APMEN Jul-Aug 2014

SEE HOW CAN OPEN ENGINEERING HELP YOU • SOLID EDGE UNIVERSITY 2014 July - August 2014

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ADVERTORIAL SCHUNK Intec Singapore

Superior Clamping and Gripping respective application. That is exactly where we support our customers.

SCHUNK End-of-Arm Competence: The standardized gripping systems program from SCHUNK is the largest in the world. It includes grippers, rotary modules, quick change systems, as well as linear modules and modules for high performance assembly.

SCHUNK recently opened its own subsidiary in Singapore. What goal is the company pursuing with this investment?

In addition to the subsidiaries in China, India, Japan, and Korea, SCHUNK Intec Singapore is already the fifth subsidiary of our innovative family-owned company in Asia. Our task is to actively support the SCHUNK sales partners in Southeast Asia. We have partners in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. SCHUNK Intec Singapore will now be their direct contact to our headquarters in Germany. We enable direct coordination with our product and industry specialists as well as direct communication with the responsible design engineers. Another focus is the ongoing qualification and training of the sales employees and users in the individual countries. In addition, we see ourselves as a link to the universities and research institutes.

What is SCHUNK’s position on the market?

SCHUNK is considered worldwide to be the market and competence leader for both clamping technology and gripping

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

systems. Our standardized modular products give us an extremely broad base.

Our strongest sectors are automotive, precision engineering, and robotics.

Moreover, we are experiencing strong growth in aerospace engineering, marine, and offshore engineering, as well as health care. In all of these sectors SCHUNK already offers numerous superior components and solutions.

Which trends do you currently see in clamping technology and gripping systems?

One of the biggest challenges for industrial production is the increasing number of variants. Product life cycles are becoming shorter, while the choice of product variants is constantly on the rise and the consumers’ desire for new products also continues to grow. All of this directly affects production: development times and batch sizes decrease. Production managers have to be more flexible in their planning and actions. This is only possible with clamping solutions and handling systems that optimally combine precision, cost effectiveness, and flexibility. A strong market presence requires finding the best solution for the

What are the company’s key strengths?

We offer optimal prerequisites for customized and efficient solutions in clamping technology and gripping systems with our standardized module program, which is the most comprehensive in the world. No other company in the world can offer a more comprehensive synergy from these two areas. SCHUNK modules are the key to highly efficient, precise, and reliable solutions. Thus our slogan: Superior Clamping and Gripping.

Which “blockbusters” does SCHUNK have in its program?

There are the SCHUNK grippers, with which our company has been setting standards for more than 30 years. From the world’s first standardized industrial gripper in 1983 to today’s intelligent mechatronic grippers, and mobile gripping systems we have succeeded in taking a giant leap in development. To this day the multitooth guided PGN-plus universal grippers are considered the benchmark in gripping technology. Other long-running successes are our precision toolholders, especially TENDO, the powerful and high-precision hydraulic expansion holder and the ROTA power chuck including the corresponding jaws.

In addition, many other SCHUNK modules are established on the market, such as the exceptionally high-power VERO-S quick-change pallet system, the TRIBOS polygonal clamping technology for micromachining or the fast pick & place units for high-performance assembly.

Every year we add about 40 new benchmark products.

What is the secret of SCHUNK’s success?

It is the combination of German engineering, pioneering spirit, and perfec-

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ADVERTORIAL

tion that has led SCHUNK to success.

Maintaining our position on the market as technology leader has always required substantial effort. That is why SCHUNK invests about 8% of the turnover in R&D every year. Not to mention high sums for the qualification and continuous further training of the employees. Recruiting of new specialists is another important investment for SCHUNK: with a training ratio of about 12% SCHUNK has held a leading position in German industry for many years. Our customers around the world benefit from this high level of competence.

How has SCHUNK grown?

Established in 1945 by Friedrich Schunk as a machine shop, the company developed under Heinz-Dieter Schunk to become the competence leader for clamping technology and gripping systems. The starting signal for the SCHUNK standard clamping jaw products in 1966 was a milestone in the history of our company. Heinz-Dieter Schunk can proudly look back on this pioneering accomplishment. With more than 1,200 different jaw types today it is the largest portfolio of standard clamping jaws in the world. But that is not all: With

the expansion of the product area of hydraulic expansion toolholders in 1978 and the startup of the product area of gripping systems in 1982 Heinz-Dieter Schunk has shaped the success of our company to this day. The high quality, the consistent standardization and the unique synergy of clamping technology and gripping systems have earned SCHUNK an international reputation. Today Henrik A. Schunk and his sister Kristina I. Schunk manage the company side by side with their father in the third generation. More than 2,000 dedicated employees and a network of affiliated companies and sales partners in more than 50 countries around the world ensure an intensive market presence that is highly valued especially by our demanding customers.

Keng Lim Koh, SCHUNK Regional Sales Manager Southeast Asia SCHUNK Intec Pte. Ltd. 25 International Business Park #03-51/52 German Centre Singapore 609916 SINGAPORE Tel. +65 6240 6851 Fax +65 6240 6852 info@sg.schunk.com www.sg.schunk.com

SCHUNK Clamping Technology: The innovative toolholder systems, clamping vises, quick-change pallet systems, and lathe chucks are the key to highly efficient, precise and process-reliable solutions.

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Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

3

CONTENTS 38

July-August 2014

28 MAKING THE CUT 26 Rushing For Time

With the drive for greater productivity showing no signs of abating, speed seems to be the main area of development for many EDM machine manufacturers.

By Michael E Neumann

28

EDM: Keeping Up With Times

Arguably one of the ‘legacy’ technologies available in metalworking today, EDM is constantly improving to stay relevant.

By Augustine Quek

48 32

Program A Robot As If It Were A NC Machine

We take a look at how programming an industrial robot can be less tedious.

By Joson Ng

DESIGN & MEASUREMENT 34 Industrial Machinery In Southeast Asia To Take A Digital Manufacturing Path

Manufacturers in this region should know that digital manufacturing is an important component within PLM and it is a tool to help them stay relevant and competitive.

By Rajiv Ghatikar, Siemens PLM Software

SHOP TALK 30

38

Industrial robots are used in the manufacture of heavy-duty diesel engines in China.

Contributed by Ong Tze Yih, KUKA Robot Automation (Malaysia)

Peter A Bilello, president of CIMdata gives his thoughts on PLM, the IoT and metalworking equipment innovation.

Lending A Helping Hand

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

PLM: There Is More Than Meets The Eye

FABRICATOR'S NOTE 44

Camera & LED Technologies Illuminate Tube Inspection

A wire and tube optical measurement machine developer claims they can add more speed and provide higher accuracy to the measuring process. By Joson Ng

46

Bend Towards The Sky

Advanced tube bending technology is helping British Airways maintain its latest-generation aircraft. By Alan Pickering, Unison

INDUSTRY FOCUS 48 Turbo-Charged Productivity

Turbochargers are experiencing an increase in demand due to prevailing trends in the automotive industry and this poses a challenge in machining. By Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Jens Tempel, Iscar Germany

50

Putting It Together

Automotive assembly has come to Asia in a big way. By Michael E Neumann

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ENQUIRY NO 100

CONTENTS

July-August 2014

ASIA PACIFIC METALWORKING EQUIPMENT NEWS (M.E.N.) is published 8 issues per year by Eastern Trade Media Pte Ltd 1100 Lower Delta Road EPL Building #02-05 Singapore 169206 Tel: (65) 6379 2888 Fax: (65) 6379 2806.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES: M.E.N. is available to readers on a per annum subscription basis depending on location: Singapore: S$60.00, Malaysia: S$60.00, Asia Pacific/America/Europe/ Others: S$100.00. Refer to the subscription card in each issue for further details. For change of address, please notify our Circulation Manager. For more subscription information Fax: (65) 6379 2806 Singapore E-mail: samanthatan@epl.com.sg

61

FEATURES 54

Finding New Ways To Keep Things Easy

Siemens PLM Software pushed out Solid Edge ST7 at the Solid Edge University 2014 to make designing faster and easier. By Joson Ng

56

64 64

Handling Heavy Loads

Magnetic chip disc filtration on chip conveyors maintains efficiencies in the production of ductile iron castings used in heavy truck and military drive train projects.

By Greg Champion, Hennig

It Is Time To Open Up

Hoffmann Group Eyes Southeast Asia As Next Port Of Call

With major plans in the pipeline, the group expects to make a serious impact on Southeast Asia’s metalworking industry. By Joson Ng

61

The Future Of Edge Preparation

Using wet blasting to prepare tool edges can improve tool quality and life. By Mick Teague, Vapormatt

REGULARS 10 Business News 75 Product Finder 79 Exhibition Programmes 80A Product Enquiry Card 6

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THE CIRCULATION OF THIS MAGAZINE IS AUDITED BY BPA WORLDWIDE. THE ADVERTISERS' ASSOCIATION RECOMMEND THAT ADVERTISERS SHOULD PLACE THEIR ADVERTISEMENTS ONLY IN AUDITED PUBLICATIONS

INDUSTRY Endorsements Singapore Precision Engineering and Tooling Association (SPETA) Federation of Asian Die & Mould Associations (FADMA)

Cloud-based collaborative project execution solutions are making big waves in the product design world and for once, it is not frowned upon to share information with strangers.

By Joson Ng

58

IMPORTANT NOTICE

EVENTS & EXHIBITION 66

Event Preview: Manufacturing Myanmar 2014 Event Preview: MTT Expo 2014 Event Preview: VME Event Preview: Metalex Vietnam Event Review: Metaltech 2014 Event Review: Intermach & Subcon Thailand 2014

80

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For Advertiser's Enquiry Numbers

Federation of Malaysian Foundry & Engineering Industry Associations

Indian Machine Tool Manufacturing Association (IMTMA)

China Machine Tool & Tool Builders' Association (CMTBA)

Machine Tool Club (MTC)

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Learn about the latest: “PowerMILL’s Dynamic Machine Control gives us the confidence to run parts first time on our 5-axis machines.”

Brian Kerkstra, Paragon D&E

• Vortex high-efficiency area clearance • Mill/turn programming techniques • Direct modelling capabilities • Multi-axis milling innovations • Reverse engineering tools • On-Machine Verification options and much more!

Unlock the power of Delcam software

Visit www.delcam.tv/lz and see how Delcam software could benefit your business!

Delcam headquarters Small Heath Business Park, Birmingham, B10 0HJ Tel: +44 (0)121 766 5544

Delcam (Malaysia) Sdn.Bhd. Wisma UOA II, 20-1, No.21, Jalan Pinang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: +603-2711 0145

PT. Delcam Indonesia Perkantoran Pulomas satu Gedung-1, Lt-3 Room 12A Jl.A Yani No2, JAKARTA, Indonesia Tel: (62)-21-4894964

Delcam S.E.A. Pte. Ltd. 6001 Beach Road, #18-01 Golden Mile Tower, Singapore 199589 Tel : +65 97233095 & +65 64511124

Delcam Vietnam Representative Office Office 602, 159 Dien Bien Phu, Binh Thanh Dist, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tel : +84 8 35144078

Beijing Delcam Integrated System Co., Ltd. Rm. A411, Jinyu Jiahua Building, No.9, 3rd Street , Shangdi, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, China Tel +8610 6298 5591

Delcam (Thailand) Co.,Ltd. 11 Rama II Road Soi 54 Lane 4-3, Samaedam, Bangkhuntien, Bangkok 10150 , Thailand Tel: +66 2 899 1182-4

ENQUIRY NO 099

EDITOR’S NOTE

Open Sesame When I attended the Solid Edge University in May, I got to see firsthand how designers in the western hemisphere are sharing designs with complete strangers in a virtual space commonly known as a community.

While I think it will take a while for Southeast Asia to embrace such a concept, I do feel it is a matter of ‘when’ rather than a matter of ‘if’ because like it or not, the world is moving in that direction.

Open source, open design, 3D printing, big data, IoT or cloud computing — these are terms or names that many probably never heard of just a few years ago.

These terms, apart from having a futuristic and exotic ring to it, are slowly ushering in the age of connectivity, and with it, a certain amount of trepidation or even a sense of foreboding. Understanding the value proposition of these concepts is key in this case. A certain degree of handwringing is reasonable but it should not be used as an excuse to delay the inevitable.

Take cloud computing for example, forward-looking companies may have

Published by:

EASTERN TRADE MEDIA PTE LTD (a fully owned subsidiary of Eastern Holdings Ltd)

Reg No: 199908196C

senior editor Joson Ng

josonng@epl.com.sg

business development manager Randy Teo randyteo@epl.com.sg

editorial assistant Sharifah Zainon

sharifah@epl.com.sg

taken the plunge a while back, but the more traditional ones are slowly following suit once they understand the value the technology can bring to their business.

W hile the concept of cloud computing may be gaining more acceptance in recent times, the concept of ‘open’, ‘free’ and ‘information sharing’ still has many obstacles in its path for wider recognition, especially in the metalworking industry in Southeast Asia.

Being open seems counter-intuitive.

It is a 180 degree turn from what we are used to. In a world where IPs are foundations of a company’s worth, it is easy to see why people are reluctant to share knowledge and know-how or to give something away for free.

It is not the end of the world though, in the design space at the very least, I could see why being open can actually help a designer to be more productive.

Instead of starting from scratch, he or she can pull a generic design from the online community and make changes to improve the design. In case you have not noticed, this is what innovation is all about.

graphic designer Jef Pimentel

jeffreypimentel@epl.com.sg

circulation executive Nurulhuda binte Suhaimi nurulhuda@epl.com.sg

contributors Michael E Neumann Augustine Quek Ong Tze Yih Rajiv Ghatikar Peter A Bilello Alan Pickering Jens Tempel Mick Teague Greg Champion board of consultants Wäinö A Kaarto AB Sandvik Coromant Dr Moshe Goldberg Iscar

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced in any form or means – graphic, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, taping, etc – without the written consent of the publisher. Opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers are not necessarily those of the publisher and editor.

Printed in Singapore by Fabulous Printers Pte Ltd MCI (P) No. 050/06/2013 PPS 840/09/2012 (022818) ISSN 0129/5519

EASTERN HOLDINGS LTD EXECUTIVE BOARD

chairman Kenneth Tan executive director Lum Kum Kuen

Joson Ng Senior Editor PS: You may have noticed that there are quite a number of QR codes scattered around the magazine (like this one). Scan and enter the world of eMedia. Happy reading!

8

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

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Trade Media Pte Ltd an Eastern Holdings Ltd company

Head Office & Mailing Address: 1100 Lower Delta Road, EPL Building #02-05, Singapore 169206 Tel: (65) 6379-2888 Fax: (65) 6379-2806

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Watch trailer:

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ENQUIRY NO 030

powered by Tiger·tec® Silver

BUSINESS NEWS Largest Symposium In The International Grinding Machine Industry Concludes With 30 Machines Presented

Thun, Switzerland: United Grinding Group has held the largest symposium in the international grinding machine industry from May 21 – 23, 2014 in Thun, Switzerland. According to the company, the third installment of the event attracted more than 1,400 visitors daily.

A total of 30 machines from the group were presented at 14 stations. These included five world innovations: Blohm Prokos XT, Jung JE600,

Studer S141, Schaudt Crankgrind and Ewag Laser Line Ultra. The program was completed by 20 lectures given by renowned experts. There were also more than 154 technology presentations. The technology presentations were offered in four different languages. They offered each participant the opportunity to discover specific advantages of the machine innovations or to discuss them in direct dialogue with developers.

Ditzingen, Germany: Trumpf has agreed on a joint venture that gives the company access into the additive manufacturing sector. The partner is Italian laser manufacturer Sisma, which has a 45 percent stake in the new enterprise while Trumpf has a 55 percent interest. The joint venture will be based in Italy. There, the companies plan to co-develop production systems for the 3D printing of metal components.

Additive ma nufacturing enables any component to be built up directly from a 3D design program. The parts are created 10

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

Trumpf

Trumpf Jumps On The 3D Printing Wagon With JV

layer by layer from metallic powder, using the power of the laser. The technology has the potential of partially replacing methods

such as milling or casting. The components are just as durable and long-lasting as their conventionally produced counterparts. www.equipment-news.com

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BUSINESSNEWS

Heimatec Opens 3D Experience Forum Singapore Competence Studio G er m a ny : Heimatec ha s collaborated with German machine tool manufacturer Spinner in inaugurating a competence studio on May 1, 2014.

According to the company, the aim of this exercise is to grant interested parties a realistic view of various kinds of turning and hard turning operations, which can be efficiently and professionally performed on Spinner machines that are equipped with Heimatec tools. Some operations performed at the studio are gear milling and slotting.

Kennametal Named As One Of The Top 100 Innovative Organisations Latrobe, US: Kennametal has been included in IDG’s CIO magazine CIO 100 Awards, highlighting the top 100 innovative companies that effectively use IT to create business value.

The company was commended for its k nowledge databa se called Novo, designed to support digital intelligence in application engineering, process planning and production operations, accelerating p r o d u c t i v i t y i n c u s to m e r manufacturing processes. The system is a Windows application that connects a Cloud database and provides a tool advisor, tool selector, and tool configurator.

Scan Here

To Read Online 12

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

Singapore: Dassault Systèmes has showcased its innovations at the annual 3DExperience Forum on June 17, 2014. The event brings together the company’s customers and partners from across the region, offering a platform for knowledge sharing a nd network ing. This ye a r, the event is focused on Doing Business in the Age of Experience.

Dr Christopher Holmes, head of IDC Manufacturing Insights, spoke on trends around this development: “All industries are currently going through a re volut io n a r y e ra w he re technology is enabling them to be more agile, efficient and innovative.

“Industry players are entering the third platform where big data and analytics, cloud computing, mobility and social business, are acting as disruptive forces — enabling new business models, creating opportunities for new co mp e t ito r s , a n d a l l ow i n g customers and consumers to engage in an entirely different way,” he said.

In addition to the plenary se ssion, there were three industr y bre a kout se ssions on Aerospace & Defense, Transportation & Mobility and Natural Resources.

