APMEN September 2014

MACHINING EXOTIC MATERIALS: FIND OUT HOW TO MAKE IT LESS DIFFICULT | KEEP YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER WITH BETTER LOGISTICS September 2014

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CONTENTS 22

September 2014

56

34 MAKING THE CUT 22 Machining Exotic Materials: How To Get It Right

APMEN spoke with two machining experts to see how to handle exotic materials.

By Joson Ng

32

Machining Exotic Materials: Machine Builder’s Take

Machine rigidity, process integration and smart decisions can help make machining exotic materials less painful.

By Joson Ng

FABRICATOR'S NOTE 48 Customed-Made For Fibre Laser Cutting

SHOP TALK 34

Go Up To Eight Axes With Laser Micro Machining Systems

Adopting modular systems that are easily integrated is the way forward in producing micro sized products. By Eduard Fassbind, Swisstec Micromachining

28

Exotic Materials Need Exotic Machining

Heat-resistant superalloys and titanium alloys are exotic. While they have superb properties, they also demand exotic solutions in the form of dedicated tools and carefully-developed methods if competitive efficiency and good results are to be achieved. By Christer Richt, Sandvik Coromant

31

Shop Talk: Exotic Materials

Let’s take a quick look at some tips from the shop floor on dealing with exotic materials.

4

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

DESIGN & MEASUREMENT 38

How To Decide Between Contact & Non-Contact Measurement?

Making a right choice between tactile and non-tactile measuring technology may be a challenging task. By Joson Ng

44

Fast & Accurate Inspection Of Glass Grinding Wheel

A non-contact high-speed sensor can accurately measure the typical characteristics of the grooves on a grinding wheel. By Dr Kalman Wilner and Karol Sanilevici, Optical Metrology

We take a look at how a sheet metal machine tool builder works with a laser OEM to build a fibre laser machine. By Andy Sandford, for LVD

INDUSTRY FOCUS 52 Let Someone Else Take Care Of Logistics

Why worry about tool logistics issues when you can outsource them? By Markus Gorg, Walter Multiply

56

How To Build A Lean Mean Machine For The Factory Of The Future

Building real time locating systems can deliver precise, real-time visibility of critical assets across the value chains that have extended beyond simply collecting data. By Ryan Goh, Zebra Technologies

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World Class Manufacturing World Class Manufacturing We’ll take you to the top.

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CONTENTS

September 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.

63

60

Achieving The Fast Data Advantage In Logistics And Supply Chains

Companies that leverage Fast Data are reaping huge benefits. By Kevin Pool, Tibco Asia

62

How To Transform Digital Tool Knowledge Into Productivity Improvement?

A digital tool selector & process planner can power shop systems hungry for accurate and timely tool knowledge by interfacing with tool management, e-commerce, and other programs.

68

68

It’s Always Better To Do It Yourself

We see how a Taiwanese contract manufacturer improves their delivery of parts for an optical communication components and sub-systems supplier by moving production in-house. By Matt Bailey, Haas Automation

71

Measure Profile Of Glowing Wires, Bar Steel & Tubes Automatically

The ability to generate instantaneous warnings may prove to be a welcome addition to the increasingly competitive steel industry.

By Thomas Armbruster, Lap

MANAGER'S TAKE 63

While anti-China protests in Vietnam threatened businesses back in May, there was a scene of normality at the SECC where MTA Vietnam 2014 took place. By Joson Ng

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

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

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 Malaysian Foundry & Engineering Industry Associations

Attaching a business case to workplace safety may well be the much needed catalyst for organisations to finally sit up and take notice.

By Joson Ng

Vietnam Metalworking Market: On The Right Track

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Federation of Asian Die & Mould Associations (FADMA)

Workplace Safety: Taking Steps To Good Business

FEATURES 66

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

EVENTS & EXHIBITION 72 Special Report: EMTE-Eastpo 2014

Yoyo Xie was in Shanghai to see what Europe’s finest had to offer.

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Make Exotic Familiar Exotic locations, exotic plants and even exotic dancers — they all evoke a sense of adventure and a certain degree of danger. While we may have our nerves jangled by the prospect of dealing with the situations above, I guess it is fair to say most people would be drawn to those things to a certain degree nonetheless.

Machining exotic materials is admittedly a comparatively less exciting endeavour, but it does t r i g ge r t he s a me se n se s i n a machinist. We hope to allay those fears in this issue of Asia Pacific Metalworkin g Equipment News, by speaking to machine builders, cutting tool manufacturers and machining experts, in order to channel their thoughts on machining exotic materials to you.

Unsurprisingly, machine builders point to the rigidity of the machine as a basis for efficient machining of exotic materials, and cutting tool makers see using specially designed tools as an important factor.

Moving away from exotic material machining and into metrology, we will try to answer the proverbial question: Contact or Non-contact measurement, which one is right for me? Again, we cast the net far and wide and managed to speak with the leading metrology solution providers as they give their candid views on the issue.

Interestingly, most agree that contact measurement is still leading the way in the Southeast Asia, but the flexibility and speed of the exotic non-contact measurement cannot be ignored. Some also advocate the adoption of combination machines, which present the best of both worlds.

Last but not least, we will explore an exotic segment of metalworking/ manufacturing that is often neglected, which is the logistics and supply chain space. We will take a look at how better tool management can reap higher productivity and how building real time locating systems can deliver precise, real-time visibility of critical assets across the value chain.

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

graphic designer Jef Pimentel

jeffreypimentel@epl.com.sg

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

assistant circulation manager Chiang Hui chianghui@epl.com.sg

contributors Christer Richt Eduard Fassbind Dr Kalman Wilner Karol Sanilevici Andy Sandford Markus Gorg Ryan Goh Kevin Pool Matt Bailey Yoyo Xie Thomas Armbruster 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. 037/06/2014 PPS 840/09/2012 (022818) ISSN 0129/5519

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chairman Kenneth Tan executive director Lum Kum Kuen

Joson Ng Senior Editor

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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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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

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ENQUIRY NO 118

BUSINESS NEWS Hexagon Metrology Expands Footprint In Japan

Nagoya, Japan: Hexagon Metrology has opened its branch office in Nagoya, Japan. The office will support customers from product enquiry to after sales needs.

Commenting on the opening, Lim Boon Choon, president of the company’s operation in the Asia Pacific region said: “Hexagon Metrology has been present in Japan since 1975. This new sales and technical support centre reflects our deep commitment to provide good support and services to our Japanese customers. In the coming years, we will open up more facilities and hire more staff in Japan to serve our customers in Japan.”

“Nagoya region is the heart of the automotive industry in Japan.

This new footprint will enable us to work closely with our customers,” said Takashi Isaji, business development director portable — Asia Pacific. “Systems such as portable measuring arms, laser trackers, CMMs and white light scanner system are on display and our priority is to also provide prompt and highly competent aftermarket service to our customers.”

China’s Manufacturing PMI At 18-Month High China: China’s manufacturing PMI stands at 51.7 in July, posting the strongest rate of improvement for a year-and-a-half. While it was down slightly from the earlier flash reading, a one-point increase from June signals further improvement in the health of China’s manufacturing sector.

Commenting on the PMI survey, Hongbin Qu, chief economist, China & Co-Head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC said: “The economy is improving sequentially and registered across-the-board improvement compared to June. Policy makers are continuing with targeted easing in recent weeks and we expect the cumulative impact of these measures to filter through in the next few months and help consolidate the recovery.”

Other observers suggested that production rose in line with greater volumes of new work, which was highlighted by a solid increase in total new business placed at Chinese goods producers. New work from abroad also rose at a faster pace in July, with the latest expansion of new export order books the second-strongest in 44 months.

10

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

MHI To Increase Production Of Composite Wing Boxes Tokyo, Japan: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries ( MHI ) will ma ke investments for production facilities for the 787 composite wing box at Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works (Shimonoseki) and Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works (Nagoya) in response to Boeing's plan to increase production rate of 787 from the current 10 shipsets per month to 14 shipsets by the end of the decade.

