a more exact cell planning and that one by a more elaborated solution.

At the same time, needed structures were made at NTM, the floor was strengthened and ventilations were built.

Actual building works were timed to be performed during a production stoppage in July 2017, and they were Sargasas UAB followed by the cell installation. The cell was ready for Popieriaus g. 15 production in the end of October 2017.

LT- 08404 Vilnius – We are really satisfied with the cooperation.

Lithuania The basic idea was still developed along the way, but even sucTel. +370 5 277it6591 ceeded fluently, thanks to Westerlund.

Email: info@sargasas.lt www.sargasas.lt – New items are programmed to the cell little by little, and it is fine that programs can be made and simulated in advance and separately from the actual production. The www.balticmetalworking.com

Men giving scale to the gigantic robot: From the left: production manager Steve Westerlund and project director, responsible of department Simon Grönqvist

training has run exemplarily in Sweden, as we desired.

The service of robots will be performed in the future by MTC Flextek, and we will service the welding apparatus ourselves, he finishes.

NTM Närpes Trä & Metall Ab – Närpiön Puu ja Metalli Oy is a family-owned company, which was founded by Lennart Nordin in 1950. Now Kurt-Erik Nordin acts as its managing director. At this moment, there are approximately 400 workers in the enterprise, and 70 – 80% of the production is exported. In addition to the Nordic countries, NTM acts also in Great Britain, Russia, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and in the Baltic states. The parent company is situated in Närpes on the western coast of Finland, and affiliates are situated in Sweden, Estonia, Great Britain and Poland.

INFO Machine Tool Center UAB +37065514751 info@mtcenter.fi www.mtcenter.lt April-May 3/2018

| 27

Tiger·tec Gold Go for better, go for Gold. ®

BUSINESS INSIDE RŪPNIECISKO ŠĶIDRUMU RAŽOTĀJS

VOSSI BALTICS OÜ Lõõtsa 4, 2nd floor (office nr 243) 11415 Tallinn

+372 528 5075

www.oestgroup.com

For those who won’t settle for anything but the best: Tiger·tec Gold If you had to make a choice right now – between maximum tool life, uncompromising process reliability and optimum productivity – which one would you pick? Why not choose the freedom ® to never have to choose again. Stay true to your own high standards in every way.

Choose Tiger·tec® Gold.

www.oestgroup.com

®

Tiger·tec Gold Go for better, go for Gold.

WWW.GESPA.LT

Metalo apdirbimo ir matavimo įrankiai

walter-tools.com

AZ_Product_TTG_EN_WGB_210x297_rz.indd 1

- CNC frezavimas ir tekinimas - Šlifavimas - Miltelinis dažymas - Surinkimo paslaugos

01.08.16 11:34

For those who won’t settle for anything but the best: Tiger·tec® Gold If you had to make a choice right now – between maximum tool life, uncompromising process reliability and optimum productivity – which one would you pick? Why not choose the freedom to never have to choose again. Stay true to your own high standards in every way.

Choose Tiger·tec® Gold.

mindaugas@baltpt.lt

+37060826989

www.vaivora.com

walter-tools.com

AZ_Product_TTG_EN_WGB_210x297_rz.indd 1

01.08.16 11:34

PRAMONINIAI DAŽAI IR DANGOS METALO PRAMONEI www.divinitus.lt +370 52 640276

www.ok-vise.com

PARTICIPATION

BALTIC

METALWORKING DISSEMINATION

DIGITAL PUBLICATION

28 |

3/2018 April-May

www.balticmetalworking.com

BALTIC

METALWORKING

Our impressions from Konepaja Trade Show

A

fter 2016 year‘s success, Konepaja Engineering Works Trade fair came back to Tampere on 20-22 of March. Biennial Trade Fair for the Metal Industry, Machinery and Equipment served as a presentation platform for 262 exhibitors this year.

It was the first time when Baltic Metalworking participated at Konepaja and shared our publication with more than 1500 Finnish metal industry people – focused audience which appreciates valuable information and the specialized media.

It was a pleasure to see our partners Walter Norden, Vossi OY, Pneumacon OY and MTC Flextek with plenty of news for Finnish visitors in their stands at Konepaja.

Our partner Tampereen Erikoissarana OY, manufacturer of hinges from Tampere, was able to show their wide range of previous production and new products as well.

This year‘s exhibitors showcased wide range of machines and equipment including machine tools, welding and joining equipments, automation, robotics and industrial services for the decision makers of metal industry at once.

According to the statistics, more than 6554 visitors came to Konepaja this year. The Trade Show repeated that Tampere is one of Finnish metal engineering industry hot spots again.

www.balticmetalworking.com

April-May 3/2018

| 29

A new dimension to parting off

CoroCutÂŽ QD for Y-axis parting is designed with the insert pocket rotated 90 degrees, thereby shifting the resultant load to the strongest section of the blade. This provides more than six times higher blade stiffness, allowing you to increase your feed and use longer overhangs without losing stability.

A small, simple change, but with significant results.

Increase your feed rate – get more done in a day

Up to 180 mm (7 inch)

Part larger than ever before

View Y-axis parting in action: www.sandvik.coromant.com/corocutqd

Less vibration – less noise