In t he natura l re source s session, global mining trends were discussed. Ben Farquharson, VP, ANZ, natural resources industry, Dassault

Ben Farquharson

Systèmes said there are a lot of challenges around operating a mine, e specia lly in the productiv it y a nd efficiency spectrums and the industry as a whole is going through some “difficult times”. However, he said there are opportunities for collaboration while answering the proverbial question of ‘how to remain profitable?’

With a number of synergies between manufacturing and mining, he said the future of mining technology revolves around lean mine construction, perfect mine and plant, perfect order, optimised mine closure, predictive discovery and license to dig. Summing things up, he said: “There are lots of room for improvement. From our perspective, there is a big opportunity here for process improvement, to look at how we design better, how we train better.” www.equipment-news.com

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ENQUIRY NO 105

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BUSINESSNEWS

Domestic Market Giving German Machine Tool A Boost Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Orders received by the German machine tool industry in the first quarter of 2014 were up 10 percent from the previous year. Domestic orders were 20 percent higher than last year, whereas orders from abroad increased by five percent.

“The domestic market is a major source of demand for the machine tool sector right now,” said Dr Wilfried Schäfer, executive director of the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders' Association).

Order levels began to rise at the end of 2012 and this ongoing trend confirms the optimistic nature of German clients and effectively ends a period of reluctance in terms of investment on the domestic front. This is also reflected by the sentiment levels in the industry which have risen again recently.

A good example is the fact that the machining equipment sector, with its broad client base, has moved ahead to take the leading position, in contrast to last year.

Orders have risen here by 14 percent. There was demand for a wide range of technology, especially turning and grinding machines plus machining centres. Forming equipment orders, by contrast,

German Machine Tool Industry: Domestic clients boosting demand for machine tools Order Intake [Index, nominal (seasonally adjusted and smoothed values)]

Note: Index basis shipments 2010=100, data until March 2014

were up four percent from the previous year. Many orders were received in particular for sheet metalworking machines designed for a wide range of applications.

Following last year's boom, the demand for pressing equipment has declined slightly.

No clear increase in demand has yet been noted from foreign customers. Orders from the euro zone in particular were down by 10 percent, forcing the industry to look elsewhere.

“We are pinning our hopes on Asia and America,” explains Dr Schäfer. The nine percent increase

Sources: VDW, VDMA

seen in orders from outside the euro zone in the first quarter, by contrast, was much stronger.

“The first quarter has given the green light to increased production in the current year,” he said, provided that international events remain stable. This is a per tinent point a s regiona l conflict in Russia rumbles on. If it continues to escalate, there can be a detrimental effect on the German machine tool industry as Russia is the third largest foreign market for the German machine tool industry and Germany is the biggest supplier to Russian industry.

Delcam Ranked World’s Largest CAM-Centric Software Company Bir mingha m, UK: Delcam continues to be the world’s largest specialist supplier of CAM software and services, says CIMdata. The latest NC Software Market Analysis Report from the consulting and research firm shows that the CAM software company employs over 700 staff, over 100 people more than Vero Software, and more than twice the 292 employees at thirdplaced Cimatron.

The report also confirmed that the company continues to employ the largest development team in the industry, with 224 14

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

people working on the company’s manufacturing software.

In terms of sales, the company was again able to increase its

market share in terms of direct revenue. Its share of vendor direct revenues grew from 7.3 percent in 2012 to 7.7 percent in 2013. www.equipment-news.com

ENQUIRY NO 112

Jens Lehmann, German goalkeeper legend, brand ambassador of SCHUNK, the family-owned company, since 2012

... in your lathe

I push myself to my limits and often find that I achieve more than expected. The same can apply to your machine tool.”

“ In order to achieve 100% performance

... for your automated machine loading

... for your modular assembly automation

Discover new potentials now: www.sg.schunk.com/machine-potential

... in your machining center

... in your automated handling system

With superior components, we find potentials where you would never expect to find them. In your machine.

Superior Clamping and Gripping – It’s time to use your machine’s full potential!

... with mobile gripping systems

© 2014 SCHUNK GmbH & Co. KG

BUSINESSNEWS

World Crude Steel Production Up In May Brussels, Belgium: World crude steel production was 141 million tonnes (Mt) in May 2014, an increase of 2.2 percent compared to May 2013.

In Asia, China’s crude steel production for May 2014 was 70.4 Mt, up by 2.6 percent compared to May 2013. South Korea’s crude steel production also went up, standing at 6.2 Mt in May 2014, an 11.4 percent increase compared to

May 2013. Bucking the trend was Japan, which produced 9.6 Mt of crude steel in May 2014, a decrease of -0.3 percent over May 2013.

In the EU, Germany produced 3.9 Mt of crude steel in May 2014, an increase of 7.3 percent compared to May 2013. Italy produced 2.3 Mt of crude steel, down by -0.8 percent compared to May 2013. France’s crude steel production was 1.4 Mt, a decrease of -4.0 percent on May

2013. Spain produced 1.3 Mt of crude steel, down by -2.9 percent compared to May 2013.

The US produced 7.5 Mt of crude steel in May 2014, an increase of 1.4 percent compared to May 2013.

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio for 65 countries in May 2014 was 78.5 percent and it is 0.7 percentage points lower than May 2013. Compared to April 2014, it is 0.2 percentage points lower.

Hoffmann Group Enhances Presence In South-East Asia

Munich, Germany: Hoffmann Group’s Singapore subsidiary has become a full service company in May 2014. The South-east Asian headquarters in Singapore will support markets in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.

Following suit is the Malaysian subsidiary, which will also turn into a full service company from July 2014, highlighting the growth of the group in this region.

“The South-east Asian market is of immense strategic potential to us,” explains Eric Koh, GM of the Hoffmann Group in Singapore. “There's huge demand for quality tools and services in this region and that's where our strengths lie.”

According to the group, this move is tailored to improve their service coverage in South-east Asia.

Says Mr Koh: “Our international experience with over 135,000 customers worldwide makes us a reliable system partner for quality tools with our combination of retail, manufacturer and service competence. We offer a dependable supply of quality tools with a certified delivery reliability of over 99 percent, and provide our customers with first-class services.”

Currently there are 10 sales staff supporting customers in South-east Asia. According to the company, they are able to provide on-site advice on the selection of tools.

Finally, the group is also actively engaging the industry in the region. They are in collaborations with customers, including Cameron, a multinational group offering technical solutions for oil and gas, ZF Asia Pacific, a technology group operating in the drives and chassis sector, and Technische Universität München, which is conducting on-site research in electromobility together with a technological university in Singapore.

Automobile Sector In Vietnam Growing With Luxury Segment Leading The Way: RNCOS India: The automobile sector in Vietnam is growing gradually and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 8.2 percent during the forecast period 2014-2018, says a business consulting service firm.

16

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

The growth is an outcome of various factors like rising domestic demand, fierce competition among players as well as tax reforms implemented proactively by the government which has pushed the

industry to touch new heights.

Within the automobile sector, the luxury car segment has shown exponential growth in rise of production and demand. As such, a number of premium luxury car makers have acted on this trend and launched a variety of products to suit the sector. www.equipment-news.com

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ENQUIRY NO 109

BUSINESSNEWS

Japanese Consortium Participates In The Development & Production Of Boeing 777X Japan: Japan Aircraft Development Corporation (JADC) and five Japan Aircraft Industries (JAI) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI); Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI); Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI); Shin Maywa Industries (SMIC); and NIPPI Corporation (NIPPI) — have signed a Memorandum of Agreement for their participation in the project to develop and produce Boeing’s next-generation large-size passenger jet, the Boeing 777X. Plans call for the allocation of responsibilities for the 777X’s various structural components. They are essentially carried over from the participants’ corresponding tasks undertaken for the current 777 model.

Presently MHI is in charge of aft fuselages, fuselage tail sections and passenger entry doors; KHI, forward and centre fuselages, main landing gear wheel wells, cargo doors and pressure bulkheads; FHI, centre wing section, integration of the centre wing section with the main landing gear wheel wells, main landing gear doors and wing-to-body fairings (forward); SMIC, wing-to-body fairings (centre and aft); and NIPPI, wing components. Due to bigger fuselage section, JAI’s collective work package will be larger in volume than that of today’s 777.

Currently the 777-9X is under development, with plans calling for commencement of production in 2017 and delivery of the first aircraft in 2020.

DMG Mori Premieres CTX 650 In Asia On Singapore Technology Day

Bjoern Svatek

Singapore: DMG Mori gave an Asian debut for its CTX 650 ecoline turning centre at the Singapore Technology day on June 12, 2014.

Bjoern Svatek, sales & marketing director of DMG Ecoline said the CTX 650 ecoline is suitable for the oil and gas industry, due to the size of its working area.

According to him, the 600 mm of turning diameter and 1,150 mm of turning length enables sub suppliers to the oil and gas industry in Singapore to make parts like pistons and chuck parts.

He added the machine is able to machine exotic material because its strong machine bed, weight of roughly 10 tonnes and big linear guideways give the machine the capability to absorb large forces.

Finally, the company also prepared a variety of workshops and live demonstrations for participants to get up-to-speed on new machine concepts and machining strategies.

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

3D Printers Surpass Injection Moulding In Speed Rock Hill, US: 3D printers have effectively matched and exceeded the productivity of traditional injection moulding in the direct manufacture of functional parts.

3D Systems’ fab -grade 3D printers open up the possibility of just-in-time, high volume, flexible additive manufacturing using Stereolithography (SLA) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) advanced manufacturing printers, enabling manufacturers to produce functional, precision parts in seconds, without the need for tooling or a lengthy supply chain.

T he se production speed records a re shifting the manufacturing paradigm from low volume production to high volume direct manufacturing of complex parts across a range of use cases and industries.

“Our unwavering commitment to customer success through innovation has literally broken the mould this time — challenging the myth that 3D printing cannot match the productivity of injection moulding,” said Cathy Lewis, 3DS’ CMO. “This is just the beginning.

We are working on additional applications that defy traditional ma nu factur ing const ra int s, allowing our customers to go from idea to product in hours, instead of months — to truly manufacture the future.”

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ENQUIRY NO 101

Answers for industry.

BUSINESSNEWS

Faro Wins Technology Innovation Award

Singapore: Faro Technologies ha s won the Geospatial Technology Innovation Award

with its laser scanner Focus 3D X 330, a high-speed 3D scanner, at the Geospatial World Forum

2014 in Geneva, Switzerland on May 8, 2014.

The geospatial community considers the laser scanner a suitable tool for a variety of applications, including 3D modelling, as-built documentation, scene-of-crime recording, building surveys, as well as heritage preservation.

Designed with the user in mind, the equipment is a high-speed 3D laser scanner for detailed measurement and documentation that surpasses previous models in functionality and performance.

The device reduces the effort involved in measuring and postprocessing, and also boasts of increased measurement accuracy and better noise reduction.

World Diesel Engines Demand To Exceed US$248 Billion

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

Heavy trucks are driving diesel engine demand

Peter C, Kalisz, Poland

Cleveland, US: Global diesel engine sales are forecast to rise 7.7 percent per year through 2017 to US$248.5 billion, representing a ma rked acceleration from the 2007 - 2012 period, says a US - headqua r tered ma rket research firm.

Increased engine demand will be attributed to higher pro duc t ion of me diu m a nd heav y trucks and buses and off-highway machiner y. The rebound in light vehicle output in Western Europe and the growing popularity of diesel cars in a number of nations, most notably the US and India, will also add to that demand.

According to analyst Matthew Raskind of The Freedonia Group, the Asia/Pacific region was the largest user of diesel engines by a wide margin in 2012. He says it is due to Chinese, Indian, and Japanese markets, which represent three of the five largest national buyers of diesel engines on a global scale.

China and India will also be among the fastest expanding national markets through 2017,

spurred by rapidly climbing production of diesel-powered motor vehicles and off-highway machinery. Regional sales gains will be restrained to some degree by a sharp deceleration in the Japanese market, reflecting a drop in motor vehicle output as locally based automakers continue to boost manufacturing capacity overseas.

Demand for diesel engines will rebound in Western Europe, suppor ted by a recover y in the area's economy following the debt- related rece ssions experienced in a number of nations in 2012. Diesel light vehicles made in Western Europe are considered to be the gold

standard for diesel passenger cars, and an upturn in vehicle sales in the region, the growing popularity of these cars in the US, and rising incomes in several large developing countries will boost production levels.

North America will also see an increase in diesel engine sa le s g row th through 2017.

Value gains in North America w ill be concentrated in the large medium/heav y vehicle a nd o f f - h i g hway a nd ot he r mobile machiner y ma rkets, a n d w i l l b e s u p p o r te d b y improved economic conditions a n d g r e a te r i n v e s t m e n t i n construction a nd mining projects around the world. www.equipment-news.com

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ENQUIRY NO 106

BUSINESSNEWS

Posco Rated Most Competitive Steelmaker South Korea: Posco has been named as the most competitive s te e l m a ke r by Wo rl d S te e l Dynamics (WSD), a global steel specialised analysis institution.

The company was placed f i r st w it h a n ove ra l l score of 7.91 (out ot 10), receiving t he h i g he s t sco re s i n fo u r categories including technology innovation a nd H R ( Huma n Resource).

WSD evaluated 23 categories including production sca le, p r o f i t a b i l i t y, t e c h n o l o g y innovation, price decisiveness, cost sav ing a nd fina ncia l soundness.

Top 10 Steelmakers In Competitiveness

Ranking

Steelmaker

Score

1

Posco (South Korea)

7.91

2

Nucor (US)

7.55

3

NSSMC (Japan)

7.49

4

Gerdau (Brazil)

7.34

5

Severstal (Russia)

7.31

6

Novolipetsk Steel (Russia)

7.14

7

JSW Steel (India)

7.12

8

JFE (Japan)

7.10

9

Hyundai Steel (South Korea)

7.05

10

Erdemir (Turkey)

7.03

Studer To Give Out A Research Award Switzerland: Studer is awarding its research award, the Fritz Studer Award, for the fourth time in February 2015. The winner will get a prize money of CHF 10,000 (US$11,113), the Fritz Studer Award and a Certificate. This research award is directed to graduates with an engineering degree from any European University or Institute of Technology. Application deadline is October 31, 2014.

The organiser of the award hopes to promote and strengthen developments in the machine industry by means of innovative approaches. In addition, participation in this competition of ideas shall give young researchers a platform for showcasing the creative solution methods.

The organisation is looking for thesis and research results which contain: • Innovative machine concepts or components for machine tools in precision machining • Alternative materials in mechanical engineering • Simulation models of dynamic and thermal behaviour of machine tools

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

• Control and sensor concepts for machine tools • New or further developed manufacturing technologies, especially in hard-fine machining, such as grinding, hard turning, etc.

China Manufacturing PMI Showing Signs Of Stabilising China: After adjusting for seasonal factors, the HSBC PMI stood at 49.4 in May, down slightly from the earlier flash reading of 49.7, and up from 48.1 in April. The reading signalled only a marginal deterioration in business conditions. The health of the sector, however, has now deteriorated in each month of 2014 so far.

Manufacturers in China reported a fourth successive monthly fall in output during May. That said, the rate of contraction was only fractional.

According to obser vers, uncertain economic conditions led some firms to lower production

over the month. Total new business was unchanged in May, following a three - month sequence of reduction. Data suggested that muted domestic demand hindered overall new work wins, as new export orders rose at the fastest rate since April 2010.

Improving demand conditions led to an increased amount of purchasing activity in May, albeit only marginal. Nonetheless, it was the first time that input buying had increased in four months.

Stocks of purchases were relatively unchanged in May, ending a threemonth sequence of depletion.

Inventories of finished goods fell www.equipment-news.com

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BUSINESSNEWS for the first time in 2014 so far, though only slightly, as some companies increased their use of current stocks to meet new incoming orders.

Commenting on the China Manufacturing PMI survey, Hongbin Qu, chief economist, China & CoHead of Asian Economic Research at HSBC said: New orders stabilised, while new export orders recorded an impressive expansion of 53.2.

But growth momentum looked weaker than suggested in the flash reading as the stocks of finished goods index was revised up to 49.8 from 48.8 in the flash reading.

The final PMI reading for May confirmed that the economy is stabilising, but it is too early to say that it has bottomed out, particularly in light of a weaker property sector. The lack of a sustainable growth momentum warrants stronger policy support.

We expect both monetary and fiscal policy to be loosened gradually over the coming months.”

Embraer Delivers 500th Phenom Family Jet

São José dos Campos, Brazil: Embraer Executive Jets has delivered the 500th Phenom family jet, five-and-a-half years after entry into service of the first aircraft. According to the manufacturer, the jets are flown in 37 countries by 400 customers. The entire fleet in operation has accrued over 370,000 flight hours.

“The delivery of 500 Phenom jets in just over five years of operation validates our commitment to offer the market differentiating products and excellence in services,” said Marco Túlio Pellegrini, president and CEO, Embraer Executive Jets.

US Businesses Eclipsing The Rest Of The World: PwC London, UK: The US now boasts nearly half of the world’s 100 most valuable companies with 47 companies compared to 42 five years ago, and 33 in 2008, a PwC study has found.

T he re se a rch f i nds t hat between 2009 and 2014, the total market capitalisation of the world’s top 100 companies ballooned by more than six trillion dollars, an average increase of US$60 billion.

During the past five years, the total market cap of those surveyed grew 79 percent from US$8,402 billion to US$15,020 billion, while the threshold to enter the top 100 now stands at US$81 billion — more than 50 percent higher than it was in 2009.

Clifford Tompsett, capital markets partner at PwC, said: “What is truly remarkable is that the US has underlined its 24

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

domination of the ranking — now almost half the top 100 global companies are American.

“Without this financial clout and innovative drive, other companies in other regions will have their work cut out to compete with the US giants. This also explains why the large BRIC companies have slipped in our global rankings. However, the anticipated IPO of Alibaba later this year could see the return of Chinese companies challenging this US dominance.

“Also it is remarkable that three companies have directly entered the global top 100 via an IPO or spin off.”