Commencing from October 2014, construction work will start at Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works where composite stringers, a reinforcement structure, are manufactured. Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works' Oye Plant, where composite skin panels and wing boxes are fabricated and assembled will also be expanded.

Shimonosek i Shipya rd & Machinery Works will expand the aircraft shop and will add an autoclave for curing and shapeforming the layered composite prepregs under high temperature and high pressure. In Oye plant in Nagoya, automated composite tape layer in the fabrication factory will be added and the painting and assembly factory will be expanded including modification of automated drilling machine and installation of painting robot.

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BUSINESSNEWS

Stratasys Opens Demo Centre In Singapore

S i n g a p o r e : S t ra t a s y s A sia Pacific has opened a 3D Printing Experience Centre at its new office located in Toa Payoh, Singapore, providing local support as well as serving the region. According to Jonathan Jaglom, GM in charge of the company’s operations in Asia Pacific & Japan, the establishment of this centre allows the company to use Singapore as a regional hub, reaching out to countries in Southeast Asia as well as India and Australia.

“This is a subsidiary that is able to do any task required.

We are eager to find ways to collaborate with the (Singapore) government and we have all the infrastructure needed to do that,” he said.

I n au g u ra te d o n Ju l y 3 0 , 2014, the centre is displaying t he compa ny ’s PolyJet a nd Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technologies. The facility currently houses four machines (Objet500 Connex3, Objet30

Dongfeng Nissan To Invest RMB 500 Million In New Facilities Guangzhou, China: A groundbreaking ceremony was held for three new business units at Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company (DFL-PV), namely the Venucia Design Center, the Advanced Engineering Technology C e nte r a n d t he C o r p o ra te University. The first phase of main construction is expected to be completed in 2015.

Total investment by DFL PV for these business units is approximately CNY500 million (US$81.2 million). The design centre will focus on the exterior a nd inter ior de sig n, colour design, clay model and digital model development.

The engineering technology centre will be responsible for new model preparation, including 12

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

Pro, Fortus 400mc and uPrint Se Plus) ranging from desktop 3D printers to large, advanced 3D production systems. The centre is also showcasing the c o m p a n y ’s e n g i n e e r e d 3 D printing materials — PolyJet photopoly mers a nd F DM thermoplastics, which are the 3D printing materials currently available in the industry.

I d o Ey l o n , G M o f S o u t h A sia commented: “Stratasys re cog n ise s t he i mp or ta nce of implementing a globa l s t r a te g y i n l o c a l c o n te x t .

E stablishing a demo centre locally allows our customers to se e ou r te c h nolog ie s i n action and realise the values and advantages of 3D printing technology.”

Hinting that the company is open to further expansion, Mr Jaglom said: “Our office is bigger than the previous one but still not as big as I expect it to be in two to three years’ time. But it is a good start.” university will also collaborate with other academic institutions for hiring and training of young talent.

It is expected that these three business units will strengthen the company's value chain, contributing to product competitiveness and, subsequently, sales. Additionally, these business units will help position the company to be on the cutting edge of the Chinese automotive industry with localised designs, advanced manufacturing technology and talent.

homologation, protot y pe development and testing, as well as development of manufacturing technologies for future Venucia vehicles.

The Corporate University will provide training programs and an educational platform for the company's managerial, administrative and engineering staff, dealers and suppliers. The

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Fraunhofer

Liquid Crystal Lubricant Can Reduce Friction & Wear Drastically

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The chemical makeup of the liquid crystalline fluid sets it apart; although it is a liquid, the molecules display directional proper ties like cr ysta ls do.

W hen two surfaces move in opposite directions, the liquid crystal molecules between the two surfaces align themselves so that the frictional resistance is extremely low. This enables nearly frictionless sliding.

During the course of the project, the partners managed to produce a liquid crystalline lubr ica nt protot y pe t hat per formed be st in sliding bearings made of iron.

C u r r e n t l y, t h e t e a m i s developing sliding bea rings lubricated with liquid crystal for small electric motors for use in the automobile industry, for instance in alternators or windshield wiper motors.

G e r m a ny : T h e F r a u n h o fe r I n s t it u te fo r M e c h a n ic s o f M ate r ia l s I W M i n F re ibu rg ha s develope d a new cla ss of substa nce that ca n have

sma ll gea rs running with virtually no friction. Made from liquid crystalline fluid, these lubricants can reduce friction and wear.

Toyota Starts CVT Production In China

US Manufacturing Technology Orders & Cutting Tool Consumption Up In June

Changshu, China: Toyota Motor Corporation’s (TMC’s) vehicle powertrain production subsidiary in Changshu, China, Toyota Motor (Changshu) Auto Parts (TMCAP) has started localised production o f C o n t i n u o u s l y Va r i a b l e Transmissions (CVTs), which is a first for the company outside Japan. Production of transaxles for hybrid vehicles — also a first for the company outside Japan — is scheduled to begin at the China plant in 2015.

Established in July 2012, TMCAP began production of CVTs for compact cars in July this year. The company is working to address anticipated demand for hybrid vehicles in China, with preparations underway to also locally produce hybrid system batteries and inverters. Chinamade hybrid components will be used in China-market Corollas and Levins starting in 2015.

US: US manufacturing technology orders in June totalled US$405.73 million according to AMT — The Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTO program, was up 12.6 percent from May but down 2.1 percent when compared with the total of US$414.26 million reported for June 2013. With a year-to-date total of US$2,349.38 million, 2014 is down 2.7 percent compared with 2013.

“Order gains in June were driven by two factors — the end of the quarter and continued strength in key customer industries, especially automotive, aerospace, medical and energy,” said Douglas K Woods, AMT President.

“What really warrants attention, however, is a rise in the average value of orders, as this suggests manufacturers are making investments in greater productivity as well as capacity. Our forecasts suggest continued moderate growth throughout the rest of the year and going into 2015.”

The numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTO program.

Meanwhile, the US cutting tool consumption was also up in June.

According to the US Cutting Tool Institute and AMT, June’s figures totalled US$181 million, up 7.3 percent from May’s total and up 9.9 percent from June 2013.

This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report (CTMR) collaboration, represents about 80 percent of the US market for cutting tools.

“June represents the strongest sales numbers in 2014 which projects optimism for the remainder of the year,” said Tom Haag, president of USCTI. “This strong month has continued to gain ground versus 2013 sales for the fifth consecutive month and sets the stage for surpassing last year’s totals.”

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

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Marcus Rhoads, Moore, US

Chinese Consumer Sentiment Improving, Driven By MACs In Smaller Cities

Hong Kong: After dipping last year, Chinese consumer sentiment has improved and in smaller cities has even bounced back, according to Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG).

The consulting group's Center for Consumer and Customer Insight (CCCI) surveyed 1,000 people in 12 cities and found that consumers feel more optimistic and secure, while also accepting that economic growth is leveling off.

“Last year was the first time in recent history that more Chinese consumers wanted to cut spending than to increase it. This year, the balance has shifted back. The number of consumers who plan to spend more money in the coming year exceeds the number who plan to spend less,” said Youchi Kuo, an

expert principal at BCG. The improvement in sentiment is driven by Middle-class and Affluent Consumers (MACs) from smaller cities, where people intend to spend more money on more things. “Last year, small-city MACs were feeling the hit of the Chinese government’s anticorruption campaign, which caused cancellation of subsidies a nd re duce d discret iona r y spending,” said Jeff Walters, a BCG partner. “However, people have adjusted, and sentiment has returned to previous levels.”

In bigger cities, sentiment continues to deteriorate, but the intention to spend is strong in certain categories. Big-city MACs have become more cautious and selective when it comes to where

3D Systems Expands Manufacturing Facility To Meet Growing Demand Rock Hill, US: 3D Systems has signed a lease on a new 200,000 sq ft facility in Rock Hill, South Carolina, increasing its manufacturing and distribution capacity to meet growing demand for its 3D printers and materials. The addition of this manufacturing and distribution centre is part of the company’s previously announced expansion.