Eurozone companies in the index held their position at 18 companies. The UK now has eight companies in the Top 100 compared to nine in 2009, and 10 in 2008.

The biggest fallers were the BRIC countries with companies from China a nd Hong Kong falling from 11 to 8 and the other BRIC nations falling from six to three.

This reflects current investor sentiment towards those markets and the fact that these companies have still to emerge beyond their domestic markets with a global presence, PwC says.

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Rushing For Time

Robert Proksa, Jaworzno, Poland

MAKING THE CUT

With the drive for greater productivity showing no signs of abating, speed seems to be the main area of development for many EDM machine manufacturers. By Michael E Neumann

T

he EDM space is in a rush, much like the rest of the ma nufacturing sector where time is money. In a world where productivity sells, there is no surprise that speed is a much-desired commodity.

This need for speed however, is somewhat more pronounced in the EDM world.

In machining, energy savings, accuracy and versatility are sometimes the main draw. In sheet metalworking, accuracy and the ability to cut through t h icker mater ia ls c a n b e a crowd puller. In the EDM world,

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

ever yone is ta lk ing about speed. It is not to say EDM equipment manufacturers have thrown accuracy or the ability to produce intricate parts out of the window, just that recent launches seem to suggest that they are now fighting in the same space — where only the fastest will prevail.

Quick Change The pursuit of shorter processing time transcends national borders and this passion for speed can be seen in the EDM equipment offerings from OEMs hailing from

Japan, Switzerland and Taiwan although they all have slightly different ways in presenting them.

Ta k i n g t h e m o r e s u b t l e approach is Ma k ino a nd GF Machining Solutions. Instead of loading their machines with more ‘horse power’ to boost cut t i n g sp e e d a nd shor te n cutting cycle, they have decided to cut processing time from elsewhere. Apparently, a good place to save time is during tool or wire changing.

Ma k ino’s EDBV3 machine features a tooling system that integrates both automatic tool www.equipment-news.com

MAKINGTHECUT cha nge a nd g uide cha ng ing into one common assembly.

Accord i n g to t he Jap a ne se builder, that system allows the change to take place within 30 seconds. With a seamless exchange system put in place, they claim that the machine is su itable for “u nat tende d productivity” in EDM hole drilling.

GF Machining Solutions has included the Automatic Wire Changer (AWC) in the Cut 2000 S a nd Cut 3 0 0 0 S w i re c ut EDM machines. They say the AWC paves the way to more versatility and process control because it allows the use of different diameter wires and wires of different materials.

This versatility has given rise to speed, perhaps the more salient point developers are trying to drive at here.

With the AWC, a main cut ca n b e done w it h a coate d wire or larger diameter wire to boost cutting speed. It can t he n auto m at ic a l l y c ha n ge for a trim cut with standard wire to reduce running costs.

Conversely, thin wire can now be used to cut thicker parts. For instance, a 80 mm-thick punch can now be efficiently cut with 0.1 mm wire when the main cut is done with a larger diameter wire. The result according to the machine ma ker is more power and more speed.

Raw Power While quick changes are good additions, a direct approach is favou re d by some ot her manufacturers. The AccuteX AL56SA wire EDM for instance, features a high-speed linear shaft motor.

Apart from the obvious speed advantage, the builder says the machine’s linear shaft technology does not produce backlash or lost motion, enabling precise linear and circular interpolation. www.equipment-news.com

In addition, they claim that there is no guideway friction a nd no resulting wear, making the machine “maintenance-free” in terms of its operations.

Contra r y to the exa mple a b o v e , sp e e d c a n a l s o b e generated by software programs.

In the case of Fanuc’s C400iA and C600iA Wire EDMs, they include the Ai Pulse Control II, which now offers better straightness and faster cutting speeds for both roughing and finishing in interrupted cuts.

Crossing The Finishing Line In A Shorter Time Finally, speed can be produced by simply completing the task faster.

That is the ethos adopted by Sodick’s SL400G and SL600G wire EDM machines. These machines feature a Smart Pulse Generator that reduces the number of cuts

necessary to achieve the required accuracy and surface finish. This reduction in machining time translates directly into a financial advantage.

The truth is there are many cre at ive ways to ma ke t he production of parts faster and the EDM segment will no doubt be on the constant lookout to introduce incremental changes, year in year out.

Whether they will continue their focus on speed is anyone’s guess but with the manufacturing world demanding productivity more than ever before, the smart money will be on EDM machine makers coming up with faster and more accurate machines.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5001 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Global EDM Market To Grow While Prices Fall

The automotive sector is one of the industries driving the EDM market Global EDM market is to grow at a CAGR of 7.28 percent over a five-year period starting from 2013, says a technology research and advisory company. TechNavio adds in their analysis that one of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increasing need for complex designs in industries such as automotive, medical devices, and machine shop applications.

Two other possible factors for this growth is the decreasing prices of EDMs (more than 70 percent in the last decade for high-quality models) and the rising demand, leading to increase in production.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5002 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

27

MAKINGTHECUT machined on graphite electrodes which are impossible to replicate in copper.

For better or worse, the ability to produce intricate and accurate parts has created an impression that EDM is used for small parts.

There are a few machines in the market today that will suggest otherwise.

EDM:

Keeping Up With Times

Arguably one of the ‘legacy’ technologies available in metalworking today, EDM is constantly improving to stay relevant. By Augustine Quek

K

nown as a non-contact process, EDM is known to produce small parts with burr-free edges due to the lack of cutting forces.

With today’s technology, intricate details and superior finishes can be achieved with minimum operator intervention.

On top of that, there is an

28

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

emerging occurrence that sees graphite added to the mix.

Apparently they ensure a more reliable EDM process, leading to more homogenous surface finishes on machined parts, and it is also more thermally-stable than copper, which results in improved accuracies. Very high aspect ratio features and details can be

Available For Large Size EDM is not confined only to small parts that can be intricately produced, large workpieces and parts can also be worked with EDM. The ONA AF130 model, part of the ONA AF EDM series, can machine parts weighing up to 10,000 kg with sizes up to 2,450 x 2,000 x 700 mm. The machine’s X, Y and Z axes measure 2,000 mm, 1,300 mm and 700 mm.

Sodick’s AQ1200L can handle a maximum work-piece weight of 4,000 kg and maximum workpiece dimensions of 1,600 x 1,200 x 400 mm. Its X/Y/Z axis travel is 1,200 x 800 x 400 mm (Z= 600 mm optional) with U/V axis travel of 1,220 x 820 mm. The system employs a direct-drive, frictionless and vibration-free mechanism and a glass-scale feedback to provide true machine positioning, with the scales mounted on the moving axes, enabling them to consistently measure machine accuracy.

Other standard features of the AQ1200L include the recycle circuit that saves on energy costs by recycling unused discharged pulses, as well as the electrolysisfree circuit that eliminates oxidation and improves part straightness.

Did You Know?

The basic principle of the EDM was first observed by Joseph Priestly in 1770. He noticed that electrical discharges had removed material from the electrodes in his experiments.

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MAKINGTHECUT Going Green EDM has also become more ‘environmentally conscious’ n o w, w i t h e n e rg y - e f f i c i e n t models part of the manufacturing landscape now.

For instance, some wire EDMs can be put into a ‘sleep mode’ which reduces consumption.

One example is the ONA AF Modular range, which has an option called the ecological ONA Aqua Prima filtering system. The system does not need filtering cartridges, and the filtering elements used are calibrated mineral particles that are not lost or expendable, and do not need replacement throughout the filter’s life.

When Things Get Complicated EDM die-sinking has a reputation of being the manufacturing process for complex geometries for advanced applications in the aerospace and power sectors.

In these sectors, the design of the latest generation of turbine and pump rotors poses many manufacturing challenges including simultaneously increasing power

For better or worse, the ability to produce intricate and accurate parts has created an impression that EDM is used for small parts. There are a few machines in the market today that will suggest otherwise.

output while reducing emissions.

This has resulted in designs incorporating the transportation of more aggressive and higher volumes of gas and steam, which has therefore driven the development of ever-more resistant alloys. The unfortunate thing here is that these alloys are more difficult to machine using conventional methods.

Sodick, in collaboration with Jauchschmider, has developed the Multiple Erosion Head and Sodick AG60L for the production of complex 3D cavities as the Sodick EDM has also become ‘greener’ in recent years.

multi-axis controller rotates and controls the movement of seven axes simultaneously. The seven-axis die-sink EDM solution can control the movement of a twisted electrode so that it penetrates the workpiece in a corkscrew-like motion to create components with twisted, closedchannel, helix geometries.

According to the manufacturer, these closed-channel forms reduce the loading on the blade walls as well as reducing the wear on pump rotors and seals, particularly when working with ‘super-alloys’.

Other advances include single setup operation, automatic dielectric level, enhanced anti-rust and anticorrosive properties.

Conclusion There is no running away from the fact that the machining speed of EDM still lags behind many other processes. In addition, it has low metal removal rates compared to processes such as chip machining, and requires long lead times to produce specific, consumable electrode shapes. Therefore, greater speed and faster time-tomarket will be important for future developments.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5003 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

29

SHOP TALK

B

ack in early 2012, FAW Jiefang Automotive began operating a production plant for the manufacture of heavy-duty diesel engines in Huishan, China. Production at the plant is now characterised by modern manufacturing processes and production equipment.

All lines stand out for their flexibility, efficiency, adapted d e g re e o f a u t o m a t i o n a n d continuous flow of information.

Robots and machines for the assembly line are strictly selected according to the principle of ‘high reliability, high flexibility, high efficiency and high profitability’.

Weighing up to 700 kg, the need to rotate the cylinder block of a 6DM diesel engine (for example, for the assembly of a cylinder bank, crankshaft and oil pan) presented a particular challenge on the assembly line at that time. Conventional handling with rotary and lifting devices were not possible due to space requirements and a lack of efficiency. “ I n o rd e r t o g u a r a n t e e production capacity and quality,

30

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

Lending A

Helping Hand Industrial robots are used in the manufacture of heavyduty diesel engines in China. Contributed by Ong Tze Yih, chief sales officer, KUKA Robot Automation (Malaysia) robots had to perform this work.

For the handling of the cylinder block, one robot can take the place of at least four rotary and lifting devices as well as all of the personnel,” says You Xuejun, chief planner for the project at Tianyong Mechatronics (Shanghai), the general contractor for the assembly line.

The combination of a workpiece weighing between 500 and 700 kg and a 200 kg gripper means only a heavy-duty robot with a 1,000 kg payload capacity can be considered for this task.

With a maximum reach of 3,202 mm, a repeatability of ±0.1 mm and a payload range of 1,000 kg, the KR 1000 titan from KUKA was selected for the job.

Using Robots For A Range Of Tasks Today, a total of five KUKA robots perform tasks on the diesel engine assembly line. Two of them are taking on sealing applications while the others are responsible for heavy handling and assembly operations.

Without a doubt, the robots are the highlight of the assembly line: They perform their tasks efficiently, in a flexible manner and with reliability. One example comes from the installation of flywheels: With a payload capacity of 210 kg and a reach of 2,700 mm, the six-axis KR 210 can position the flywheel in handshake mode without damaging any surfaces. www.equipment-news.com

SHOPTALK

Efficient High-Volume Assembly Despite the short cycle times and the high dynamic performance re q u i re d , t h e ro b o t s w o r k precisely and carefully.

“Particularly during the assembly of the flywheel and crankshaft, the utmost precision is required. The robots must install the heavy components, at times applying a great amount of force, while causing no damage to these important parts. Using robots have allowed us to achieve a high level of quality from the assembly line with a defect rate of zero,” says Mr You. The intelligent system layout with the KUKA island station (in a double-X design) allows for shorter paths within the complete assembly line, reducing the number of work carriers, increasing the efficiency of the assembly line and reducing the investment costs.

The assembly line at the XichaiHuishan plant has one of www.equipment-news.com

the highest degrees of automation in the production of heavy-duty engines in China. And, following a phase of optimisation, the assembly line has a production output of 125,000 units a year, exceeding the 100,000 called for in the original planning. According to FAW Jiefang, this means that the

production line has the highest capacity and shortest cycle time among manufacturers of heavyduty diesel engines worldwide.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5101 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Where Else Can You Find Industrial Robots?

Industrial robots have a wide range of application that is growing every day. Some popular applications are in handling, welding and assembly. Away from these areas, there are other unconventional usages for industrial robots.

Let robots do the writing.

Mirko Tobias Schaefer (Robot Writer) ht tps://w w w.flickr.com/photos/ gastev/2174504149 (Slight colour adjustment, moderate adjustment to Levels, Brightness and Contrast, Shadows and Highlights, converted colour space to CMYK)

The highlight at the XichaiHuishan plant is the KR 1000. It uses its size and performance to handle cylinder blocks from a special island station. As soon as the cylinder block, weighing 500 kg before assembly, reaches the work island, the robot picks it up under sensor control and sets it down on a workpiece carrier.

From here, the cylinder block passes through several work steps, including the installation of connecting rods, cylinders, oil pans, etc. During this assembly work, the robot must rotate the cylinder block exactly 90 degrees at a defined point. Upon completion, the cylinder block — now weighing 700 kg — is brought back to the island station where the robot picks it up and performs a 180-degree rotation to set it down on the workpiece carrier. The block then continues its journey through the assembly line.

Amusement Rides Hop onto a robot arm for a good time. People can now experience the full extent of six-axis movement at certain trade shows. Not everyone will have the stomach for this though.

Medical Industry Remember how a robot fixed up Luke Skywalker’s hand in Star Wars? Robot arms are being deployed in surgery here on Earth. There is a robotic radiosurgery system used to carry out surgery for the treatment of tumours.

Motion Pictures Terminator and Iron Man, what do these two movies have in common? Both are blockbusters in their own right but industrial robots were also featured in these two films.

Watch it again and try spotting them.

Hospitality Business The Yotel hotel in New York can be very proud of their robotic luggage concierge. Just key in the right numbers and the robot arm will help you put your bag away. All part of the automated check-in system.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5102 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

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SHOPTALK masts and rigging systems for racing yachts, luxury cruisers and super yachts.

In the automotive space, one Portuguese company is using the PowerMill Robot to machine plugs and moulds with a Motoman robot for the manufacture of automotive composite components.

Program A Robot As If It Were A NC Machine We take a look at how programming an industrial robot can be less tedious. By Joson Ng

I

nvolving industrial robots in the manufacturing process is not something new or radical these days. Likewise, machining composite materials is no longer an exotic endeavour. Combining the two however, is something that is getting people excited.

While it is easy to see why people put industrial robots into the realm of composite material machining, this move has its fair share of challenges. Especially from the CAM point of view, these

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obstacles must be tackled head-on and fast in order for the increasing number of marriages between robots and composite machining to go smoothly.

“We have seen an increased use of robotic milling within the composites sector,” said Mark Forth, advanced manufacturing product manager of Delcam. He said one customer from New Zealand is using the PowerMill to program KUKA robots for the manufacture of leading edge

Ironing Out The Differences With more industries using robots to handle composite materials, it is only natural that any chink in the link between the machining toolpath and robotic movement should be ironed out. This is exactly what the CAM solutions developer is doing.

“What’s important is that we have a seamless link between the toolpaths being generated and the ability to accurately simulate them on the device being driven. Delcam’s robotic solution allows the user to both program and simulate in a single interface; having full control over the complete process and more importantly giving users the confidence to run parts first time,” said Mr Forth.

He added that his company has made some improvements to the postprocessor engine that has enabled the engine to support interruptions. Called point parameters, these improvements allow users to instruct the device being controlled to switch on or off the laser or milling spindle, change the power output or beam diameter at any point in the toolpath to better control the end effector attached to the robot.

Did You Know?

Pacific Forest, a wood processing company based in Singapore has improved efficiency and productivity by 200 percent by using ABB robots without third-party translation software.

www.equipment-news.com

SHOPTALK Better Usability With better control, the machining aspect is satisfied.

However, programming robots is notoriously challenging and the CAM solution provider has developed an interface to make things a little less tedious for programmers.

“Programming robots has traditionally been a complex and labourious process. Robots can be programmed using teach-andlearn methods or via third party translation software programs, but these require a lot of fine tuning to achieve the perfect path,” said Mr Forth.

According to him, the PowerMill Robot Interface allows the programming of robots with up to 12 axes as easy as one could program a five-axis NC machine.

In addition, 3D simulation is available to show exactly how the robot will behave.

All in all, having one integrated solution also reduces: the overall costs of a robotic solution; the training requirements and the support overhead. Finally, with a third-party translation software, the user has to go back into the CAM product to rethink the strategy if a problem is found in the simulation. Avoiding these it seems, can be quite advantageous.

Conclusion Industrial robots and CAM programs are both important inventions in the modern manufacturing world. While they excel individually, there is no reason why they cannot work well together.

By providing a bridge for the two technologies to combine in a more user friendly way could well be the key in making good things great.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5103 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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Four Interesting Applications For Industrial Robots Mark Forth shares with Asia Pacific Metalworking Equipment News the more quirky applications of industrial robots.

• CNC Robotics used PowerMill Robot when commissioned by Cadbury to showcase their chocolate products at Hyde Park during the 2012 London Olympic Games. Cadbury amazed onlookers with their chocolate machining KUKA robot producing 18 inch replicas of iconic London landmarks such as ‘The Shard’, ‘Big Ben’ and ‘The Gherkin’, as well as the Olympic mascots Wenlock and Mandeville.

• Weta Workshop (New Zealand) used PowerMill to program a seven-axis car assembly robot for manufacturing large-scale sculpture pieces for films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as high-end collectibles and fine-art bronzes.

• CNC Polystyrene (UK) used the software program to create small scale bespoke sculptures and models, all the way up to larger than life props and structures. Clients include Gap, Next, Endemol, BBC, Harrods, Mattel, De Longhi, Sky TV, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and the British Library

• Garner Holt (USA), a manufacturer of animatronics, special effects and show action equipment for theme parks, museums and restaurants, used PowerMill to manufacture dinosaurs, cartoon characters and other animated figures with their KUKA RMC100-80.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5104 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

33

DESIGN & MEASUREMENT Industrial Machinery In Southeast Asia To Take

A Digital

Manufacturing Path

Manufacturers in this region should know that digital manufacturing is an important component within PLM and it is a tool to help them stay relevant and competitive.