This move will consolidate and strengthen all existing Rock Hill based manufacturing and distribution operations in support of the company’s expanding range of 3D printers and materials. The company plans to expand its R&D and engineering operations using freed-up space in its current headquarters building.

“Our continued Rock Hill expansion underscores our commitment to localised manufacturing, demonstrating through our actions that what is designed locally can be built locally,” said Avi Reichental, president and CEO, 3DS. “This investment is in direct response to the growing demand for our professional printers.”

16

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

they spend. They are saving their money for big purchases such as cars, houses, and education, and they are valuing quality over quantity. They are willing to spend even more than before on highpriority categories but are no longer interested on trading up in nonessential categories like packaged food and beverages and entertainment. These categories may see slower growth in big cities.

Opportunity remains for them, however, in smaller cities.

Looking ahead, the road will be bumpier than in the past, but growth opportunities still exist in some consumer segments. To capture them, companies will need to act swiftly in response to the changing dynamics across small and big cities.

Scoot Selects Pratt & Whitney AeroPower For 787 APU Maintenance Support East Hartford, US: Pratt & Whitney AeroPower has signed a long-term comprehensive APS5000 Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) maintenance support agreement with Scoot, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, for its new fleet of 20 Boeing 787 series aircraft.

The support agreement includes repair services and spares asset management. " We a re ver y plea sed to enter into a long-term support agreement with Scoot and look forward to supporting their 787 fleet," said Eileen Drake, VP and GM, Pratt & Whitney AeroPower.

"This program closely aligns with Scoot's emphasis on affordability without compromising safety, performance, and reliability. It also builds on our long-term APU support relationship already in place with Singapore Airlines." www.equipment-news.com

ENQUIRY NO 128

BUSINESSNEWS

Clint Rankin, Cleveland, US

Japanese Machine Tool Orders Up In June

Tokyo, Japan: The total value of machine tool orders in June was JPY127.64 billion (US$1.25 billion). According to JMTBA, it marked the first month-onmonth growth in three months.

In addition, this figure represented an increase of 34.1 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, with June posting the ninth consecutive month of year-on-year growth. The total amount of orders has now topped JPY100 billion for 10 consecutive months and has also passed JPY120 billion for four consecutive months.

Both domestic and foreign demands are expected to be driven by a recovery trend in the future. Domestic orders rose by 16.2 percent over May, amounting to JPY42.66 billion. This marked the second consecutive month of month-on-month increase. This figure was also an increase of 33.1 percent over the same month of the previous year and marked the 12th consecutive month of year-on-year growth.

Foreign orders rose by 1.4 percent over May to JPY84.98 billion. This marked the first month-on-month increase in three months. At the same time, foreign orders showed an increase of 34.6 percent from the same month of the previous year, with June posting the eighth consecutive month of year-on-year growth.

By region, orders from Asia fell by 3.8 percent from May to JPY42.72 billion. This was an increase of 70.9 percent from the same month of the previous year. Orders from Europe fell by 2.3 percent from May to JPY16.17 billion. This was an increase of 26.7 percent over the same month of the previous year. Orders from North America rose by 12.6 percent over May, amounting to JPY23.35 billion. However, this was a decrease of 1.8 percent from the same month of the previous year.

Tata Steel Develops A Lighter Crash Protection Automotive Steel Grade

India: Tata Steel has developed a p ro d u c t fo r a u to m o t i v e manufacturers in response to market requirements for stronger and lighter steels.

The DP1000HY-GI is a high-yield, ultra high-strength steel which combines strength and formability and allows manufacturers to make lighter components without altering their production facilities.

The material is suitable for the crash-protection structure of a vehicle. According to the manufacturer, the product can reduce a component's weight by up to 15 percent.

Sander Heinhuis, the company's European marketing manager for Automotive, said: "Through the development of DP1000HY, Tata Steel has combined high yield, ultra high strength and formability, allowing automotive manufacturers to reduce the thickness of the steel they use. They can consequently achieve crash-protection and at the same time have the option of reducing weight. We are working closely with our customers to demonstrate the benefits they can achieve from using this product."

ESAB’s Management Systems Achieve Recertification Sweden: ESAB Welding & Cutting Products has achieved ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSA S 18001 recertification for its quality, environmental, and occupational health and safety management systems. This triple recertification covers all the company’s activities, people and units worldwide.

“ESAB is focused on excellence in all areas of the business and invests heavily in this effort across our global organisation,” said John Hagen, VP, Global Quality and EHS. 18

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

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ENQUIRY NO 123

BUSINESSNEWS

Frost & Sullivan: More Metrology Equipment In The Automotive Industry Due To Automation Inline metrology solutions are gaining ground in the automotive industry

Mou nt a i n V iew, U S: R apid a u to m a t i o n o f a u to m o t i v e manufacturing plants is one of the key factors driving the demand for inline metrology solutions in the automotive industry, says a consulting firm.

According to Frost & Sullivan, several powertrain and body-inwhite manufacturers will replace traditional, manual measurement solutions — such as CMMs — with inline metrology solutions.

Moving forward, as companies

ST Aerospace Secures Aircraft Completion Contract

Oerlikon Balzers Wins Innovation Award

Singapore: ST Aerospace’s VIP completions brand ‘Aeria Luxury Interiors’ (Aeria) has secured a noseto-tail cabin completion contract for a wide-body VIP aircraft. This follows shortly after clinching a green aircraft completion deal for a VIP 737 BBJ in February this year.

The aircraft interior will be designed by the company's own cabin design team. The aircraft is scheduled to arrive in the company’s remodelled hangar for cabin completion in the third quarter of 2014, with redelivery planned in the fourth quarter of 2016.

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strive to gain a competitive edge by robotising their manufacturing plants, end-to-end automated inline metrology will be a key solution demanded by leading automotive manufacturers.

The consulting firm a lso states that the market earned revenue of US$949.2 million in 2013 and estimates this to reach approximately US$1.23 billion in 2018.

Finally, with growing interest in concepts such as ‘Industry 4.0’, smart factories and zero defects, the trend toward automation is undeniable and continues to gain momentum. The inline metrology seg ment in t he automotive industry is likely to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAG R) of 12. 2 percent till 2018. Dimensional metrology ma nufacturers w ill need to adapt its product development strategies to keep pace with the requirements of its automotive customers.

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

Balzers, Liechtenstein: Oerlikon PPD Balzers has won this year’s Red Dot Award with its two coating systems Inubia B6 a nd PPD. The former is a coating u nit t hat ha s b e en designed for efficient surface treatment of components in the high-end design segment, where coating quality and appearance, durability, economy and reproducibility are all of equal importance.

The latter is the largest of its kind in the world and can process even the largest forming tools in the automotive industry, says the manufacturer. It is based on the Pulsed-Plasma Diffusion (PPD) process developed by the award winner, which is an efficient and clean replacement for the hardchrome plating process generally used in the automotive industry.

A panel of 40 international experts discussed and assessed 4,815 entries from 53 nations for this year’s awards. www.equipment-news.com

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ENQUIRY NO 130

MAKING THE CUT

Machining Exotic Materials:

How To

Get It Right APMEN spoke with two machining experts to see how they are handling the machining and fabrication of exotic materials. By Joson Ng

I

n recent months, there have been reports on the discovery of a super heavy ne w e le me nt te nt at i ve l y n a m e d e l e m e n t 117. W h i l e verifications are still ongoing,

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

people are already speculating the potentia l impact it w ill br ing to science a nd t he industr y. A s we wa it to see i f e l e m e nt 117 m a ke s it to the per iodic table a nd join

the likes of exotic- sounding elements such as Francium and Rubidium, the metalworking i ndu st r y cont i nue s to de a l with its existing list of exotic materials.