By Rajiv Ghatikar, VP and GM, ASEAN and Australasia, Siemens PLM Software

T

he highly fragmented global industrial mac h i ne r y ma rke t is fina lly show ing sig ns of improvement. The top four players, comprising of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, IHI Corporation, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and MAN hold about 14 percent of the overall global market value.

In Southea st A sia across countries such a s Vietna m, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines, the industrial machinery industry (traditionally made up of the mould, tool and die sectors) is projected to

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capture a larger share of global trade over the next 10 years as their expansion outpaces that of developed nations.

However, generating growth is simply not enough in today’s highly competitive market. Increasing global competition and market demands from the aerospace and defence, mining, power generation a nd automobile indust r ie s, require these Southeast Asian manufacturers to continuously innovate and optimise their products, ex tending today’s innovation process beyond its traditional boundaries.

It is a necessity to look at continuous innovation which has become a core driver of growth, performance, and valuation, because if the global trend is anything to go by, manufacturers w ill find themselve s facing an increasing number of new challenges and requirements leading to the decline in growth.

Meeting The Challenges One such requirement is the demand for more flexible machine tool designs that can be rapidly adapted to new products, as well as for machines that can be easily integrated into existing plants. Another crucial challenge re qu i re s m a nu fac t u re r s to drastically reduce the time it takes to develop new industrial equipment, while ensuring that these machines can operate at close to 100 percent uptime.

Equally important, major demographic changes over the next decade, such as ageing and retirement of the current workforce, will create large gaps in the workforce especially in Southeast Asia.

Given these challenges, how can manufacturers ensure profitable growth and maintain margins in a globally competitive environment?

How will manufacturers deal with the increasing pressure to improve operational performance while meeting escalating customer re qu irement s a nd mu lt iple configurations?

At The Forefront Of Technology Manufacturers in Southeast Asia must be at the forefront of adopting upcoming trend innovations and new technologies, as well as PLM solutions to enable them to flourish in this complex business environment.

Success requires companies to facilitate open innovation, enable collaboration both inside and outside organisational borders, www.equipment-news.com

DESIGN&MEASUREMENT and instil discipline across their lifecycle processes. At present, Siemens PLM provides a PLM platform designed for industrial machinery manufacturers that unifies both the product and production lifecycles. This PLM solution for industrial machinery sets the pace for a future vision that delivers a new level of value to Southeast Asian manufacturers.

By shifting the design and development of manufacturing processes upstream to interlock product design and development on a n op e n PL M plat for m, manufacturers realise immediate productivity. The solution also improves efficiency, reduces ramp -up time in production through virtual design and better upfront validation, resulting in shorter commissioning times and a more efficient output.

Digital Manufacturing Path S i e m e n s PL M s o lu t i o n fo r industrial machinery connects design, engineering, a nd manufacturing, so the product design and development proce ss is globa lly u nified and manufacturing becomes collaborative and strategic. The end result enables manufacturers in Southeast Asia to make smarter decisions and better products.

However, above and beyond PLM solutions, Southeast Asian manufacturers have to be flexible in deploying new strategies led by innovative technology waves such as digital manufacturing to remain highly competitive across the region and the world.

T h i s te c h n o l o g y i s fa s t becoming a preferred choice for manufacturers all over the world as the quest to reduce capital expenditure, shorten lead times, and boost productivity is expected to spur investments in digital manufacturing. The heightened emphasis on product innovation will catalyse manufacturers to cultivate a digital manufacturing www.equipment-news.com

Digital manufacturing strategy is adopted to improve quality and innovation.

p a t h to e n su re co n si s te nt business profitability. Therefore, manufacturers in Southeast Asia must take notice and be vigilant about looking to the future.

Bolstering The Industrial Machinery Industry Digital manufacturing is the use of an integrated, computerba sed system comprised of simulation, 3D visualisation, analytics and various collaboration tools to create product a nd ma nufacturing process definitions s i m u l t a n e o u s l y. D i g i t a l

manufacturing evolved from manufacturing initiatives such as Design For Manufacturability ( DFM ), Computer- Integrated Manufacturing (CIM ), flexible manufacturing, lean manufacturing and others that highlight the need for more co l l a b o r a t i v e p ro du c t a n d process design.

The digital manufacturing industry has been identified as a strong growth segment for the total PLM market. According to CIMdata, digital manufacturing is forecast to grow at a rate of 7.5 percent over the next five years Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

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DESIGN&MEASUREMENT

to reach US$754 million in 2017.

Realising the potential of this strategy, many manufacturers were fast to be early adopters of digital manufacturing.

One such company is Hitachi Construction Machiner y. To preserve its industry reputation, Hitachi implemented a digital m a nu fac t u r i n g s t ra te g y to improve quality and innovation.

The company was looking to manage data throughout the product development process within a synchronised managed development environment as they maintain a close-knit collaboration with locations outside Japan while initiating global design operations.

Additionally, the company wanted to establish a secure information sharing infrastructure that will support global expansion and collaboration.

Deploying a digital manufacturing strategy to achieve synchronised management of pro du c t dat a a nd pro ce s s knowledge, the company achieved shorter lead times for handling higher design volumes, real-time design made possible by effective data sharing, elimination of errors common with manual data transfer, increased product quality 36

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

and more importantly higher levels of innovation in overall product development.

For many companies, digital manufacturing improves design quality and product manufacturing speed throughout the lifetime of a product. With the help of this software, manufacturing processes can be improved at any given stage (conceptual, production, maintenance or service).

Additionally, the software helps in cost saving, increasing business and market value. It improves collaboration between research and development units, ma nufacturers, distribution cha nnels a nd customer communities, which increases effectivene ss of feedback loops (distribution channels and customers).

However, many of the longterm benefits from PLM cannot be achieved without a comprehensive digital manufacturing strategy.

Digital manufacturing is a key point of integration between PLM and various shop floor applications and equipment, enabling the exchange of productrelated information between d e si g n a n d m a nu fa c t u r i n g groups. This alignment allows

manufacturing companies to achieve their time -to -market and volume goals, as well as realise cost savings by reducing expensive downstream changes.

Going Digital C u r r e n t l y, t h e d i g i t a l manufacturing pursuit is more aligned towards large enterprises.

Small and medium businesses do not achieve adequate returno n - i nve st me nt s whe n t he y adopt digital manufacturing.

Nevertheless, the trend towards product innovation across all end-user segments will boost market prospects and a wellplanned digital manufacturing strateg y has been shown to provide significant benefits.

While digital manufacturing is an important component within PLM, all manufacturers should be aware of this strategy especially in the Southeast Asia region.

Manufacturers must continously look to new innovations to stay relevant and competitive across the Asian and global market.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5201 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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TÜV SÜD PSB Pte. Ltd. 1 Science Park Drive Singapore 118221 Tel: +65 6778 7777 Email: enquiries@tuv-sud-psb.sg www.tuv-sud-psb.sg ENQUIRY NO 111

DESIGN&MEASUREMENT

PLM:

There Is More Than Meets The Eye Peter A Bilello, president of CIMdata gives his thoughts on PLM, the IoT and metalworking equipment innovation.

M

any excellent articles have been written about how Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) supports the rapid development of innovative products. PLM can be especially helpful to product developers who compete via new features and advanced functionality. On a less obvious note, PLM can be vital in developing new versions of standardised, or ‘commodity’, products that compete primarily on price and delivery.

Until recently, most PLM articles have been explanatory.

They seek to expand PLM’s presence in the ver y largest Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). CIMdata (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) see that the focus of PLM strategies and implementations is expanding toward Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs).

focus on lifecycle management in metalworking equipment is headed in two directions: • Downward in the enterprise to all the systems in design, engineering, manufacturing, field service units, compliance and so on. These essential ‘silos of expertise’ are sometimes unfairly disparaged as ‘legacy systems’. Dealing with them is the core of every PLM implementation and accounts for much of its total project cost.

• Forward into the near future as concerns about resource availability gain parity with traditional worries about the next blockbuster product and sustaining the business in the Circular Economy.

A glance at these bullet points shows that adopting PLM should be just common sense and relatively straightforward.

PLM strategies can be built up from existing information management systems in product development, engineering, and manufacturing. They can be powerfully enhanced by the enterprise-level capabilities i n I n f o r m a t i o n Te c h n o l o g y operations.

Agreement is now widespread that managing lifecycles could provide great potential value to any business. Moreover, the means to do so has been around for a long time — during half or more of the careers of today’s decision makers — but SMBs and smaller enterprises often resist new technology.

Lifecycle experts note that the fragmented structure of the metalworking equipment industry contributes to this slow adoption.

PLM For SMBs To date, lifecycle management has been most effective in very large, ver tically integrated enterprises where decisions are driven by complex internal processes. In sharp contrast, the large majority of the companies that make the world’s metalworking equipment are relatively small, intensely entrepreneurial, and a tough sell for PLM, at least to this point.

We see this changing. The new 38

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www.equipment-news.com

DESIGN&MEASUREMENT Peter A Bilello

A spot check with leading PLM solution providers reveals minimal penetration in Asia Pacific metalworking equipment builders.

Asia-Pacific Metalworking Equipment: Minimal PLM Penetration Is lifecycle management happening? Apparently yes, but only sporadically.

A spot check with leading PLM solution providers reveals minimal penetration in Asia Pacific metalworking equipment builders. A few dramatic successes have, however, been publicised: • Shanghai Baosteel Industry Technological Services uses S i e m e n s P L M S o f t w a r e ’s Te a m c e n t e r t o m a n a g e Maintenance/Repair/ O v e rh a u l ( M R O ) a n d f o r troubleshooting in its steel mill continuous caster.

• Oguma Industr y in Japan u s e s C a t i a P L M E x p re s s from Dassault Systèmes to develop metalworking jigs for automotive components and medical equipment. The company repor ts that 80 percent of its design process for jigs is now automated, that design time has been cut 40 percent, and that it handles 50 percent more orders.

• Hitachi Metals uses Innovator PLM solution from Aras Corp to manage complex structure relationships in mass flow controllers used for fluids and gases in industrial processes. www.equipment-news.com

A plus, Hitachi notes, is Aras support for doublebyte languages (Japanese, Chinese, Korean) in its user interface and data.

• G u a n g x i Yu c h a i G ro u p i n C h i n a u s e s Te a m c e n t e r to manage engineering, track design changes, and consolidate R&D for more than 2,000 engines.

T h e re i s m o re l i f e c y c l e management than meets the eye. Some builders have quietly implemented PLM but decline to let their solution providers spread the news. Other builders are known to have developed lifecycle management capabilities in-house.

One often cited reason for delaying PLM is a misperception — that lifecycle management is a time-consuming and costly undertaking. In our consulting and market analysis practices, we can attest that PLM does not have to be.

Lifecycle experts note that the fragmented structure of the metalworking equipment industr y contributes to this slow adoption. Among the industries that build complex, high precision, high-value, long-lived industrial products, lifecycle management has penetrated deeply. Real-world benefits and tangible cost savings appear continually and

grow steadily.

Against these industry giants, the builders of metalworking equipment stand out just because there are so many of them. Metalworking equipment companies have been much slower to consolidate and may never become a handful of sprawling enterprises such as those dominating other industries.

Unlike the marketplaces of nearly all other ‘big ticket’ industrial goods, there are more than 150 metalworking equipment builders worldwide.

(There may be many more but industry data is incomplete).

Each of the 20 largest builders h a s a n n u a l re v e n u e s f ro m metalworking equipment of more than US$1 billion. However, nearly half of these firms have revenues under US$200 million with nearly 90 under US$100 m i l l i o n p e r y e a r. I n d u s t r y analysts generally agree that SMB revenues are US$500 million a year or less. Numbers are from Gardner Business Media’s Machine Tool Scoreboard.

Lifecycle management in metalworking equipment is challenged by a second form of fragmentation: the customer base. Metalworking equipment is bought by every industrial enterprise on the planet from ultra-modern factories in the industrialised nations to millions of small shops in the Third World.

Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

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DESIGN&MEASUREMENT dots, which has not yet been automated to any useful extent.

It is why the IoT exists. The IoT connects all of these devices and sensors into a parallel edition of the World Wide Web. Without uncovering or building connections, most of the IoT data may otherwise be useless.

With IoT fully established, its analytics can help provide metalworking equipment builders with assistance especially when metalworking equipment is frequently retooled, modified, rebuilt, and adapted.

The Evolving Internet Of Things High-end metalworking equipment is extremely complex so the need of its builders for PLM verges on the obvious. A low-risk way into lifecycle management may well be the ongoing computerisation of the users of metalworking equipment. Long-established factory floor digital networks are being rolled up into the Internet of Things (IoT), even in the Third World.

A t t h e r i s k o f oversimplification, this is because lifecycle management thrives on connectivity and rich diets of information that come with it. A look at this is revealing.

Internet insiders predict that by 2020 — just a few years from now — some 50 billion devices will be connected.

If these devices average 20 sensors each, a trillion sensors will soon be feeding data nonstop into the IoT. The 50 billion prediction is from Cisco Systems, whose switches and routers are the digital backbone 40

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

of much of the Internet. The trillion forecast is from the October 2013 TSensors Summit on ultrahigh-volume embedded sensors; the T is for trillion.

A l a rg e s h a r e o f t h e s e connected sensors — hundreds of billions of them — will be in factories monitoring the status of metalworking equipment.

For metalworking equipment builders, product information from engineering departments and users (upstream as well as downstream) will finally be available to support innovation.

This will be leveraged by data mining and predictive analytics in the Cloud.

A fundamental of the IoT is exponential expansion. Its digital data gushers have been labelled tsunamis and, more recently, ‘fog’. But labels can be misleading as well as daunting.

The key to managing all this is not merely collecting data; that was automated years ago and has yet to be digitally overwhelmed by the growth of Big Data.

The key is connecting the

Lifecycle Management’s Two Big Challenges In ever y implementation of lifecycle management there are two overriding challenges.

The first is upstream, gathering all of a machine’s o r s y s t e m ’s i n f o r m a t i o n from concept, ideation and requirements definition through engineering and manufacturing.

Ever y producer of complex, high-value, long-lived goods does this with systems for P ro d u c t D a t a M a n a g e m e n t (PDM) and/or Electronic Document Management (EDM).

Some of these systems are still tended by hand and eye (‘manual’ or legacy systems), but most were computerised long ago.

Filling in the blanks in PDM and EDM is easy compared to the second challenge — discerning what happens to metalworking equipment downstream, in the hands of owners and users.

For an innovative builder of metalworking equipment, downtime and its causes are the most valuable information that can be gleaned from owners and users. (Data on accidents and injuries is a close second).

Unfortunately for metalworking equipment builders, what happens in the field (usually) stays in the field — to paraphrase the promoters of US gambling capital Las Vegas. Gathering this kind of downstream information is problematic in every industry. As noted, the problem is magnified in metalworking equipment by www.equipment-news.com

HAIMER Power Mill: Maximum metal removal rate – a quantum leap into the next milling dimension.

Tooling Technology Shrinking Technology

Balancing Technology

Measuring Instruments

Haimer Asia Pacific Ltd. | Technical Center Indonesia | Alam Sutera Town Center, Block 10F, No. 28 | Serpong - Tangerang, 15326 Phone +6221-2900-8575 and +6221-8030-2528 | E-Mail: support@haimer-asia.com | www.haimer-asia.com

ENQUIRY NO 110

Elementa1, Slovakia

DESIGN&MEASUREMENT

Once the IoT is fully established, its analytics can help provide metalworking equipment builders with after-the-sale help in developing innovations.

its unwieldy customer base.

Once the IoT is fully established, its analytics can help provide metalworking equipment builders with a great deal of after-the-sale help in developing innovations.

As an example, metalworking equipment is frequently retooled, modified, rebuilt, and adapted. Machines get new sensors, axis drives, ball screws, spindle drives, servomotors, and other electrical components; mechanical bar feeders, robotic loaders / unloaders; inspection systems; safety interlocks; CNC controller retrofits; and more.

To f u r t h e r c o m p l i c a t e matters, these tasks are handled by an ever-changing roster of people — dozens of application engineers, third-party service providers, and the users themselves. Ser vice records may not keep pace, meaning that some of this lifecycle information may never get back to the original builder.

With the IoT and lifecycle management fully connected, 42

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

data pointing toward useful innovations can be more readily s h a re d w i t h m a c h i n e t o o l builders. Missed opportunities for innovation may become things of the past.

In some companies (not just metalworking equipment builders) ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ people may not communicate well. When that is the case, even profound insights may not even be recognised.

As the IoT matures, these information disconnects should fade away. In the meantime, widespread use of PLM components such as EDM and PDM is probably less chaotic than it sounds. Nevertheless, poorly managed PDM and EDM systems waste engineers’ time by forcing them into tedious searches for information. These difficulties reveal more of a need for better data governance than for better technology.

Timing & Opportunity A significant opportunity awaits metalworking equipment

companies as they learn to better manage the lifecycles of their products. It is unquestionable that when any technology has low penetration, first movers secure competitive advantages by getting out in front of the industry adoption curves. In lifecycle management, CIMdata measures this process with its maturity models.

When a technology seems to lag, hindsight often indicates that the benefits were poorly understood or (at the time) deemed less than completely credible. It is therefore appropriate to look at the future of metalworking equipment in terms of the real-world benefits that can be extracted from PLM. With each passing year, the IoT will be a more powerful resource.

Even in the fast changing digital world, a set of tools this powerful may appear only once in a lifetime, or in a career.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5202 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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23rd International Sheet Metal Working Technology Exhibition

Sheet metal, Tube, Sections

Handling

Finished products, Parts, Assemblies Joining, Welding

Machine elements

Surface treatment

Safety at work

Forming

Separation, Cutting

Flexible sheet metal working Tube / Section working

Tools, Dies

Composites

Data capture / processing

Controlling, Regulating, Measuring, Inspection

Research and development CAD/CAM systems

Factory and warehouse equipment

Environment protection, Recycling

www.euroblech.com

ENQUIRY NO 108

21 - 25 October 2014

Hanover, Germany

FABRICATOR'S NOTE

C

arefully placing a tube on fixtures and probing the tube gently while hoping to maintain accuracy is a tough act to follow, not to mention a potential time-consuming exercise.

Minute movements of the part can be a real show stopper and a major source of frustration in tactile measurement. With every curse word uttered in the measuring room seen as a fuel to drive innovators to come up with something better, they have responded with optical technology.

While there is no question that optical technology can mitigate certain problems associated with tactile measurements, it can potentially provide its unique head scratching moments as operators try to make sense of the measurement data. The pros and cons of an optical measuring system can be debated at length.

However, when someone says

44

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

Camera & LED Technologies

Illuminate Tube Inspection A wire and tube optical measurement machine developer claims they can add more speed and provide higher accuracy to the measuring process. By Joson Ng tube measurements can now be done faster, more accurately and with better repeatability, it may be worthwhile to take an interest.

Using Cameras Currently, tube measurement is possible with various handheld probes that are portable.

However, Günter Suilmann, director sales (TubeInspect) of Aicon 3D Systems has pointed out optical tube measurement based

on camera technologies has an edge over them.

“The optical tube measurement based on camera technologies allows the capture of a whole tube within milliseconds. Compared to a measurement with handheld probes, the results are more accurate,” he said.

Using TubeInspect P8, a 3D tube and wire measurement system to illustrate, he said the system is able to measure not only straight www.equipment-news.com

FABRICATOR'SNOTE

The measurement capacity can be expanded.

segments, but generate more than 1,000 measurement points along the whole contour of a tube. In addition, the results are independent of any user influence and up to five times more precise and repeatable than tactile measuring systems. He added that the system is able to measure flat bending angle and freeformed contours.

In terms of application, it is suitable for measuring the diameters of tubes and wires from 1 mm up to 125 mm. The system measures with an accuracy of up to 0.035 mm. The measurement area of 1,000 mm x 600 mm x 400 mm covers 3D measurements of objects of up to 1 m in length. However, even longer tubes and wires can be measured without problems. The lateral doors allow for overlapping repositioning, section by section.

This makes it possible to measure components with an end-to-endlength of up to 2 m.

Light Speed The speed of the optical system is obviously its main strength.

After all, what can be faster than light? Once the tube is placed in the measuring cell, the cameras go to work.

“An illuminated measuring plate in the cell ensures that all parts of the tube are ideally visible. The digital cameras are positioned above the measuring plate and acquire images of the tube from different directions.

Evenly distributed reference points on the measuring plate guarantee the correct spatial orientation of the cameras,” said Mr Suilmann.

The orientation of the cameras is crucial as he explained their positions are defined accurately to a hundredth of a millimetre during the installation of the system. For the TubeInspect P8, this process is repeated eight Optical tube measurement technology looks set to capture more market share as it has the ability to simplify the measuring process.

times as there are eight cameras in the system, an ideal number, according to him.

“This is an optimum arrangement. The number of cameras is specifically based on the requirement. (With it) the customer should be able to measure any geometry in a few seconds and not to leave out some segments, which might not be visible because the system is not equipped with enough cameras,” he said.

Future Trends Optical tube measurement technology looks set to capture more market share as it has the ability to simplify the measuring process. This can help reduce the number of mechanical gauges and subsequently the setup time, which eventually leads to lower cost.

The automotive and aerospace industries will also drive up requirements in tube measurements globally, giving optical tube measurement technology providers an opportunity to have their products more widely adopted, particularly in the regions of Asia and South America.

With the new generation of the tube measurement system that is believed to be more compact and flexible, it is easy to see them play a larger role in wire and tube measurement.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5301 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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FABRICATOR'SNOTE

Bend Towards The Sky

British Airways

Advanced tube bending technology is helping British Airways maintain its latest-generation aircraft. By Alan Pickering, MD of Unison

T

o maximise operational efficiency, British Airways ma inta ins its f leet of aircraft in-house. The loss of revenue resulting from the grounding of a modern aircraft can be astronomical, making fastturnaround MRO capabilities vital to economic performance.

The airline has embarked on a major upgrade to its fleet of long-haul aircraft, which is set to include the addition of Boeing 787 Dreamliners and Airbus A380 superjumbos over the next 10 years. The introduction of these latest-generation aircraft poses numerous new cha llenges for t he a irline’s repa ir a nd maintenance personnel.

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Fabricating Replacement Tubes One a re a t hat is re ceiv ing pa r t icu la r at te nt ion is t he fabrication of replacement rigid hydraulic tubes. The central hydraulic systems of Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 aircraft operate at 5,000 psi — most commercial aircraft have 3,000 psi systems — to allow use of smaller and lighter hydraulic components.

Much of the interconnecting hydraulic pipework is manufactured from specialist aerospace materials such as titanium alloy, using thick tube walls to accommodate the high working pressures; a 25 mm hydraulic tube for an aileron

actuator, for example, would typically have a wall thickness of 2.5 mm.

Fabricating replacement high pressure hydraulic tubes from these materials economically — without generating expensive scrap — and to the very high quality and safety standards demanded by the aerospace industr y requires precision b e nd i n g a nd me a su re me nt equipment, backed by applicationspecific knowledge.

Solutions Provider The airline eventually called on Unison to supply a turnkey solution for fabricating precision tubular parts, based on two www.equipment-news.com

bending machines that are widely used in the aerospace industry.

One machine is a semi-manual bender with CNC control, the other is a fully CNC all-electric model. For the British Airways application, the compa ny configured a complete turnkey MRO package for tubula r components, to provide quick and cost-effective repair of fluid lines on aircraft by reverse-engineering OEM parts and then re-creating them in the workshop.

The package covers tube sizes from a few millimetres up to 40 mm in diameter and accommodates the variety of materials used in this application, including stainless steel and titanium alloy.

Making Difficult Bends For demanding bending tasks, such as rotary draw bending of thick-walled titanium alloy or large diameter tubes, the package includes a single-stack 40 mm machine from Unison’s Breeze range of all-electric tube benders.

This machine will also be equipped with the company’s la ser- controlled springback measurement and correction. The system ensures bending precision by automatically compensating for the natural tendency of metal Fabricating hydraulic tubes in an economical manner requires precision bending

British Airways

FABRICATOR'SNOTE

British Airways has embarked on a major upgrade to its fleet of long-haul aircraft.

tubes to spring back slightly after being bent, eliminating expensive scrap by facilitating right-firsttime results.

For cost effective bending of intricate stainless steel tube parts with smaller diameters up to 3 0 mm, the compa ny is supplying British Airways with an EvBend 1000 machine.

Capable of accurate left and right hand bending, this CNC controlled manually powered machine is suitable for precision l ow - v o lu m e wo r k , su c h a s aerospace parts manufacture.

If a suitable CA D file for the tubular part is available, tube fabrication data can be e x t rac te d a nd dow n lo ade d d i r e c t to t h e a p p r o p r i a te bending machine. However, a more likely scenario is that, at least in the first instance, there will be no supporting design data for a tube that needs replacing.

In this instance, after removing t he wor n or da ma ged pa r t from the aircraft, maintenance personnel will obtain the tube’s physical measurements and then process the information to create a suitable bending program.

The package being supplied to British Airways also includes a Faro CMM that uses laser and tactile measurement techniques to acquire detailed and highly accurate 3D representations of tubes, together with VTube-Laser software from Advanced Tubular Technologies. This software automatically converts CMM data into a form suitable for use on bending machines, enabling tubular parts to be cloned in a matter of minutes.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS with aid of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). The target of downsizing is to steadily lower the consumption of the engines, while keeping up performance. This results in a constantly growing demand in turbochargers.

Turbo-Charged Productivity

Turbochargers are experiencing an increase in demand due to prevailing trends in the automotive industry and this poses a challenge in machining. By Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Jens Tempel, (Business Development Industries) Iscar Germany

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urrently, downsizing is the dominant issue in the automotive sector.

German automotive m a n u f a c t u re r s a s w e l l a s manufacturers from South Korea and Japan are following this trend.

This has resulted in requirements where engines with considerably

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re d u c e d c y l i n d e r c a p a c i t y produce the same performance through turbochargers like V6 or straight six power units.

Since the 2014 season, even Formula 1 has joined in. Engineers have developed 1.6 L V6 engines, which provide over 800 PS by means of turbochargers and

Making Turbochargers Manufacturing and machining of turbocharger components is highly complex and require high productivity and process reliability. In addition, due to the perennially unstable cost of nickel (between 2005 and 2013 fluctuation varied between â‚Ź5 to â‚Ź13 or US$6.80 to US$17.70 per kilo), producers of turbochargers attempt to develop and use materials with low nickel elements.

I n o rd e r t o f o l l o w t h i s trend and to react to the latest developments, Iscar have been working on developing new cutting materials, insert geometries and coatings. According to the tool manufacturer, S845 SNHU 1305 ANR-MM MS32 is able to achieve up to 25 percent longer tool life compared to competitors’ tools.

This achievement is hardly surprising given that the cutting tool manufacturer has intensified its focus on machining turbocharger components in 2013. Turbine housings, rotor shafts, turbines, as well as compressor wheels, are of paramount importance.

Advancements In Cutting In turbine housing for example, the cutting tool manufacturer has developed a tooling solution for the complex V-band machining of turbine housings. Here, the company has developed a plunge operation with tangential inserts.

This system is characterised by its high stability as well as its soft cutting geometry. Picture 1 shows such a plunging tool. It consists of an insert type fitting into any insert pocket and therefore is very user-friendly. www.equipment-news.com

INDUSTRYFOCUS Turning proved to be the most economic machining strategy for the V-band contour, as the component allows this way of machining with no collisions.

For this type of machining, Iscar has an economic tool solution available on the market; the fiveedged Penta insert.

This star-shaped insert is available in two standard sizes, depending on the depth of the V-band groove. The system also provides various standard geometries, chipformers, and coatings, as well as solid carbide substrates, which were specially developed for this application.

Picture 2 shows a tool specially designed for interpolation turning operations. This tool can be adjusted radially and axially so that narrow tolerances of the V-band contour can be realised. For end users, there is a customised solution available for the popular contour turning by means of U-axis or radial face sliding unit as well as for interpolation turning.

Even for the bushing bore for the butterfly valve of the turbine housing, there is a customerPicture 1: A plunging tool

Picture 2: This tool can be adjusted radially and axially so that narrow tolerances of the V-band contour can be realised.

orientated solution. In this case, the modular drilling system with exchangeable head Sumocham and the modular reaming system Bayo T-Ream come into action. Like the former, the latter system provides exchangeable reaming heads.

Designed for reaming high heat-resistant cast steels, Iscar d e v e l o p e d a re a m i n g h e a d which achieves up to 20 percent longer tool life compared to competitors’ tools. This is

possible due to a purposeful cooling applied to the cutting zone.

Putting It To The Test In 2013, Iscar Germany enhanced its activities in the area of metal cutting research focused on machining turbine housings.

Successful tests were completed in cooperation with Blaser Swisslube in their Swiss headquarters.

A customised benchmark in solid carbide drilling was performed. By means of the tool designed for each machining and the optimal coolant strategy, plus Blaser’s ‘Liquid Tool’, tool life was increased up to 1,200 holes at the customer’s and 2,000 holes at the metalworking fluid producer’s Tech Center.

In face mill roughing, improvements of up to 25 percent were possible, compared to the customer’s tool life. Even face mill finishing is increased by 45 percent. Here they used B-Cool 755 developed by the metalworking fluid producer for difficult metal cutting applications.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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INDUSTRYFOCUS

Putting It Together Automotive assembly has come to Asia in a big way.

By Michael E Neumann

T

he desire to get organised and manufacture products in an efficient manner is probably one of the key reasons to set up a production line. For some

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industries, this can increase competitive advantage. For the automotive industry however, this is a must and also the norm.

Robots and endless lines of machines come to mind when

the term automotive assembly is mentioned. Technology aside, the concept behind these lines is something worth talking about.

In an automotive assembly plant, parts are added to a product in a sequential manner by workers or robots with automatic loading systems to create a finished product faster and in an organised manner.

In such lines, a worker usually performs only one operation.

This can probably be attributed to the guiding principles behind the assembly set up.

It is thought that when Henry Ford developed the assembly www.equipment-news.com

INDUSTRYFOCUS Secured to the assembly line, the frame of the car passes through several stages where the car is slowly being assembled.

line, he wanted component parts to travel the least possible distance from one worker to the next. With one operator or a group of operators tasked with one job, eg: installing the wheels, more vehicles can be produced in a given time that would other wise only yield the production of a single car, because there are now many sections of workers working c o n c u r re n t l y, o n d i f f e re n t segments of the car.

The Process The car manufacturers usually get their parts from various tier one or two suppliers that have to pass stringent qualifying criteria set by the manufacturers. The parts arrive at the assembly plant for the final assembly of the car.

Secured to the assembly line, the frame of the car passes through several stages where the car is slowly being assembled.

The essential parts are then installed into the car as it passes through the installation stage. After that, the engine and www.equipment-news.com

transmission are added.

The shell of the car is built next, followed by the installation of the final body components.

The car now arrives at the painting stage where it is given its coat of paint. After this is completed, workers go to work to install the inner workings of the car like lights, pedals and carpet. Finally, with the windscreen on and lubrications added to the car, it is time to test drive the car in order to see if it fulfills the quality standards set by the manufacturer.

Robots Play A Big Part During the assembly process, robots are used in many of the stages. For instance, they are used in the installation of the windscreen, engine, transmission and even the painting process.

The usage of robots in a car assembly plant is a good place to see the versatility of the robots.

From heavy lifting to painting, they are deployed seamlessly into the process.

Today, there are many robot manufacturers in the market. The

more established ones are Fanuc, Denso, Yaskawa Motoman, Kuka and Reis. Fanuc claims their robots can perform spot welding, arc welding, sealing, painting, dispensing, and assembly in automotive assembly.

In addition, they can complete a number of material removal applications, such as cutting and grinding. By utilising their robot vision software, robot solutions will be able to localise objects with precision. As a result, time spent in readjusting the robot’s arm will be reduced, increasing the overall productivity and effectiveness of the robot solution.

One robot manufacturer Ya s k a w a M o t o m a n h a s developed the MC2000 ‘Master Cut’ robot, designed to provide path accuracy for laser cutting small holes and sharp corners.

According to the builder, path accuracy can be within 0.1 mm, depending on the application.

The robot features a 50 kg payload, making it suitable for a remote laser welding head.

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INDUSTRYFOCUS reach, a 3,165 mm vertical reach and a ±0.07 mm repeatability. In addition to material cutting, the six-axis robot can be used for laser welding and dispensing applications.

The company also produces paint robots (among others) that can be used for primer, base coat, finish coat, clear coat and spray dispensing, using water-based, solventbased, powder, glaze and glue/ adhesive materials.

They coat complex parts of nearly any size and shape, including recesses, curved and contoured surfaces — without runs or sags. The paint robots can be programmed to apply coating materials to different areas of the part in various film thicknesses.

Driving Car Production I n a v a s t p ro d u c t i o n a re a such as an assembly plant, a management suite is a must to make sure everything is running smoothly. This has given rise to several solutions on the market offered by various developers.

Siemens PLM’s Tecnomatix solutions for automotive OEMs for instance, is a software program that claims to accelerate project time by as much as 20 percent and increase worker productivity by up to 10 percent.

The software facilitates multiuser, multi-site planning and engineering. The system allows the users to create hierarchical representations of final assembly manufacturing processes known as Bills of Processes (BOP).

The BOP captures process logic and flow, and defines t h e re l a t i o n s h i p s b e t w e e n operations, manufacturing resources and product parts.

Early evaluation of manufacturing assembly times, project budgets and manufacturing costs is made possible. In addition, it enables line balancing and provides early estimation of assembly line performance, including throughput and resource utilisation. Part of the solutions include 3D simulation of complex robotic and human operations, such as insertion

Parts produced by suppliers have to go through vigorous testing before they are used by the OEMs.

of car seats, instrument panels and windshields, ergonomic analysis and work sequences, and execution time optimisation.

Another provider, Epicor, has an Automotive Manufacturing Software, which is a global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and automotive industry software solution designed for automotive manufacturers and businesses that provide products and services to the automotive industry.

It can be used for improving lead times and waste reduction through the implementation of lean strategies for automotive manufacturers, and also provides visibility with an endto-end solution containing builtin dashboards.

A Technology & Location Shift Be it robots or automation software programs, automotive assembly has come a long way since Henry Ford’s days. The assembly plants have also moved away from its traditional locations. From Detroit in the US to ‘New Detroit’ in Pune, India, the global migration of automotive assembly has started in earnest.

The Japanese car makers have also followed suit by establishing plants in both Thailand and Indonesia. With the investments tied into these massive projects, Asia is arguably the up-and-coming automobile manufacturing hub of the world.

These investments not only benefit the local population in terms of jobs created, but also bring along the technologies and manufacturing philosophies developed over the years.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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ENQUIRY NO 096

FEATURES

Finding

New Ways

To Keep Things Easy

Siemens PLM Software pushed out Solid Edge ST7 at the Solid Edge University 2014 to make designing faster and easier. By Joson Ng

T

he aptly named Curiosity Mars rover is on a mission fuelled in no small part by the spirit of exploration. This passion for finding something new is perhaps the main driving force for the people behind the project as they watch the rover negotiate numerous obstacles on the Gale Crater on Mars.

While this essence of curiosity is on show on Mars, back home on Earth, the same motivations are on full display in the CAD arena. In fact, the Solid Edge CAD software played a part in the design of the rover.

Possibly inspired by the exploits of the Mars rover, the company called for product designers to switch to exploratory mode and re-imagine what is possible and improve upon past accomplishments in their annual user meeting — the Solid Edge University.