There are many definitions of exotic materials in meta lwork ing a nd t r ut h b e told, a n ‘exotic’ materia l in job shop A could well be a ‘normal’ material in job shop B. In addition, thanks to technical advancements, what was exotic a few ye a r s b ac k cou ld b e nothing more than a material that requires special care now during machining.

What’s So Difficult?

“Exotic materials are used in harsh environments, in high pressure, high temperature and in corrosive conditions. Inconel www.equipment-news.com

MAKINGTHECUT

Dr Liu (L) and Dr Lim

718 a nd tita nium a lloys a re some of the examples,” said Dr Liu Kui, a scientist specialising in machining te chnolog y at S I M Te c h. “ I n S i n gap ore , majority of these materials are used for the aerospace and oil and gas industry applications.”

From the laser cutting point of view however, the definition of exotic materials can be very different indeed.

“E xotic mater ia ls may a lso include those that a re very difficult to machine with conventiona l methods such as surface hardened glasses a nd cera mics,” sa id Dr L im Gnian Cher, principal scientist in machining technology, also from SIMTech.

Working on collaborative industrial projects, the duo has amassed a wealth of experience on work ing w ith difficult materials.

Dr Liu has worked with a group of companies from the oil and gas industry and the proje ct involve d de ep hole drilling of Inconel 718. “This material has high yield strength of above 150 ksi. When carrying out deep hole drilling, tool wear is very rapid. There are also www.equipment-news.com

some instances where we suffer c at a st roph ic fa i lu re of t he cutting edge. Another challenge is that the temperature in the cutting region is quite high,” he said.

According to him, t he tool fa ilure problem ca n b e a t t r ib u te d to t h e wo r k h a rde n i n g n at u re fou nd i n Inconel 718.

“When you cut the material, it hardens. Coupling that with

its low thermal conductivity, heat generated in the cutting reg ion w ill be more on t he tool edge, resulting in higher cutting edge temperature. This will degrade the cutting tool h a rd n e s s a n d c a u s e t h o s e failures.” He believes as a direct result of the material’s nature, it takes about 20 times longer to drill Inconel 718 with high a sp e c t rat io t ha n co m mo n harden steel.

Like machining, heat is also a delicate issue in laser cutting.

According to Dr Lim, cutting hard and brittle materials like Sapphire and Silicon Carbide can be tough, be it for drilling, cutting and slicing.

“In the cutting operation, some materials will redeposit, causing conta mination. In certain applications, especially in the microelectronic industry, you really do not want that.

On the other ha nd, sur face quality and thermal issues are concerns,” he said.

The introduction of heat in particular is a risky situation that cannot be eradicated. As such, operators have to walk a fine line.

Thermal degradation may well be the biggest obstacle to overcome when cutting ceramic glasses with laser.

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

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MAKINGTHECUT

A crucial part in machining exotic material involves adequate cooling of the cutting tool in order to prolong tool life.

“All materials are sensitive to high temperature damage but some are not as sensitive.

Sometime s the issue is not the material itself, it is in the devices. As a result, we have to consider the whole system or de v ice . O ne e x a mple i s t h e s e m i c o n d u c to r d e v i c e where integrated circuitries are fabricated on Silicon and more recently on Sapphire and Silicon Carbide. As there are very sensitive microelectronic circuitries present, we have to see how to reduce or minimise heat retention on the substrate,” he said.

Getting Around It Thermal degradation seems to b e t he ma i n me c ha n ism fo r sh o r te r t h a n e x p e c te d tool life and in order to nip the problem in its bud, most solutions or strategies used to tackle difficult materials are designed to reduce heat at the cutting zone.

“For common Inconel 718 m ac h i n i n g, we a ppl y h i g h pressure coolant. In the market, 24

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

they are 70 bar high-pressure coolant. This can help prolong tool life by maybe two times.

The second potential solution is by using cryogenic (liquids) to cool the area, reducing heat in order to increase productivity,” said Dr Liu. H e re ve a le d st ud ie s a re still being carried out at the institute to optimise the coolant delivery system and process parameters. He added t hat t he re i s a te c h nolo g y that combines ECM and EDM and it involves applying highpre s su re d ie le c t r ic o n t he f i n i sh i n g a re a for m ate r ia l remova l. A not her potent ia l solution is using harder tool materials like PCBN. I f t h e r e a r e r e a s o n s to prevent the adoption of highp r e s su r e co o l a n t o r o t h e r technologies, Dr Liu said that by using lower cutting speed, operators can prolong tool life when cutting Inconel.

In la ser cutting, things happen quickly and are often invisible to the naked eye. As such, it is important to know

the mechanisms behind the cutting process. “ L a se r c ut t i n g o f e xot ic mater ia ls relie s on he at to a g re at e x te nt. T he la ser beam energy is concentrated on a small spot, raising the temperature to the point of vapourisation. To avoid the problems caused by heat, the solution is to make sure as little heat is retained by the material (as possible). The way to do it is to use a short pulse laser beam. The shorter it is, the more efficient the materials will absorb the heat energy in order for the temperature to rise to the melting and decomposition range very quickly, allowing very little or any heat (at all) to retain on the material (and for it) to be conducted away,” said Dr Lim. Extremely short pulse lasers are now available to the industry users. For a femtosecond laser that produces pulses less than 20 0 fs e ach, the la ser light travels a distance of less than the dia meter of a stra nd of hair. When each pulse hits the material, the energy absorbed stays within the atomic range of the material because it takes longer than 200 fs for heat to pass from one atom to another.

At the end of the day, using short laser pulse rate would help mitigate the thermal issue a nd the qua lit y of the pa r t would be better too, according to him.

Plan Ahead Before going on a vacation to an exotic location, many will spend some time planning for their holiday before they hop on a plane. The same mentality w ill ser ve op erators well when t hey f ind t hem selve s with an exotic material to cut because k nowledge is often the sharpest tool in the shed.

“Whether you are cutting www.equipment-news.com

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MAKINGTHECUT gla ss cera mic or a ny ot her mater ia l, it is impor ta nt to u n de r s t a n d t he prop e r t ie s of the materials that you are cutting. Laser cutting depends on a large number of factors.

There are some questions to answer: How does the material absorb the laser beam? Glass is transparent to most laser

bea ms but yet you ca n use transparent laser beam to cut glass. Why? You also have to understa nd the proper ty of the laser itself,� said Dr Lim. Armed with the theoretical knowledge and technical knowh ow, m e t a l wo r ke r s sh o u l d be able to de a l w ith exotic materials in a normal way and

await fresh challenges posed by a new generation of exotic materials that will no doubt find their way into a machine tool before we know it.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6001 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Tips On Micromachining We also find out what to look out for in micromachining. cylinder. The typical tolerance we are working on is 30 to 50 micron.

Dr Liu: Micromachining challenges our capability or exposes our limitations.

Sometimes we have to look at different methodologies to remove materials or even use customised tools.

APMEN: What advice would you give machinists who are trying their hand in micromachining for the first time?

APMEN: Please share with our readers a project that you are working on now or in the past involving micromachining.

Dr Lim: We were manufacturing a stent out of a biopolymer. There were two challenges. Polymer is very sensitive to temperature. In addition, being a stent, the diameter can be 1 mm. We needed to cut (using laser) an intricate micro

profile on the stent. As such, we had to avoid not just melting or introducing excessive heat as the material is prone to deformation.

There are other factors to consider, like how to hold sof t materials and applying the right parameters. Finally, having a small diameter, you risk cutting the bottom of the cylinder with your laser beam as you cut the top of the

One common misconception is that they think since the part is small and the material removal is small, the process should be very fast.

- Dr Liu on micromachining

Dr Liu: One common misconception is that they (customers) think since the part is small and the material removal is small, the process should be very fast.