At this year’s edition of the event held in Atlanta, Karsten Newbur y, senior VP (mainstream engineering) of Siemens PLM Software said the strategies of Solid Edge is based on ‘Product’, ‘Community’ and ‘Access’.

Together, these three pillars have allowed the product to help users save time and make the design processes easier.

Introducing the latest version of the company’s 3D

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CAD modelling software, the ST7, Dan Staples, VP of Solid Edge development summed up the new version with a word. He said “You” was the ethos in the whole design of the product.

As a product made for the

customers, he revealed some 1,300 customer requests were satisfied in this version.

According to Mr Staples, the product is based on four key points. They are ‘accelerate your 3D modelling’, ‘streamline your design management’, ‘power up with new app’ and ‘enjoy an amazing user experience’.

In order to create a good user experience, the company has added a start-up screen with easy access to common tasks. It has also improved help for common commands.

As far as accelerating the 3D modelling process goes, users can now look forward to an intuitive visual interface for material selection and

Four Mega Trends Driving Innovation In Product Design

Mobility: Some 1.3 billion workers will be mobile by 2015. That is about 37 percent of the total workforce.

Social: 65 percent of companies are deploying at least one social software tool.

Big Data: There will be an estimated 80 percent growth in unstructured data over the next five years.

Cloud: Over 80 percent of new apps will be distributed or deployed on devices in 2014.

Seventy percent of businesses are either using or investigating cloud computing solutions.

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FEATURES standards-based material definitions. The software is also able to generate quick shapes in a streamlined manner during the creation of basic geometry.

In terms of the program’s sheet metal function, it has a quick

method for complex sheet metal design and there are eight corner treatments available.

Finally, the developers said the product is also compatible with partner apps. For example, it is possible to print a 3D model

using a Microsoft 3D builder or on other devices like the MakerBot desktop 3D printer.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5502 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

ST7: Executives’ View Karsten Newbury (right) & James D’Arcy

Asia Pacific Metalworking Equipment News sat down with Karsten Newbury & James D’Arcy (VP, global business development of Siemens Industry Software) to see what they think about the product and what they plan to do with it.

APMEN: What is your favourite feature on the ST7?

Karsten Newbury (KN): It is not just one feature, it is what we have done in the area of usability. For users, it is sometimes hard to take advantage of all the features. So we make it easier for people, even for a functionality that has been there for a while.

James D’Arcy (JD): The rendering function. With it, you can be more effective in your product creation. We are so much more effective than we were.

APMEN: What is your vision for future ST releases?

KN: At the end of the day, what matters is that the engineers and designers can get their jobs done. Their end result is making a product. The thing we need to

help them in is how to get from the idea (stage) to the product (stage) with ease, in addition to time saving.

APMEN: How do you organise your R&D efforts between users’ feedback, in-house development and vision from top management?

KN: It is not exact science but we look at our development capacity and split in a few different ways. Sixty percent is ongoing development, and customers’ feedback take up some 10 percent. We also try new things and test it with users. If we see that users like it, we will try to grow it.

JD: We have two main R&D locations, one in Alabama (US) and the other in Pune, India. With people from different cultures working in R&D, we can avoid being narrow-minded.

APMEN: What are your marketing plans for Southeast Asia? What are the challenges?

KN: We work with partners to see if they fit into our plans. There are actually less resistance (in the Southeast Asian market) but the challenges are different, especially in language. In Asia, you need to be more disciplined in building channel partners. To train a partner does not mean they will stay at that level due to staff attrition, so you have to consistently work with them.

APMEN: We see an increasing number of companies offering cloud-based c o l l a b o r a t i v e p r o j e c t exe c u t i o n solutions. What do you make of this development as a CAD developer?

KN: Depends on your mindset. We see it as opportunities. Our experience or philosophy in Siemens is to be open. If you close off and try to do everything by yourself and keep people away, in the end, the customers lose and we lose.

These companies seem to be converging on an online PDM type of functionality.

Could that displace traditional PDM technology? Sure, but down the road, you may see more acquisition and collaboration.

In addition, the cloud-based technology space is still shaking out.

The partners are still trying to make money. Right now, we are taking the open partnership approach. We try to focus on what is good for the customer.

Sometimes, it means you give up on potential revenue.

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FEATURES

It Is Time To

Open Up

Cloud-based collaborative project execution solutions are making big waves in the product design world and for once, it is not frowned upon to share information with strangers.

By Joson Ng

I

n school, we were told to share and not be selfish. In the product design space, this ethos is not necessarily a virtue. In a world where IP can potentially be worth millions, it is not surprising that companies or individuals tend to be guarded when it comes to designs or technologies.

Things are however changing.

With concept like open design coming to the fore, where development of physical products, machines and systems are done through publicly shared design information, more engineers are beginning to see the benefits of information sharing and collaboration, smashing the traditional mindset in the process of doing so.

Shift In The Design Space Today, the design world is a very different one, some might say unimaginable from 10 years ago.

This paradigm shift in attitude has opened up opportunities for companies like GrabCAD, a startup that has created an collaborative product development tool that helps engineering teams to manage, view and share CAD files in the cloud.

Formed in 2010, the company has managed to attract some 1.2 million engineers into its community, where people come to share their designs. The rapid rise of the company is attributed to its philosophy of making sure that customers come first

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but according to its CEO Hardi Meybaum, good fortune probably played a big part too.

“The key thing for us is timing and we got lucky. With Facebook and Twitter, there was this change in a lot of people’s thoughts,” he said.

This new trend in sharing personal information and engaging strangers online was a particularly potent driver in the take-up rate as he revealed that the 1.2-million strong community was built up without any marketing. He added this figure is about to hit the two-million mark by the end of this year. When asked about the projected figure he is aiming to hit in two to three years, he said numbers may not necessarily be the main thing in his mind.

“We will keep building our products. There are about three to five million mechanical engineers (in the world) but our plan is not to capture more and more.

It is to deliver more value for these users,” he said. True to his words, Solid Edge announced shortly after that they will partner GrabCAD to put their Parasolid Software in the cloud.

The software is a 3D geometric modeling component for computer-aided design, manufacturing and engineering analysis (CAD/CAM/CAE) solutions. Applications developed using Parasolid are able to seamlessly exchange geometry data, providing translation-free interoperability. The software will provide 3D model interrogation,

inspection and visualisation within its GradCAD’s Workbench application for cloud-based Product Data Management (PDM).

Look East With more value added to his product, Mr Meybaum can now set his sights on bigger targets and one of them is Asia. With Asia making up some 30 percent of the community, he felt the region has big potential for growth. Although they are not going to attack the region this year, it is something that they are considering “aggressively”.

Listing China as his top target, he said: “Every company that is part of manufacturing design needs to be in China.” Apart from the size of the market, he also has good things to say about Chinese engineers.

“I am mostly impressed by Chinese engineers. When I visit the factories, Chinese engineers come up with a lot of new solutions to be effective,” he said adding that while effectiveness is a hallmark of Asian engineers, American engineers are for him the best product designers in the world as they are very creative.

Hardi Meybaum

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FEATURES

How Does GrabCAD Work?

Kenesto: Taking The Collaborative Approach

Community: A place where engineers come to upload and download models from a free CAD library.

Kenesto offers cloud-based engineering project and design collaboration solution for businesses of all sizes. We speak with Stephen Bodnar (SB), VP of strategy, products and marketing to find out more.

Workbench: A collaborative product development tool that helps engineering teams manage, share and view CAD files. It allows multiple engineers to work on files at the same time without overwriting each other’s work.

Stephen Bodnar

Hardi Meybaum On IP Issue: “IP is always the concern on the community side. We make it very clear on the terms and services that if you want to use it (the design) commercially, you need to ask permission but if you want to modify and upload it back to the community, you just need to credit the contributor.”

Policing: Done by the 1.2 million engineers in the community.

Bright Future As the world comes closer to the fourth industrial revolution, startups and entrepreneurs like Mr Meybaum represents the future of manufacturing. Although he said that luck played a part, vision, talent and determination are probably the ingredients for success too.

Just four short years ago, the Estonian native flew to the US to pitch his idea for a new company to a venture capitalist. While one particular venture capitalist told him that manufacturing is going away, it did not stop him from starting GrabCAD. Now with manufacturing well and truly back in vogue, the design community can be happy that they have a platform for them to showcase their designs with their peers.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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APMEN: Is your product suitable for SMEs? SB: It is mostly suitable for SMEs. It is not that it is not suitable for large enterprises, it’s just that they are not as quick to move into cloud with engineering and design as SMEs. APMEN: Where are your customers based at?

SB: Most of our customers are in the US. We do have a few outside of the US. In fact, our most active customer is in Australia, and we have a couple of customers in Singapore and China.

APMEN: Is there potential for growth in Asia?

SB: There is a lot of potential for growth in Asia. Any SMEs that need the ability to collaborate with their partners, organise their project data, tasks and workflow processes, including those associated with CAD, is a great candidate.

APMEN: What were your customers' concerns before they sign up for your service? How did you address those concerns?

SB: We adjusted from early feedback to create a project space that allows customers to collaborate with others and get immediate value, rather than requiring any up-front process mapping or configuration.

APMEN: Where do you see your company five years from now?

SB: Our primary strategy is to sign-up third party software companies who can take our solution to their existing market. I would like to have five or so different large software vendors that can private-label our solution and deliver it to their specific market place.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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FEATURES

Hoffmann Group Eyes Southeast Asia As

Next Port Of Call With major plans in the pipeline, the group expects to make a serious impact on Southeast Asia’s metalworking industry. By Joson Ng

H

offmann Group recently announced that both its Singapore and Malaysia subsidiaries have become full ser v ice companies. Part of the group’s plan to be more involved in the region of Southeast Asia, Eric Koh, MD of the group’s Southeast Asian headquarter told Asia Pacific Metalworking Equipment News (APMEN ) in a n exclusive inter v iew that people can expect more from the German company.

Viewing Southeast Asia as a “new growth area”, Mr Koh said now is the opportune time for them to spread their wings in the reg ion. “A f ter nea rly 100 years in Europe and six years in China, Southeast Asia is where we have to be. There are also demands from our key accounts here,” he said.

Referring his compa ny a s “new ” a nd t he on ly one of this nature in Southe a st A sia, he wa s eager to clea r up some misconception ab out h i s orga n i sat ion. H e said: “We are not a catalogue company. In fact, we are a onestop solutions provider with technical competencies at the level of the OEMs.” With a service network of more than 1,500 sales reps globally — 20 in the area of Southeast Asia and a strong focus on product quality with their own Premium Brand Garant, the group has a strong development in the Asian region.

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Focus Markets “Our focus markets are Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore a nd Malaysia,” said Mr Koh. With those countries in the company’s crosshair, he measured up each country and assessed the various challenges he encountered in individual countries.

“Thailand focuses more on automotive. We see Indonesia getting up to speed but not as much compared to Thailand.

Singapore focuses on meta l m a nu fa c t u r i n g, a e ro sp a ce , o i l a n d ga s m a nu fa c t u r i n g industry and also in area like chemicals,” he said.

Although the recent political turmoil in Thailand threatened to b r i n g t h e c o u n t r y to a standstill, Mr Koh still rates Thailand as a destination that is less challenging compared to

Indonesia. “It is a challenging market ( Thailand) for European companies because of the current situation and the language spoken but this i s a n e a sie r m a rke t for u s in compa rison to Indone sia a s t he y a re m o re e x p o s e d internationally,” he said, adding that they are currently selling through partners in Indonesia d u e to “ t h e n a t u r e o f t h e business” there today.

Outside the focus four, Mr Koh is also keeping tabs on Vietnam although he referred t h a t m a r ke t a s “ r e l a t i v e l y small” for them. Nevertheless, the company will take part in a trade show to be held in Ho Chi Minh City in July to try to improve their area of influence beyond the key accounts who currently buy from them.

The Singapore subsidiary recently became a full service company.

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FEATURES

“After nearly 100 years in Europe and six years in China, Southeast Asia is where we have to be.”

Expanding Sales Channels To increa se sa les from this region, Mr Koh is launching a two - pronged attack , ie: the e -Business suite and his ne t work o f te c h n ic a l s a le s personnel.

According to the company, eProcurement solutions can im me diately a nd dire c t ly re du ce pro ce s s co s t s w it h sav ings up to 50 p ercent co m p a r e d to co n v e n t i o n a l orde r i n g pro ce du re s. For example, the eShop can make searching and selection, ordering and reordering, as well as delivery and invoice processing particularly straight forward.

Mr Koh said he has noticed a trend whereby larger companies are taking t h e p l u n g e i n to t h e wo r l d of eProcurement w ith the medium-sized companies also show i n g sig n s of fol low i n g

Eric Koh

their more established counterparts.

As far as he is concerned, t here a re good re a sons for doing so too as his company is offering up to two percent r e b a te i f c u s t o m e r s m a k e purchases online.

Turning the focus back to Southea st A sia, he said the e - Bu si ne ss su ite i s “pre t t y new” here and the international compa nies who a re a lready using the system in Europe are the main drivers for its adoption in Southeast Asia as they want their subsidiaries to work in line w it h t he head office.

Away from the electronic

“Our focus markets are Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia,” - Mr Koh. www.equipment-news.com

solut ion s, t radit iona l sa le s methods are also very much in demand here. For a company that repre sents a product variety of more than 60,000 products of their own brands Garant and Holex, as well as from some 500 manufacturers worldwide, sales methodology requires a lot more thought put into it compa red to other companies.

Mr Koh feels it is important to have the right concept and get t he fou ndat ion r ig ht in order to fully understand their sales philosophy.

“We are a system partner, which means we manage the customers’ entire assortment developed professionally by our team of product managers in Germany and Asia. Our sales people don’t have to worr y about product management,” he said, adding that their solutions come in fix sets, with assigned OEMs for certain solutions.

At the end of the day, the group is aiming at delivering f u ll - line supp or t to t heir cu stomers on a day- by- day basis. Having said that, he told Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

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FEATURES

There is a growing trend where larger companies are taking the plunge into the world of eProcurement – Eric Koh

Mr Koh refers his company as the only one of this nature in Southeast Asia.

APMEN that they do also cater to requests for customisation. “ We do sou rc i n g for customers and quite a bit too as we have a significant number of contacts in the industry,” he said, but he is confident that with his product range of more than 60,000 products in the catalogue and access to the full product range of various catalogue suppliers, the company can service most of the customers’ needs.

Shorter Delivery Lead Time I n order to conv ince t he metalworking community here t h a t t h e y a r e i n it fo r t h e long haul, Mr Koh revea led pla n s for a log ist ic cent re, s l a te d to b e c o m p l e te d i n 2 015 . H e m e n t i o n e d t h a t currently the evaluation of a suitable stocking location in the Southeast Asian region is under evaluation.

Logistics performance is key to the company

By implementing a regional warehouse for the Hoffmann G ro u p, t h e c u s to m e r s c a n expect shorter delivery times and direct access to locally required products. “We believe that our logistics performance is key to our global success,” he said, pointing to a delivery p er for ma nce of 9 9 p erce nt within the group.

With big plans and significant investments set in place to shorten delivery times and multiply sales and service channels in Southeast A sia, the compa ny is well - placed to b e n e f i t f ro m a n y m a j o r upsw ing in ma nufacturing activities in this region.

After all, the company is used to making big moves according to Mr Koh. In fact, some might say it is their modus operandi as he concluded: “When we do something, we make sure we do it right and do it big.”

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5506 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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FEATURES

The Future Of

Edge Preparation Using wet blasting to prepare tool edges can improve tool quality and life. By Mick Teague, sales director, Vapormatt

T

he increasing performance demands on machine tools and rising market competition has given rise to a need for a greater understanding of the manufacturing processes. To produce a high quality and successful cutting tool, four elements must be considered.

Until recently, most consideration has been given to the substrate, geometry and coating processes.

The fourth element, edge preparation, has only recently attracted a wider interest.

To ensure a stable performance of the cutting tool, it is important to achieve a homogeneous rounding along the major and minor cutting edge and corners.

Despite a range of techniques emerging for edge preparation, it is still regarded as one of the more ‘mysterious’ stages of production and has led to much research and development to achieve greater accuracy and control in edge preparation.

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This article looks to explain the need for edge preparation and to evaluate the benefits of the microwet blasting process; presenting it as one of the more controllable processes available.

Why Edge Preparation?

Edge preparation is the process of rounding or radiusing the cutting edge of a tool. In radiusing a cutting edge to form a bigger area, the likelihood of the tool chipping is reduced and coating adhesion increased, with the combination of these factors ultimately leading to a longer tool life.

T h ro u g h r a d i u s i n g , t h e cutting edge has a more stable form that can offer increased performance by up to 500 percent. There is also a need to improve the surface finish of the tools through cleaning as this will provide a better substrate on which to coat.

U s i n g e d g e p re p a r a t i o n processes to improve surface

Ra, coated tools will be more uniform, allowing for more homogenous wear that, again, increases the stability of the cut and reduces the risk of chipping and flaking.

Without edge preparation, the efficiency of the manufacturing operation is reduced by increased downtime and higher rates of waste as tools must be replaced more frequently.

Wi t h s h a r p e r ‘ u n p re p a re d ’ tools, manufacturers may see quicker cuts but without any edge preparation, the stress concentration at the edge is found to be a large cause of chipping.

S i m i l a r l y, a s h a r p e r cutting edge makes for poor heat dissipation and, with temperatures reaching upwards of 1,000 deg C, this can be another cause of tool failure.

Studies have shown that a radiused tool will allow heat to spread throughout the tool, reducing stresses.

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FEATURES Wet blasting offers high quality results that are being recognised by tool manufacturers.

However, given the range of tool substrates, cutting applications and types of tools there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to edge preparation, making the controllability of t h i s p ro c e s s a n i m p o r t a n t requirement for anybody looking to improve tool life as different tools will need different radii.

The Benefits Of Wet Blasting The use of micro blasting for edge preparation has been around for a long time with it having been proven to be one of the more effective methods for edge preparation.