Actually that is not true. We use a micro tool so the removal is much smaller and the machining time will subsequently be long. Another thing to note is that in micromachining, parts can be big but structures can be about 5 to 10 microns.

As we are conducting mechanical machining, there will be deformation of microstructures and also the production of burr. Deburring is very tough as the structure is small. As a result, we try to minimise burr formations. If you want to do this, you need to have a suitable machine tool, holder and spindle. A common machine tool may be suitable provided its spindle run-out is not more than 5 to 10 microns because that may be bigger than the microstructure that you are trying to cut.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6002 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

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ENQUIRY NO 120

MAKINGTHECUT

Exotic Materials Need

Exotic Machining Heat-resistant superalloys and titanium alloys are exotic. While they have superb properties, they also demand exotic solutions in the form of dedicated tools and carefully developed methods if competitive efficiency and good results are to be achieved. By Christer Richt, technical editor of Sandvik Coromant

T

he ability to machine a component-material is determined by several factors, which decide the requirements and outcomes of a metal cutting operation. On most scales, exotic materials have poor machinability. They are seen as demanding to cut — but not difficult if approached in a suitable way.

The more exotic common component- mater ia ls a re classified under the ISO group of S: Heat Resistant Super Alloys ( HR SA) and titanium alloys.

For machining, these can all be split into several sub-groups, depending upon composition, condition and properties. The chemical nature and metallurgical composition of an S-classified alloy will determine its physical properties and machinability.

Chip control is generally demanding due to the segmentation of chips. It is not unusual for the specific cutting force (that is the direct measure of how hard it is to cut a material, which determines the cutting force and power needed) to be twice that of steel (ISO P).

The main reason that HRSA materials are demanding to cut is because they retain high strength at high temperatures. They do

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

not soften and flow in the way most other materials do and they also work harden readily. As a result, high mechanical load and considerable heat are concentrated on the cutting edge.

Nickel-, iron- or cobalt-based alloys are sub-groups of HRSA, having capabilities for component use in the aerospace, energy and medical industries as their advantageous properties do not change much until they are close to their melting point.

From a machinability point of view however, they need more from the machine (extra stable set-up conditions), dedicated insert grades and geometries, optimised coolant application (preferably through qualified high-pressure tooling) and the right machining method and tool approach.

Titanium Titanium as a component material is also divided into sub-groups with varying machinability demands.

Generally, machinability is rated as poor and, again, places special demands on tools and methods.

With poor thermal conductivity and its high strength at high temperatures, highly-sheared thin chips are generated, with a tendency

for galling, creating a narrow contact area on the insert rake face, with high cutting forces concentrated close to the cutting edge.

Chips can have cyclic formation, leading to variable cutting forces, and some alloys have a relatively high level of carbides that make the material very abrasive. Excessive cutting speeds can give rise to a chemical reaction between chip and tool material, resulting in sudden chipping of the cutting edge, smearing and even fracture.

With these challenges, the window for successful machining of many HRSAs and titanium alloys is relatively small.

Dealing With HRSA Turning operations dominate HRSA machining, where success has a lot to do with balancing the combined effect of the material and application factors. There are a few basic recommendations which contribute hugely to its success: - h av e a s o u n d m a c h i n i n g strategy, preplanned in detail, - establish the best tool approach, - decide the best tool paths and use very stable tool holding, www.equipment-news.com

MAKINGTHECUT - usage of dedicated indexable insert technology, - apply the most suitable cutting data from a qualified source of recommendations, - u se spira l cut t in g le n g t h calculation for predicting cuts, - apply coolant correctly — high pressure is often advantageous.

The HRSA machining process should always be carefully planned because of the decisive factors involved, such as consideration to the state of the work piece material.

Cast, forged, bar-stock, type of heat treatment, solution treatment and ageing considerably affect the component in ways that influence the selection of tools and methods.

Surface condition values vary and affect machining, as does the material’s hardness. The strategy for HRSA turning should also include the demands made from the design features on the components to be machined, as well as the various stages of machining.

Making The Right Choices The cutting action in HRSAs is affected by the approach of the cutting edge to the work piece.

The entering angle of the cutting edge, in combination with the insert geometry, dominates performance, tool life, security and results.

Insert shapes often have to be chosen in relation to the cut that needs to be taken. Using a small entering angle however, contributes to performance and tool life and should always be a key parameter of the application.

The choice of insert grade needs to be made partly in relation to the entering angle. Amongst other things, the entering angle influences the type of wear that forms a notch on the cutting edge, the size of which affects results and causes premature tool failure.

Getting the approach part of the www.equipment-news.com

When turning HRSA-material into corners, the entering angle should be minimised for best effects.

This can be done through the use of an insert having chamfered corners as part of the geometry

application right also means that an insert grade capable of higher productivity can be chosen.

I n s e r t g r a d e sh o u l d b e influenced by the type of turning operation involved — roughing, semi-finishing or finishing — as well as the workpiece condition and the type of cut.

Due to the hardness of HRSAs, plastic deformation of the cutting edge should always be considered as the primary risk when selecting the insert grade (while notch wear is mainly affected by the entering angle and depth of cut).

Insert grade selection should also be considered in relation to the insert shape as this is a strength issue that affects the approach, chip load and whether there is a continuous or interrupted cut.

Dedicated grades are therefore vital for HRSA-machining.

Adopting New Ways To Handle Titanium Milling operations dominate titanium machining. A correct and consistent tool path is as important as the flight path that aircraft operate on.

Machining structures in this material, especially for aerospace applications, is dema nding.

However, with the right tools and

tool path strategies consistently used, there are opportunities in becoming a very competitive supplier of machined Ti-parts.

Focusing on the crucial points has been found to be decisive to success.

For various reasons, titanium machining has up to now been widely viewed from a traditional point of view by many machine shops. As such, it was not forced to follow the progressive development found in the machining of many other materials.

Being a challenging material to machine, coupling that with the fact that many of the components are complex, meant that a safe approach was the order of the day.

However, with the large number of titanium components needed and supplier opportunities created, a new approach to efficiency, coupled with reliability, is inevitable.

When machining titanium, detailed planning of operations is needed. Factors such as the capability values of available machine tools, holding tools, component size and features, fixturing facilities, programming, cutter paths, tool load, choice of tool and method as well as the coolant capacity are decisive to the outcome of machining.

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

29

MAKINGTHECUT A high-pressure, precision jet coolant supply through nozzles at each cutting edge has elevated performance considerably.

Putting Titanium Through The Works Sound titanium milling can be made by following a few basic recommendations: - l i m i t t h e m a c h i n i n g te mp e rat u re t h rou g h t he cutting speed value - lower machining temperatures further (and raise the potential for speeds) through the correct use of coolant. High-pressure coolant with modern nozzle technology in the tool should be deployed - u se co mp a rat i ve l y sh a r p cutting edges to reduce the effects of the high friction coefficient.

- use the feed rate to optimise metal removal rate and cutting times and avoid idling during tool material engagement.

- replace cutting edges at the early stages of tool wear.

- p r o g r a m m a c h i n i n g t o minimise impact and stress on tool; maintain tool in cut, while also optimising process efficiency.

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- ensu re t he applicat ion of re co m m e n d e d v a lu e s fo r maximum chip thickness and feed-per-tooth.

Today, there is a wide selection of milling methods that optimise t he ava ilable prog ra m ming facilities. In addition to face and square-shoulder milling, there are various ways to mill profiles, cavities and grooves.

Methods like radial milling, linear and circular ramping, plunge milling, peck milling, highfeed milling, and slicing of cavities and corners have been developed extensively along with new tool technology.

Applying Good Practices An example of ensuring best practice can be seen in the following example. Machining in aerospace is competitive and this is particularly the case when machining demanding materials like exotics.

Methods, in combination with the most applicable, dedicated tools are decisive to the outcome.

Such practices can be seen in the aerospace supplier industry.

Aircraft frames are largely made out of titanium alloys and

entail a lot of pocketing. Roughing operations are especially focused on as metal removal rate and tool life are decisive in achieving secure processes and optimised cycle times.

There are many pitfalls and in the past, these operations were often labourious, placing demands on machines and causing tool life to be unpredictably short. Even today, in a modern machine shop, performance can often fall short of the available potential.

Fo r i n s t a n c e , h i g h - f e e d milling is often overlooked. It can be an advantageous route to go, when performed with tool paths that are effective and can spare the tool from shocks and unnecessary stresses.

A lot can be done by establishing a good milling strategy. Smooth cutter entries and exits, along with corner machining paths and tool paths can keep the tool constantly engaged along new z-axis levels.

Helica l interpolation, for example, is ideal for a high-feed indexable milling cutter with a small entering angle (10 degrees).

Very rapid machining is achieved using a modern dedicated insertgeometry and grade.

In a case of a spigot in Ta11, a review of milling strategy paid off resulting in the tool life being doubled (tool edges lasting four components as opposed to two).

This is due to the elimination of insert chipping and cracking caused by the tool impacting the part and staying in cut.

T h e c yc l e t i m e p e r sp i g o t was reduced from 8.4 to 7.2 m i nute s. T he solut io n w a s achieved through specialist programming and a modern high-feed milling cutter.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6003 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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MAKINGTHECUT

Shop Talk:

is by putting dry ice into the coolant tank. He conceded that this is not exactly a ‘textbook’ method but it is something that worked for him in the past when he was cutting magnesium.

Exotic

Materials

Top Tips • Fight toughness with toughness — use a cutting tool that is tougher

Let’s take a quick look at some tips from the shop floor on dealing with exotic materials. to be tougher in order to prolong the tool life,” he said.

Apart from upping the toughness in the cutters, the coolant can be looked at as well.

“When you want to cut this type of materials, you must increase the concentration of the coolant by five to six percent,” he added.

A nother way to cool the cutting tool according to Mr Chew

• Freeze the problem — cool down the coolant • Plan — hold your part well Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6004 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

ENQUIRY NO 127

Samson Chew, senior application engineer, Hurco Southeast Asia.

“Exotic materials are usually the aerospace materials. They are Titanium, Inconel and Magnesium.

Inconel is the most troublesome.

The material is very tough and it needs special cutter to cut.

Generally speaking, when the material is tough, your cutters have

• Stay cool — increase coolant concentration by five to six percent

www.equipment-news.com

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

31

MAKINGTHECUT to make the right decisions in terms of machine selection and processing strategies.

Machining Exotic Materials:

Machine Builder’s Take Machine rigidity, process integration and smart decisions can help make machining exotic materials less painful. By Joson Ng

I

n the world of metalworking, there is this constant tussle b e t w e e n r a w m a te r i a l s and processing tools. Take machining exotic materials as an example, in one corner, we have the obstinate Titanium, the unyielding Inconel and a whole host of other exotic materials that can be a real tough nut to crack.

In the other corner, apart from steely resolve, we have highpressure coolant, special cutting tools and modern machine tools.

While special cutting tools and highpressure coolant strategies could

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well be formulated specifically to tackle difficult materials, there is no machine tool in the market today that is built specially to machine one type of material.

Machine tools are usually defined by its operating range and capability rather than the materials it is able to machine.

While there are obvious business reasons for doing so, it does not mean modern machine tools have fallen behind their cutting tool counterparts in the quest to process exotic materials. It is just that they have left it to the users

Difficult-To-Machine Materials Machining exotic materials is usually a significant endeavour for a job shop. Most of the time, operators are faced with tough materials that go through expensive cutting tools far too quickly for anyone’s liking. To compound the problem, the parts probably come with complex shapes and tight tolerances as they are often deployed in the aerospace, oil & gas and medical industry where accuracy and surface quality are top considerations.

“Exotic materials, we call special hard materials, are used in the aircraft, medical and oil & energy industries,” said Akihiko Nakashima, assistant GM in charge of the sales engineering department at Yamazaki Mazak HQ in Japan.

According to Mr Nakashima, he said materials like Titanium, Inconel, Udimet Waspaloy and Cera mic Matrix Composites (CMCs) are materials used in the aerospace sector to make airframe bodies whereas Inconel and Cobalt-based materials are used in the oil & gas and medical industries respectively.

A lthough the usage of these materials represents a breakthrough in technology in the industries, their introduction into machining has been a hot topic of discussion, even for machine tool builders.

Multitasking Machines For Exotic Materials Like a smartphone that has a builtin music player, voice recorder and camera, multitasking machines allow users to combine several cutting processes, including turning, milling, drilling, tapping and deep-hole boring or even non-traditional processes such as grinding and polishing on one www.equipment-news.com

MAKINGTHECUT

Mr Nakashima feels using reliable fiveaxis and multitasking machines can help machinists deal with exotic materials better.

machine as opposed to having those same processes handled by multiple machines.

For M r Na k a sh i ma , he believes that using five -axis and multitasking machines can help machinists deal with exotic materials better. The key reason he feels, is the rigidity of the machine, as well as its ability to produce finish parts in one process.

“High rigidity machine means you can minimise vibration.

Vibration is the biggest enemy of the cutting tool. Therefore, it is important that we select or build machines that are rigid enough for those kind of exotic materials as their low heat conductivity and high hardness typically ge nerate v ibrat ion s du r i n g cutting,” he said.

Machining of a titanium hip implant by five-axis multitasking mill turn

“Process integration is also very important. We call that ‘Done in One’. In the case of special hard materials, you need process integration because special material parts have high prices as well as high demands in accuracy.”

He also pointed out that in process integration, machine tool builders have moved away from the traditional milling and turning combination. They have gone on to include processes like gear milling, buffing, grinding, ce ra m ic bu f f i n g a nd ot he r proce sse s to ma ke proce ss integration more complete.

It’s About Making The Right Choice Unlike cutting tools, he conceded that five-axis and multitasking

Machining the OD of an Inconel cladded oil & gas component with ceramic inserts at cutting speed of up to 1,000 m/ min using the ‘Mill Turning’ process on a multitasking machine. Mill Turning combines the rotary motion of the milling tool and the rotation movement of the workpiece to remove uneven welded or cladded surfaces. www.equipment-news.com

machine s a re not specia lly manufactured for exotic materials. They are developed for every material. It is therefore important to work with machine tool builders in order to pick out a machine that is suitable.

Giving an example, he said: “For Aluminium cutting, we will recommend the high-speed type of machine.”

Away from the capability of the machine tool, he said cutter path or tool path is another crucia l factor. He a lso paid tribute to CAD/CAM developers on designing five-axis trochoidal machining strategies as they enable cutting specia l ha rd materia l ty pes from a solid material to a complete part by adopting a circular reciprocating motion to maintain chip load and cutting forces.

In summary, according to him, so long as the three crucial points (cutting tools, tool path and process integration) are taken into consideration, exotic or not, machinists should not be overly troubled by the materials they are given as multitasking machines are designed with the required capability to go through materials in an efficient manner.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6005 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

33

SHOP TALK

Go Up To

Eight Axes

With Laser Micro Machining Systems

Adopting modular systems that are easily integrated is the way forward in producing micro-sized products. By Eduard Fassbind, CEO swisstec micromachining

M

anufacturing of me d ic a l pro duc t s fol lows t he t re nd of miniaturisation.

At the same time it requires a higher precision and a growing degree of complexity. This results in a challenge for the process design as well as the handling of the components along various processing steps. The solution is the complete processing of a part

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

in one station and one fixture.

For processing of medical products made out of tubes or thin sheets, la ser micro machining already is the accepted standard. Machines with three or more NC controlled axes, handling units and integrated systems for quality monitoring are available in different sizes, accuracy classes and levels of automation.

The past development trends were mainly orientated toward a higher compactness of the systems. Not less relevant is the integration of new laser sources.