The ability to offer c o n t ro l l e d e d g e r a d i u s i n g to within +/-5 micron (up to 1 0 0 m i c ro n s ) t o l e r a n c e o f specification coupled with HF1 surfaces makes the micro wet process a preferred solution for many manufacturers. The wet 62

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process combines compressed air, abrasive media and water in a slurr y form to create a mechanical action that gives an abrasive effect.

By using wet blasting to

re m o v e a n d ro u n d t h e t o p layers of the surface, the process can be used to reduce high peaks found after grinding or sintering. In reducing the sur face roughness and removing particles of cobalt, there is a lower mean between peaks, which has the benefit of improving coating adhesion.

Wet blasting also offers a much more consistent finish with the lubricating effect of the water creating a flow of slurr y that ensures an even and uniform surface. This is unlike other micro-blasting processes where a heavier impact and lack of flow create unpredictable results with an increased chance of chipping and uncontrollable wear.

The use of water creates a lubricating effect, which increases the flow of particles across the surface being treated. Unlike dry blasting, the liquid cushion also protects delicate surfaces that prevent media particles being left in the substrate.

C o n s e q u e n t i a l l y, w e t blasting results in surfaces that are clean to a HF1 level.

To further improve this, the water can be heated with mild detergent and antioxidants

Cross section of the wet blast gun. www.equipment-news.com

FEATURES added to ensure an even more thorough action that will reduce the risk of cobalt leaching.

Controlled wet micro blasting can also offer benefit post coating. With the correct media selection, wet micro blasting systems can offer a peening action. Given the nature of the coating process, and the temperatures involved, several tensile stresses can be eliminated and replaced by compressive stresses distributed evenly across the coating and substrate. A peened coating can make flaking or adhesion failure less likely whilst also offering a polishing effect to remove droplets found after CVD coating.

The most advanced wet micro blasting systems use powerful software programs to control and monitor precise flows of liquid, gas and solids, which are mixed then accelerated through focused blasting nozzles.

Changing the air and slurry pressures, blast media, slurry concentration, number and angle of attack and distance of the blasting nozzles allows for a range of processing effects to be achieved, which can be utilised to give a range of cutting forms including waterfall and trumpet hones.

Additionally, media concentration, process temperature, additive and blast pressures can be carefully controlled to provide consistent surface finish that can be reproduced time after time.

The leading systems for wet micro blasting currently control up to 15 variables, which allows users to increase t h e p re d i c t a b i l i t y o f t o o l performance. The extent of their controllability is pushing boundaries in terms of edge p re p a r a t i o n a s i t b e c o m e s easier to achieve and therefore experiment with new and different edge hones and forms. www.equipment-news.com

The Vapormatt Sabre was developed to serve new user groups in order to produce better quality on cutting tools.

Innovations In Edge Honing For Wet Blasting With such benefits to be gained it is hardly surprising that designers and engineers are continuing to refine the process with new innovations, allowing tool manufacturers to take greater control of their edge preparation processes.

The most recent example of innovation is the Vapormatt Sabre. The nozzle arrangements of the machine allow hybrid functionality with the same controllability and consistency o f re s u l t s a s l a rg e r, m o re complex, systems.

The machine has been d e v e l o p e d i n re s p o n s e t o customer demand to serve three new user groups, offering small to medium volume manufacturers, coating centres and R&D facilities a cost-effective, high performance wet blasting system with the controllability to enhance output quality on a

range of cutting tools.

In summar y, wet blasting o f f e r s h i g h q u a l i t y re s u l t s that are increasingly being recognised globally by many tool manufacturers. And with the ability to offer controlled and repeatable results, wet blasting not only improves tool quality and life but is also kinder to the environment with less consumables needed and no harmful chemicals.

In recent years we have seen a stabilisation of global machine tool output, recovering from the global recession that hit the industry hard in 2009 when almost 1/3 of the total output was wiped out. It is now time for the industry to work harder and smarter to extend tooling life expectancy.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5507 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

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FEATURES with multiple pallets, used for machining very large and heavy workpieces. The shop machines over 98 percent of its workpieces from ductile iron. Unfortunately, iron sludge build-up in the coolant tank is a problem for the production personnel.

“We approach every machine with a keen eye on machine uptime and ease of maintenance.

We had experimented with other systems to handle cast ductile iron fines and knew their benefits as well as their shortcomings,” says the company’s engineering manager Mark Tario.

He notes the company had actually designed two systems inhouse to improve the handling of chips and the cleaning of coolant.

While the benefits had been appreciable, they felt there was still a shortfall and the team at the company began a systematic search for a better solution.

Handling

Heavy Loads Magnetic chip disc filtration on chip conveyors maintains efficiencies in the production of ductile iron castings used in heavy truck and military drive train projects.

By Greg Champion, VP, Hennig

A

ccurate Gauge is a machine shop based in the US that specialises in the machining and assembly of large ductile iron castings into components for the

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heavy truck and military drive train markets.

In order to do that, they use heavy-duty manufacturing equipment like Horizontal Machining Centres (HMCs)

Magnetic Chip Disc Filtration System During their search, one particular development from H e n n i g , a m a n u f a c t u re r o f chip conveyors and machine enclosures managed to catch their attention. It is a magnetic chip disc filtration system that represented an improvement over the traditional drum screen filtration system used on most competing brands.

The ease of changeover was also impressive, both from the production and maintenance perspectives. Mr Tario explains: “Replacing the drum filter screens is not an easy task, in fact it can be downright miserable. The Hennig disc arrangement seemed to us a much easier system to operate and maintain. The incorporation of a rare earth drum and scraper assembly inside the conveyor appeared to be a great solution for minimising the amount of cast iron fines reaching the coolant tank side of the system.” www.equipment-news.com

FEATURES

Heavier-duty mechanical components and drive chains used on the conveyor provide a greater wear life and reduced downtime likelihood.

He notes the heavier-duty mechanical components and drive chains used on the conveyor provide a greater wear life and reduced downtime likelihood. As a result, an initial order was placed with the conveyor manufacturer for four Chip Disc Filtration (CDF) conveyors to run in tandem with the HMCs. “We have over 40 years of experience in what works and what doesn’t in the machining of cast iron, so we had a very defined list of needs in all facets of the design, electrical functions and the very important aspect of machine to auxiliary equipment communication,” Mr Tario notes, adding that the worst scenario in the shop occurs when the machining centre is working, but the chip conveyor is not.

Every aspect of the machine-toconveyor connection was planned out by the Accurate engineering team, including the layout of the coolant tank covers and the access ports.

Among the many issues the team had to overcome, downtime for maintenance was the most prominent. The machining of cast iron, by definition, creates considerable problems arising from the frequent need to replace conveyor chains, drum screens and www.equipment-news.com

other mechanical components that get infiltrated by the iron fines and literally lock up.

The conveyor chains on the system, for example, were found stronger than the typical styles used on competing brands, which often required adjustments and repairs several times annually and were usually in need of total replacement, once a year.

Depending on the severity of the repair or replacement operation, this situation may take many hours or even several days to rectify. Practically speaking, the maintenance personnel would get completely soaked and filthy with the coolant and sludge as a result.

On the Hennig CDF system, by contrast, the discs can be removed and cleaned on a workbench, rather than reaching through narrow access ports to wrestle with a drum style filter. According to Mr Tario, this entire process is a two-hour operation at most. Simple screen replacements can be done in 30 minutes or less, he notes.

Managing Maintenance Another common problem for the maintenance personnel are coolant related failures. On the HMCs at the job shop, a substantial amount of “through the spindle coolant” is used to

improve productivity. However, this generous use of coolant can create an immediate and d a n g e ro u s p ro b l e m , i f t h e coolant runs low and the machine has no safeguardwarning device, especially when drilling and tapping.

Nearly half the Accurate systems had no such devices originally, resulting in some damaging conditions on the highspeed drills used there. A third of the systems used later at the company had a communication device to put the machine’s CNC into a single block state when the coolant tank ran low, but had no protection to shut off the pump to prevent dry running.

Mr Tario notes: “On our third generation systems, we changed from a diaphragm style pump to a screw pump, where dry running would be very bad, to say the least. With our fourth generation Hennig conveyors, however, we have all the protections of the previous generations plus all the necessary controls to shut down the pumps to prevent very costly system component damage.”

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5508 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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EVENTS& EXHIBITIONS Event Preview:

Manufacturing Myanmar 2014 M yanmar’s first dedicated manufacturing trade ex hibition w ill be held at the Myanmar Convention Centre (MCC) in Yangon, from October 2 – 4, 2014.

The show will feature a lineup of international companies from Austria, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK. The show is expected to attract approximately 100 companies from 18 countries/regions to provide the tools necessary to lift and increase capabilities of sectors such as automotive a ssembly, ma nufacturing & repair; building, infrastructure & construction projects; metals, mineral processing and jewellery ma nufacturing; a nd meta l fabrication among others.

In addition, three international group pavilions will be featured at the inaugural event. They include Singapore — presented by the Singapore Precision Engineering & Tooling Association (SPETA); Taiwan — presented by the Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association (TMBA) and Thailand — presented by the Hardware & DIY Club.

With participation of companies showcasing a range of technolog y from test and measurement equipment, hand tools, metal-forming and metalcutting machines, and other supporting tools & equipment, the Singapore pavilion will feature a contingent of companies that include Asia Masima, Cairnhill Metrology, Hong Chek, Optical Gaging, Tungaloy and Wenzel.

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Commenting on the show’s key role in bridging the gap between international companies and the emerging market, William Lim, project director for Manufacturing Myanmar 2014 from the show’s organiser, Singapore Exhibition Services says: “For majority of our exhibitors, Myanmar is unchartered territory. As the country develops their industries and continues their push to lure Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to grow their manufacturing sector, this presents opportunities for international manufacturing solution providers to introduce the technology needed to increase productivity and drive development. Manufacturing Myanmar therefore provides a business platform for

international firms to get a better understanding of the current a nd future ma nufacturing equipment needs of the Myanmar manufacturing market, as well as for local industry players to source for new technologies relevant to their business.”

Myanmar Convention Centre (MCC) Yangon, Myanmar October 2 – 4, 2014 Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5601 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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Something exciting is coming to you in October 2014.

Watch out for it.

LOADING

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EVENTS&EXHIBITIONS

Event Preview:

MTT Expo 2014

M

TT Expo Malaysia will take place in Kuala Lu mpu r, M a lay sia for the first time in August this year. According to the organiser, experts from the machine tool, meta lwork ing a n d i n d u s t r i a l a u to m a t i o n fields will be present along with technology leaders.

They will be at the PWTC from August 27-30, 2014 with their range of selections that will meet the needs in every aspect of varying operations and production, be it engineering or manufacturing.

Industr y players like GF, HwaCheon, Ma k ino, Ma za k, Mitsubishi, Okamoto, Engis, Kemet, Big Daishowa, Haimer, MST, Blum, Fa ro, Renishaw,

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Wenzel, Schaublin, Tor nos, Sumitomo, Trumpf, Leeport, Ewag, Tongtai, Awea will be present.

Running concurrently with the exhibition is the M.TEK Seminar where the know-how and applications of advanced technologies are explored and revealed in depth.

From precision tooling to automotive manufacturing, and from oil and gas engineering to medic-surgical applications, participants will stand to gain deeper insights.

Government support will come in the form of MIDA, which will be present to reveal various support and assistance from the Malaysian government as the country strive towards excellence in manufacturing.

The exhibition is open to trade and business visitors, from 1030 to 1830 hrs on all days and admission is strictly by registration only. Online registration will close on August 18, 2014.

PWTC Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia August 27 – 30, 2014 Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5602 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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EVENTS&EXHIBITIONS

Event Preview:

Vietnam Manufacturing Expo

D

uangdej Yuaikwamdee, deputy MD of Reed Tradex said Vietnam’s exports outperformed its peers’ over the 12 months p r e c e e d i n g J a n u a r y 2 014 , growing 15 percent at a time when shipments from many members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were falling.

I n addit ion, inve st ment s by the likes of Intel, Samsung, Fo x C o n n a n d o t h e r s h a v e boosted Vietnam’s role in the electronics supply chain. The country’s electronics exports jumped nearly 68 percent in 2012, and another 35 percent in 2013. Exports of phones grew by 85 and 67 percent respectively in those two years.

Over the past five years, Vietnam has become a solid a lter native for globa l

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electronics goods makers who a re incre a singly relocat ing ma nu factu r ing out let s to Vietnam, such as Intel, Samsung, LG, FoxConn, Canon and Nokia.

Vietnam automotive industry ha s a lso been w itnessing continuous development. Driven by rising domestic demands and tax reforms implemented proactively by the government, this sector has been reporting positive growth rates as seen by the total sales which exceeded 110,000 vehicles in 2013, nearly 20 percent more than 2012.

This year, the auto industry expects a growth rate of 10 to 15 percent. More investment projects are pouring into Vietnam a s b u si n e s s o p p o r t u n it i e s cont inue f low ing towa rds manufacturers in the supporting sectors. The needs for better

technologies and know-how will increase. According to customs statistics, exports of machines, equipment, tools a nd spa re parts manufactured in Vietnam amounted to US$529 million in the first quarter of 2014, up 15.61 percent compared with the same period last year. This positive figure suggests that Vietnam’s industrial sectors are on rise.

W it h t he m a nu fac t u r i n g space doing well, the hosting of Vietnam Manufacturing Expo 2014 has come at an opportune time. This year, the show will be held alongside the Industrial Components & Subcontracting Vietnam 2014 (ICSV), Vietnam’s sourcing platform for assemblers and manufacturers, from August 27 – 29, 2014 at ICE. Dao Thu Vinh, deputy director of Hanoi Industry and Trade Department (HTPC) said that this year, the show will present a good opportunity to make Hanoi a focal point for supporting industries in Vietnam.

In addition, the event will also help promote the transferring of advanced technologies with the goal of increasing scientific and technological content and adding value to local industrial supporting products a nd technologies.

ICE Hanoi, Vietnam August 27 – 29, 2014 Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5603 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

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EVENTS&EXHIBITIONS

Event Preview:

Metalex Vietnam D uangdej Yuaikwamdee, deputy MD of Reed Tr a d e x s a i d t h a t according to the Vietnam president Truong Tan Sang, Japan ranked top in terms of FDI for Vietnam last year with a total of US$5.7 billion in committed capital, making up 26.6 percent of FDI in Vietnam.

The figure will be higher in the near future as Vietnam priorities FDI in six key areas.

They are electric-electronics industry, agricultural machinery manufacturing, processing of food and agro-forestry product, sh ipbu i ldi n g, e nv i ron me ntenergy conservation, automobile and spare parts ma nufacturing. Developing complex industrial zones is also one of Vietnam’s priority areas.

A c c o r d i n g to Ya s u z u m i Hirotaka, MD of JETRO in HCMC, a re cent su r vey conducte d between October to November 2013 by the organisation on business confidence a mong 9,371 Japanese businesses in 20 countries and territories in Asia and Oceania showed that 70 percent of 435 surveyed Japanese businesses in Vietnam said they regarded the countr y as an important investment base and planned to expand investment in the country. This is because of the stability of country’s political and social situations as well as the cheaper labour.

However, Vietnam would be more attractive to Japanese firms if it could improve its supporting

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industry sector. Many Japanese businesses complained about expensive import costs as they could only source 32.2 percent of the materials they needed in Vietnam, which was 4.3 percent higher than the previous year but still modest compared to 64.2 percent in China, 52.7 percent in Thailand, 42.3 percent in Malaysia and 40.8 percent in Indonesia.

Furthermore, red tape, vague legal and tax policies, custom procedure s plus increa sing labour wages have been major obstacles in doing business in Vietnam. Nevertheless, labour costs are still only half paid by Japanese investors in Thailand and Japan.

A lthough 60 percent of Japanese investors in Vietnam made profit, the poor policies and resources remain common problems in Vietnam. Given the result of JETRO’s survey, m in ister of pla n n ing a nd investment, Bui Quang Vinh expects to see an increase in FDI to Vietnam from Japan this year.

On this positive note, Metalex Viet na m 2 014 a nd N E PCON Vietna m 2014 will return to support all production lines in Vietnam from October 9-11, 2014 at Saigon E x hibition & Convention Center (SECC).

A ll ma nufacturers have a n opp or tu n it y to upg rade production with three ex hibitions because this ye a r, Japa n E x ter na l Trade Organization (JETRO,) Ho Chi Minh Office and the Investment

Key Highlights • The Stars of Technology Pavilion: A showcase of high-tech machinery, technologies and live robot demonstrations • Tokyo Metropolitan Government Pavilion • Witness technologies from these international pavilions: China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, German, the UK, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam • Engineer Master Class & Technology Presentations • Hand Soldering Championship (Third Edition) • Business Matchmaking Program • Agent Wanted: The centre point for global providers of industrial machinery and technologies to look for agents to represent their products in Vietnam.

& Trade P ro mot io n Ce nt re ( ITPC) have confirmed their co-location of the ‘2nd Business Alliance for Supporting Industry in Ho Chi Minh City’.

Saigon Exhibition & Convention Center (SECC) Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam October 9-11, 2014 Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5604 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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27 - 30 August 2014 Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur

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EVENTS&EXHIBITIONS

Event Review:

Metaltech 2014

M

eta lte ch 2 014 ha s round up its 20 th edition with an estimated sales figure of MYR 200 million ( US$61.8 million) over the four-day period.

With a further MYR 1 billion of sales expected after the show, the organiser said the show has set a new transaction record.

This growth can partly be attributed to the shipment of equipment showcased at the show, which is said to be some 90 percent more (42 tonnes in 2013 to 80 tonnes in 2014) compared to the previous edition in 2013.

According to the organiser, the total visitor count for the event is 23,908. They came from related industries such as aerospace, automotive, marine/offshore, metalworking, energy, electrical & electronics and medical.

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

They were able to touch base with more than 1,800 providers of metalworking and machine tools technologies from 37 countries.

This edition of the show not only focused on machining and fabricating technology, there were some national pavilions as well, hailing from Austria, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, each showcasing their country’s latest metalwork and machine tool technologies.