One main aspect is to increase the variety of materials, which can be processed. Ultra-shortpulse lasers, as they are applied in many stent cutting systems, contribute an important part to this development. www.equipment-news.com

SHOPTALK

Figure 1: Process integration for laser micro machining of medical Instruments: laser-cutting of defined geometries and grinding of functional surfaces

Customers Want Solutions The ma in requirements for achieving miniaturisation are increasing accuracy and complexity as well as the capability to deliver different batch sizes, beginning at a batch size of one. This conflict of interest in combination with low costs of investment has led many companies to the construction of a serial manufacturing process with specialised systems and a low degree of automation.

These are usually specialised machines fulfilling only a single process and therefore have very little flexibility. As such, there are certain limitations. Set-up times increase exponentially and manual handling makes the system vulnerable to positioning errors and damages to the parts.

In addition, each system requires an operator. The outcome is a high price per piece, due to the extensive labour costs and the deviations in the processes.

Higher Accuracy In traditional manufacturing techniques, high accuracy is achieved by the combination of www.equipment-news.com

various tools and the combination of various processing steps into one ma nufactur ing system.

The most important factor is to reduce the handling procedures down to just one fixture. This approach also needs to be applied to manufacturing with lasers as a tool. Increasing demands in accuracy calls for the adoption of complete machining.

Sw isstec ha s a nticipated this trend and has developed a compact and modular system.

A s a result, customers gain flexibility regarding applications and implementation.

The integration of different beam sources like fibre, femtoand picosecond lasers enable various processing tasks including cutting, drilling, welding or marking. Combining those tasks on a single system is possible by applying appropriate axes, optics and laser heads.

Integrating Mechanical Processes This concept does not only show potential due to the combination of d i f fe re nt la se r sou rce s.

The additional integration of mechanical processing steps l i ke g r i n d i n g a n d fo r m i n g is also demanded frequently.

The implementation of this modular approach can best be demonstrated with the help of a specific application requested by a customer.

A medical instrument needs to be manufactured out of steel tubes with outside diameters varying between 0.27 mm and 0.8 mm (Figure 1). Required processing steps are laser cutting, laser welding, grinding and forming of the metal tubes. Besides the two standard axes, (X: lateral and A: rotation) this system integrates two axes to position the laser spot in Y and Z directions to work outside the middle of the tube and to compensate the tube’s radius.

An additional two axes position a diamond grinding tool with up to 30,000 rpm.

A rotary table provides the angular position. In addition, the axial and radial positions need to be set by further axes. Any geometry may be achieved by this combination of axes and tools.

This configuration allows multiple operations to follow each other

Figure 2: Complete machining of medical devices with the combination of various manufacturing steps like laser welding, laser cutting, forming, grinding

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

35

SHOPTALK

Figure 3: Complex medical instruments that are laser cut and drilled. The resulting geometries can be measured automatically using the integrated vision system.

without the need to reposition the parts in various fixtures (Figure 2). Handling times and errors due to repositioning are eliminated.

To create a special geometry, the requested angle of the needle head requires the forming of a metal tube (Figure 3). A forming unit mechanically reduces the tube diameter according to the defined angle and creates a tip. A welding laser closes the tip of the needle by melting the front side of the rotating needle. The grinding tool finishes the spherical surface of the needle’s tip.

Figure 4: Compact laser system with up to eight axes and a footprint of 800 x 1,200 mm2

With the ultra-short-pulse laser, any geometry can be cut in the tube. Ablation and marking are also possible. Ultimately the cutting laser trims the needle to the defined length to complete the process. The single process steps are listed below: - Cutting the tube - Forming the tip of the needle - Laser welding to close the tip - Grinding the tip

- Laser cutting various contours in the tube - Trimming the part Depending on the complexity of the processing steps, the cycle times add up to values between 15 to 50 seconds. Under consideration of t he entire process including reliability, accuracy, safety, set-up times, ha ndling time s a nd qua lit y assurance, a significant potential for rationalisation is clearly visible. Key achievement is lower cost per piece.

A distinguishing attribute in particular is the small size of the system. The machine frame (Figure 4) includes all needed components and aggregates. Two beam sources (fs laser for cutting and fibre laser for welding), a cooling module, a control module (Powerbox for a 19 4/6 HE height rack) to manage all eight axes, an industrial computer and all other electronics fit into the system. The modular design offers more possibilities regarding processes and application. The extension of the systems and the implementation of additional modules are easily achieved.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6101 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

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ENQUIRY NO 116

DESIGN & MEASUREMENT improve the absolute accuracy of a robotic system, allowing highprecision guidance for automated assembly applications.

While the marriage between metrology and robotics is not exactly unheard-of in this part of t he world, t he emerg ing economies in Southeast Asia a re st ill relat ively e a rly in the adoption of metrological technology. Question like ‘which technology shall I use to measure my parts efficiently?’ would probably occupy the thought bubbles of most job shop owners or QA managers in this region.

How To Decide Between

Contact & Non-Contact Measurement?

Making a right choice between tactile and nontactile measuring technology may be a challenging task. By Joson Ng

A

t IMTS, one metrology company mapped out a n over v iew of new opportunities and emerging trends resulting from the integration of measurement te c h n o l o g i e s w i t h f a c to r y automat ion dev ice s such as industrial robots. Such a co mb i n at io n c a n b e fou nd in production environments in the aerospace and automotive sectors.

In more advanced economie s, automation ha s been increasingly applied to metrology, creating two areas of innovation in this sector. The first application utilises a robot as a

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

carrier for a device to perform automate d i n sp e c t ion. T he second application employs a metrology device as a method to

Get In Contact With Accuracy The Southeast Asia region on a whole has attracted a whole host of foreign investors over the years and with manufacturing very much alive and kicking in cou nt r ie s like T ha ila nd, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, metrology companies have set up shops here, bringing with them a plethora of metrology solutions, including non-contact measuring equipment.

While owning a CMM is a considerable achievement for a job shop a few years ago, the million dollar question now is ‘do I use contact or non contact measurements for this part?’ Although the question i s a re lat ive ly si mple one , the answers however, are far from simple.

www.equipment-news.com

ENQUIRY NO 117

DESIGN&MEASUREMENT “As a general rule of thumb, if you can measure something by contact (method), it is better and more accurate to do so. However, non-contact measurements have become important, particularly when it comes to small features, those too small to be probed by a contact sensor or something that can be deformed by contact (method),” advised Steve Bell, the GM of Renishaw (ASEAN).

“For contact measurement, it is normally for high precision.

The tolera nce is ver y high, fo r e x a m p l e a b o u t t wo to three microns. Non - contact measurement techniques can’t achieve that accuracy, they are about five micron,” said Sugiarto Tan, senior technical support engineer of Wenzel Asia Pacific.

However, he conceded that non - contac t me a su re me nt s do have their merits. He said non- contact methods can be flexible and useful for small items because when using video for measurement, operators can zoom in to have a better view.

Take A Step Back Before Taking The Plunge The contact and non-contact debate may rage on, dividing Non-contact methods are slowly making headway in Southeast Asia

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

Many observers feel that contact measurement is still the method of choice in Southeast Asia.

opinions but most industr y observers would prefer to study the part first before deciding what is the best way forward.

The general questions to ask, accord i n g to A nt hony Lu r, product marketing specialist of Fa ro, a re: 1) what needs to be measured, 2) the type of application, 3) the level of accuracy and precision required, 4) the size of part, 5) and the scanning speed required.

Adding his views to this issue, Shaun Lim, regional division manager of Carl Zeiss, said: “Before deciding which type of measurement method does the job best, it is important to guide customers in understanding and realising their application requirements and limitations. In terms of measuring uncertainty, contact mea surement using tac t ile se n sors w ill a lways be more accurate tha n non-contact types.