The event was also integrated with three other related exhibitions. They were Automex 2014, Weldtek 2014 and Iatech. All in all, the show highlighted some 3,000 of the latest technologies from nine specialised profiles.

At the opening ceremony, Dato’ Dr Mohd Azhar bin Hj Ya h a y a , d e p u t y s e c r e t a r y

g e n e r a l ( Po l i c y) f r o m t h e Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), who delivered the speech on behalf of the minister of MOSTI, Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin, said: “Metaltech is t r u ly elev at i n g Ma lay sia towards the status of becoming a regional hub for the latest te c h n o l o g i e s w i t h i n t h e s e industries.”

He added that the show is also playing an important role in propelling Malaysia forward towards its Vision 2020 goals.

PWTC Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia May 21 – 24, 2014 Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5605 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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ENQUIRY NO 097

EVENTS&EXHIBITIONS

Event Review:

Intermach & Subcon Thailand 2014

A

ccording to UBM Asia (Thailand), the organiser of Intermach and Subcon Thailand 2014, the shows have exceeded projections for both the number of exhibitors and visitors.

Sanchai Noombunnam, the group director of the organising company said the objective of the show is to link businesses that create special opportunities and new business prospects fo r e x h ib ito r s a n d A S E A N entrepreneurs. As far as numbers go, he has achieved that aim.

“It (the show) featured more than 1,200 global companies from over 35 countries. Intermach 2014 has brought top quality visitors and buyers together from all over Asia with spectacular results. The

74

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

total number of visitors for the four-day event was 40,024 from 51 countries,” he said.

Good news also came from S ub co n T ha i la nd . “ S ub co n Thailand 2014 turned out to be the best show in the event’s eightyear history with total business matching pairs from the business matchmaking program standing at 3,826. The final tally for business transactions was expected to reach over THB 7 billion (US$215 million), with more expected in follow-up deals in the months ahead,” said Narucha Ruchuphan, director of the BOI Unit for Industrial Linkage Development.

Finally, the organiser reported that the seminars and conferences were also well-attended by top management, decision makers

and Japanese investors, especially t he Ja p a ne se M a n a g e me nt Seminar, Automotive Seminar, Medical Device & Aerospace Seminar, and Mould Technology Workshop. Speakers and panelists included international specialists and experts from Japan, Thailand and ASEAN. The next edition of the show will be held on May 13 – 16, 2015 at BITEC, Bangna, Thailand.

BITEC, Bangkok, Thailand May 15 – 18, 2014 Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5606 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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PRODUCT FINDER Alphacam: 2014 Enhancements

DMG Mori: Better Performance, Precision & Efficiency

The Alphacam 2014 R2 update includes several new and enhanced features.

T he sof t wa re program now has the ability to optimise five-axis toolpaths to a specific machine configuration, and Part Modeler has been enhanced to convert DXF and DWG 2D drawings into 3D models.

Another pertinent enhancement is the Feature Extraction. It is now possible to have a complete redesign of the Automatic Feature Extraction dialog with improved layout, images for each option and context sensitive help.

Finally, this version now allows components to be produced, which are suitable for nesting, and includes the option to create a CSV file for all processed nesting parts.

The fourth generation DMU 80 P duoBlock from DMG Mori provides five axis machining solutions for the aerospace, automotive engineering, mechanical engineering or tool and mould manufacturing industries.

This version has achieved better precision, performance and efficiency by about 30 percent compared to the previous generation, according to the manufacturer.

The machine is also capable in reducing up to 30 percent energy consumption with intelligent appropriate power units. In terms of tool changing, it boasts a fast wheel magazine with 0.5 s tool changeover times and up to 363 tools with minimum footprint.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5701 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Brother: Versatile & Simple To Use B ro t he r I nte r n a t io n a l Singapore is presenting the P-touch Electronic Labellers for industrial use. T he P- touch P TE300VP and the P-touch PT-E100VP are engineered for versatility and simplicity for use by electricians and contractors in the field.

These electronic labellers incorporate features with a high degree of customisation for virtually any labelling application. Both labellers are also capable of fast print PT-E300VP speeds at up to 20 mm per second.

While both have user-friendly inputs, the PTE300VP is equipped with a QWERTY style keyboard for even more intuitive navigation to create legible, long-lasting labels with a few key strokes.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5702 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5703 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

ESAB: CAD/CAM Programming & Nesting Software

ESAB has developed the Columbus III version 1.2, a CAD/ CAM programming and nesting software optimised for plasma, oxy-fuel, laser and waterjet cutting.

According to the developer, this release provides improved CAD functionality with a standard shape library that makes it faster to create part programs using a collection of pre-defined part geometries.

The software also improves cut quality and cost when beveling by optimising the cutting path, even for multi-pass plasma cuts. A feature here provides a graphical view of the travel path of the height sensor.

This allows the user to avoid collisions with parts, plate or kerf and to optimise material usage by visualising the path the height sensor will travel relative to the cut.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5704 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

75

PRODUCTFINDER Ewag: High-Speed Peripheral Grinding Machine Ewag has developed the Insert Line highspeed periphera l grinding machine, which is designed for the productive grinding of indexable inserts.

According to the manufacturer, the use of modern drive and control technology in the machine enables efficient indexable insert grinding using the periphery of the wheel for the first time. The resulting linear contact between the grinding wheel and the workpiece reduces the contact zone and enables an improved coolant supply, therefore reducing heat input and ultimately resulting in higher feed rates.

For autonomous indexable insert production, the manufacturer offers the grinding machine with an automatic handling system. The flexible six-axis robot enables loading cycles capable of maintaining the high productivity, and can also be optimally adapted to different customer applications.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5705 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Flow International Corporation is pre senting the next generation direct drive ultra high-pressure pump technology, the HyPlex Prime.

Combining the HyperJet intensifier pump technology with direct drive pump efficiency, the pump is designed to minimise downtime. The design increases the maintenance intervals over prior models. This translates to consistent, reliable maintenance for all of the pump components.

The manufacturer said that the pump has a maximum developed pressure of 60,000 psi and comes standard with the company’s Pac-V patented control valve, which reduces maintenance and enables cutting at any pressure.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5707 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Faro: Laser Scanning Software

Heimatec: Right Angle Drilling & Milling Head

Faro Technologies has released the latest version of their laser scanning software, the Faro Scene 5.3, and the scan data hosting-service, Scene WebShare Cloud 1.5.

The software, for use with the company’s laser scanner Focus3D X Series, delivers scan registration by eliminating artificial targets, such as spheres and checkerboards.

Users can choose from two available registration methods: ‘Top-View’-based or ‘Cloud-to-Cloud’.

‘Top-View’-based registration allows for targetless positioning of scans. The second method opens up opportunities for the user to position scans quickly and accurately, even under difficult conditions.

Heimatec has developed a r i g ht a n g le d r i l l i n g a nd milling head. The Ultra- Light is a timely i nt ro du c t io n i nto a n increasingly competitive environment, where no co mp a ny e n ga g e d i n manufacturing of hightech tools can afford to remain idle.

The right angle drilling and milling head weighs less than 2.5 kg and is capable of reaching speeds up to 8,000 rpm and torque of 6 Nm. Finally, the tool comes with collet size ER 11 AX and is available for SK30, BT30 and HSK32 spindles.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5706 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

76

Flow: Direct Drive Pump

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5708 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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ENQUIRY NO 094

PRODUCTFINDER

LVD: High-Speed Automation For Laser Cutting Machines

LVD have developed a laser cutting automation system, designed for flexibility and speed. Handling sheet sizes from 1,000 x 1,000 mm up to 3,050 x 1,525 mm, the Flexible Automation for Lasers (FA-L) is now available on the Sirius Plus and Electra laser cutting machines.

Designed to work in sequence with laser cutting machines, the automation system unloads a finished sheet and loads the next sheet on the table within 40 s. This is possible due to separation of load/unload devices working simultaneously, resulting in fast changeovers.

Depending on sheet size, all or a number of suction cups are automatically activated. Other features include sheet thickness control and automatic sheet separators, ensuring lift of only one sheet of the intended thickness.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5709 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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NI: Creating New Possibilities For Engineers

NI has developed the VirtualBench, an all-inone instrument that integrates a mixed-signal oscilloscope, function generator, digital multimeter, programmable DC power supply and digital I/O. Users interact with VirtualBench through software applications that run on PCs or iPads. The device provides the most common functionality affordably and opens up new possibilities for how engineers can use benchtop instruments.

The equipment offers space savings and simplifies instrument configuration through consistent, userfriendly interfaces. It also integrates seamlessly with the LabView system design software.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5710 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Jul-Aug 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

77

PRODUCTFINDER Rofin: Desktop Laser Marker

TaeguTec: Economical Solid Carbide End Mills

The desktop laser ma rker Ea syMa rk is now optionally ava ilable w ith a full-fledged CAD suite, says developer Rofin. The CAD extension processes the CAD objects and includes the assigned laser parameter sets. In this way, repetition and post-parameterising of the marking data after layout changes are almost completely eliminated.

With its process reliability, minimum maintenance requirements and last but not least its environmental soundness, laser marking and engraving is an attractive alternative to conventional engraving techniques.

According to the manufacturer, the machine is a compact desktop laser marker. It offers a large working chamber and integrated air-cooling.

TaeguTec is offering e co n o m i c a l s o l i d ca rbide end mills fo r g e n e r a l p u r p o s e machining on small depthsof-cut applications.

The two and four flute flat end mills are offered in various lengths to cover a range of roughing and finishing application on various materials such as alloy, carbon, cast iron, tool, stainless, hardened and pre-hardened steels.

For slotting applications, the offering is also available in three flute flat end mills which include a high helix angle. The short and medium two flute ball nose end mill type is suited for shops looking to save on cost on semi-finishing and finishing applications.

The line comes in a diameter range from 3 mm to 20 mm while optimised grades applied to the end mills include the TT5525 grade for flat types and the TT5515 grade for ball nose types.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5711 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Sierra Instruments: Thermal Mass Flow Meters

Walter: Economical Tool Grinding

Sierra Instruments, a global mass flow meter manufacturer, has developed its QuadraTherm 640i and 780i with full device description Foundation Fieldbus digital communication protocol.

This essentially makes t he f low meters suitable for industrial applications, including oil and gas.

T he compa ny ’s suite of digital communications solutions allows flow meter integration into automation and control systems, providing engineers and systems integrators with a turnkey solution.

The company’s digital communications solutions include HART, Profibus DP, Modbus RTU, Foundation Fieldbus, and BACnet (DeviceNet pending).

When it comes to flexibility in re-sharpening rotationally symmetrical tools from 3 mm diameter and producing tools with a diameter of 1 mm to 16 mm, Helitronic Essential is a tool grinding machine with a small footprint. According to the builder, it is good value for money as well.

This five-axis CNC grinding machine is suitable for rotationally symmetrical tools used in metaland wood working industries, special tools and the production of rotationally symmetric parts with complex geometries.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5712 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

78

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ENQUIRY No. 5713

asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 5714 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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EXHIBITIONPROGRAMMES

EXHIBITION

PROGRAMMES

2014

AUGUST

27 - 29 Vietnam Manufacturing Expo 2014 ICE Hanoi, Vietnam Reed Tradex contactcenter@reedtradex.co.th www.vietnammanufacturingexpo.com

27 – 30 Taipei Int’l Industrial Automation Exhibition 2014 TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall Taipei, Taiwan Chan Chao International automation@chanchao.com.tw www.autotaiwan.com.tw

27 – 30 Taipei Int’l Mold & Die Industry Fair 2014 TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall Taipei, Taiwan Chan Chao International show@chanchao.com.tw www.odm-dmi.com

27 – 30 MTT Expo 2014 Malaysia PWTC Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ECMI overseas@ecmi.asia mtt-kl.com

SEPTEMBER

9 – 11 Medical Manufacturing Asia

Suntec Singapore Singapore Messe Dusseldorf Asia shirley@mda.com.sg www.medmanufacturing-asia.com www.equipment-news.com

OCTOBER

2-4 Manufacturing Myanmar Myanmar Convention Centre Yangon, Myanmar SES mm@sesallworld.com manufacturingmyanmar.com

9 - 11 Metalex Vietnam 2014 SECC Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Reed Tradex metalexvietnam@reedtradex.co.th www.metalexvietnam.com

29 - 31 Intermach Myanmar Tatmadaw Exhibition Hall Yangon, Myanmar UBM Asia (Thailand) info@intermachmyanmar.com www.intermachmyanmar.com

29 – 31 Indonesia Mining & Engineering

Jakarta International Expo Jakarta, Indonesia Reed Mining Events hanung.hanindito@reedpanorama.com www.miningandengineeringindo.com

Oct 30 – Nov 4 JIMTOF 2014 Tokyo Big Sight Tokyo, Japan JMTBA www.jimtof.org

NOVEMBER

5–8 Indo Aerospace 2014 JI Expo Kemayoran Jakarta Jakarta, Indonesia PT Napindo Media Ashatama yulisa@napindo.com www.indoaerospace.com

5–8 Indo Marine 2014 JI Expo Kemayoran Jakarta Jakarta, Indonesia PT Napindo Media Ashatama yulisa@napindo.com www.indomarine.org

5–9 TMTS 2014

GTIEC Taichung, Taiwan TMBA ricky@tmba.org.tw www.tmts.tw

12 – 14 Welding Busan Korea 2014

BEXCO Busan, South Korea Metal Network Korea Company www.weldingasia.org

19 - 22 Metalex

BITEX Bangkok, Thailand Reed Tradex metalex@reedtradex.co.th www.metalex.co.th

DECEMBER 3–6 Manufacturing Indonesia

Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran Jakarta, Indonesia PT Pamerindo www.pamerindo.com

11 – 13 Indometal

JI Expo Kemayoran Jakarta Jakarta, Indonesia Messe Dusseldorf Asia beattrice@mda.com.sg www.indometal.net To be considered for inclusion in the calendar of events, send details of event to:

The Editor (APMEN) Eastern Trade Media

1100 Lower Delta Road, EPL Building #02-05 Singapore 169206 Email: josonng@epl.com.sg Tel: +65 63792888

May-Jun 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

79

ADVERTISING INDEX Page No.

Enquiry No.

BENIGN ENTERPRISE CO LTD

53

096

BYSTRONIC PTE LTD

05

100

DELCAM PLC

07

099

DMG ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD

21

106

ECMI SERVICE PTE LTD (MTT EXPO 2014)

71

098

HAAS AUTOMATION INC

11

093

Advertiser

Manufacturers and advertisers that are featured in this issue will send you free information about their products and services. Fill up the Product Enquiry Form on-line at www.equipment-news.com.

ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES HEAD OFFICE SINGAPORE EASTERN TRADE MEDIA PTE LTD 1100 Lower Delta Road, EPL Building #02-05, Singapore 169206 Tel: 65-6379 2888 Fax: 65-6379 2805/2806 E-mail: apmen@epl.com.sg FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES

HAIMER ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD

41

110

HEXAGON METROLOGY ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD

17

109

HOFFMANN QUALITY TOOLS ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD

FC

103

HWACHEON ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD

23

095

ISCAR LTD

IFC

104

KENNAMETAL INC

BC

102

MACK BROOKS LTD (EUROBLECH 2015)

43

108

RE-ATLANTIS ENTERPRISES CO LTD

77

094

02/03, 15

112

SECO TOOLS (S.E.A) PTE LTD

01

070

SIEMENS INDUSTRY SOFTWARE PTE LTD

19

101

TAEGUTEC CO

13

105

TMBA / TMTS 2014

73

097

TUNGALOY SINGAPORE (PTE) LTD

IBC

107

TUV SUD PSB PTE LTD

37

111

WALTER AG SINGAPORE PTE LTD

09

030

WIKUS SAGENFABRIK WILHELM H KULLMANN GMBH & CO KG

25

027

SCHUNK PTE LTD

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news Jul-Aug 2014

JAPAN Ted Asoshina ECHO JAPAN CORPORATION Tel: 81-3-3263 5065 Fax: 81-3-3234 2064 E-mail: aso@echo-japan.co.jp

KOREA Young-Seoh Chinn JES MEDIA INTERNATIONAL Tel: 82-2-481 3411/3 Fax: 82-2-481 3414 E-mail: jesmedia@unitel.co.kr

SWITZERLAND Rene Bachmann MEDIALL SA Tel: 41-56-442 14 40 Fax: 41-56-442 27 77 E-mail: rb@mediall.ch

TAIWAN Robert Yu WORLDWIDE SERVICES CO., LTD Tel: 886-4-2325 1784 Fax: 886-4-2325 2967 E-mail: sales@wwstaiwan.com

U. KINGDOM Eddie Kania ROBERT HORSFIELD INT'L MEDIA REP. Tel: 44-1663-750 242 Fax: 44-1663-750 973 E-mail: ekania@btopenworld.com

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ASIA PACIFIC METALWORKING

No. 5 2014

The Engineering Journal For Manufacturing,Automation & Quality Control

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Tungaloy Singapore Pte. Ltd. 31 Kaki Bukit Road 3 #05-19 Techlink Singapore 417818 Tel: (65) 6391 1833 Fax: (65) 6299 4557 ENQUIRY NO 107

is Better Thinking. ™

INTRODUCING

The Stellram Platform

®

7792VX High feed milling cutter designed to yield the highest levels of productivity by increasing metal removal rates — as much as 90% — in titanium and other mission-critical metallics. ™

X-Grade Carbide inserts with up to 3 times the normal tool life for high-temperature heat resistant alloys. Designed for use on nickel-, cobalt-, and titanium-based alloys. ™

Different Thinking is the leadership to transcend what customers need — and deliver solutions they can’t live without. Kennametal’s unique perspective, forged from more than 75 years of experience, allows us to see beyond the expected and engineer perfect solutions.

Different Thinking is Better Thinking — and this powers our continued commitment to delivering productivity in the most demanding environments.

www.kennametal.com ©2014 Kennametal Inc. l All rights reserved. l A-14-03805

ENQUIRY NO 102