Non-contact measurements today come in the form of camera probe sensors, laser sensors or CT technology. Camera probe sensors are normally deployed in situations where contact tactile sensors have limitations in reach, such as micro-bores, where even the smallest stylus cannot reach.

Laser sensors are preferred for capturing point- cloud data on freeform surfaces and typical applications include CAD comparison and reverse engineering. CT measurement is also technically a non-contact type of measurement, but its key application lies in NDT (nondestructive testing) and internal www.equipment-news.com

ENQUIRY NO 097

DESIGN&MEASUREMENT

“As a general rule of thumb, if you can measure something by contact (method), it is better and more accurate to do so.”

- Steve Bell part analysis such as porosity, assembly, or defect.

Non-contact measurements a re a l so re com me nde d for requirements that place speed above accuracy, as non-contact measurements typically capture data much faster than contact tactile probes.”

Sentiments In Southeast Asia In this region, the contact method is still the preferred way to measure a part although many believe that non-contact methods should not be discounted.

“Although we see an increase in dema nd for non - contac t measurements, the widespread use of contact measurement today will continue to dominate the metrology arena.

Due to the rapid development of higher precision products, co n t a c t m e a s u r e m e n t w i l l continue to play an important role in quality metrology. Nonco n t a c t m e a s u r e m e n t w i l l continue to develop its own niche where contact measurement is limited,” said Mr Lim. M r Lu r a g re e s. H e sa id: “A c r o s s A s i a , c o n t a c t measurement is still generally more prevalent in application as it is easier to perform pointto-point measurements. Laser scanning technology however, is excellent for acquiring quick and accurate measurements of many data points at once, which is especially useful for larger parts.

These data points (also known as point cloud) require further 42

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

processing, and this makes the process slightly more complex, often requiring a longer training duration.”

He added that in the portable CMM articulated arm segment, non-contact measurements are acquired via a Laser Line Probe (LLP) attached to the end of it. The accessory introduces an additional joint to the device, which adds one more level of mechanical error to the fina l reading’s accuracy. Compared to a six-axis arm that performs only contact measurements, the measurements acquired by the LLP will be slightly lower in accuracy.

Having said that, he conceded that the choice between contact and non-contact measurement still depends on application su it abi l it y, a nd o ne i s not

necessarily always better than the other. “Implementing noncontact measurement methods when it is not required might not be the most efficient or effective, as it would not be optimised for the customer’s needs,” he said.

Combination Machines Some obser vers feel that combination machines may be a better option. When asked if he agrees if contact method is the domina nt method in Southeast Asia, Kirk Teng Tian of HTT Vietnam Technology and Trading Company (agent for OGP) said: “No, they use both. Most (companies that) we see use both.”

He went on to say combination machines will go on and take more market place in the future.

Echoing his point is Candy Ong, the MD of Blum Production Metrolog y. She said: “I fully support multitasking machines.

Mu lt ita sk ing mach ine s c a n e n h a n ce p e r fo r m a n ce a n d automatically reduce human error.” She made this interesting point based on the argument t hat t here is a shor ta ge of skilled workers in the region and companies will try to make up on that shortfall by introducing

The choice between contact and non-contact measurement depends on application suitability

www.equipment-news.com

DESIGN&MEASUREMENT more versatile machines.

Mr Lim concurs. He said: “Me a su r ing system s w it h both contact and non-contact sensors will continue its popularity as companies are d i v e r si f y i n g t h e i r p ro du c t portfolio which results in a higher mi x of applications.

Instead of having two separate systems, a single system that has both functions gives the best return in terms of costperformance ratio.”

Ta k i n g t h e a r g u m e n t o f combination machines further is Stefan Ruh, global product line manager vision of Hexagon M e t r o l o g y. “ M o r e o f te n , a combination of the two is the best solution, which is where we go to a ‘multisensor system’ incor porat ing bot h contact and non-contact sensors. This enables the customer to check application features in the best possible way.

In the future, we will certainly see more multisensor systems.

More customers are choosing combination machines because they provide the best value.

Through investment in a single frame, you get multiple sensor opportunities and of course more application types.

Software synergy between the different sensors me a ns no additional training is required.

Yo u a l s o s a v e w o r k s p a c e compared to running multiple machines, as well as the time you wou ld nor ma l ly sp e nd moving parts between them,” he said.

Metrology solutions providers in this region have an important role to play as they are the bridge between the users and the advanced technologies imported from Europe and the US.

Spreading The Word With the adoption of non-contact and combination machines on the rise, the salient point is how the knowledge of these technologies can keep up with the pace of adoption.

Metrology solutions providers in this region have an important role to play as they are the bridge between the users and the advanced technologies imported from Europe and the US. “When you talk about noncontact measurement, we are talking about more complex m a c h i n e s . T h e co n ce p t i n Southeast Asia is still a little bit

More customers are choosing combination machines because they provide the best value.

- Stefan Ruh www.equipment-news.com

unclear as people always think of non-contact measurements for high precision,” said Ms Ong. Referring Southeast Asia to a region that is in the “educational stage” in terms of understanding metrology and what non-contact measurement can bring to the table, she said: “We educate to sell the concept of total cost sav ings a nd we have to tr y to br ing the ( k nowledge of operators from) entry level to the middle level.”

Educate to improve knowledge — this is an important point and perhaps the key to using metrology equipment to achieve maximum results because the truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all solution in the world of metrology.

Know-hows and the sharpness of minds are perhaps the best way to accurately determine the dimensions of a part.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6201 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

43

DESIGN&MEASUREMENT

Fast & Accurate Inspection Of Glass Grinding Wheel

A non-contact high-speed sensor can accurately measure the typical characteristics of the grooves on a grinding wheel. By Dr Kalman Wilner, application group manager and Karol Sanilevici, MSME, senior application and R&D engineer, Optical Metrology

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

inner- g roove scratche s. We will show that a collinear highspeed sensor can be used for grinding wheel offline quality control. In addition, the sensor can measure grinding wheel parameters during production of glass plates.

Glass Grinding Wheel Use & Properties During the manufacturing process of LCD, OLED, plasma display panels and cellular phones, there is a stage in which a glass cover plate is grinded and polished into specified dimensions and shape.

Common processes for most cover plates are: • Glass grinding • Edge profiling • Edge polishing

Glass Grinding Wheel Inspection Requirements During the use of a gla ss grinding wheel, there is a need to inspect its grooves in order to determine their condition. The importance of such inspection, p e r for me d e it he r i n l i ne or offline, is due to the grinding

Glass grinding is required in the production of plasma display panels

Adrian Gtz, Mexico

D

u r ing ma nu factu r ing of glass windows for la rge pa nel displays a nd cellula r phone s, it is common to use a grinding wheel to shape glass into its required dimensions. The grinding wheel profile consists of grooves with various sizes and shapes. As it is used, its shape deteriorates and must be continuously monitored.

In particular, it is important to detect wear grooves (ditches) or deep scratches. The size of these defects, generated as a consequence of the continuous grinding operation, becomes significant when in the range of 30 to 50 µm. These small ditche s produce rough a nd non - uniform window edges, and most significantly stress on the glass during the high speed grinding, weakening the window structure.

Va r i o u s m e a s u r e m e n t technolog ie s have fa iled to pro du ce a v ia ble solut io n .

A p ro m i si n g te c h n o l o g ic a l alternative is the use of a high speed collinear, non-contact, high definition sensor.

In this a rticle we will present measurement results of various properties of glass grinding wheel grooves, such a s dept h, a ngle s, a nd eccentricity, and also identify

These processes are based on dimensional control technology that interfaces with CNC systems. As such, there is a need for instruments that can measure in real time the tools’ conditions.

A com mon to ol u se d for shaping the glass panels is a circular grinding wheel that spins at high revolution rates (up to ~7,000 rpm). Examples of grinding wheels are depicted in Figure 1. As can be seen, the wheels have various sizes and boundary profiles, depending on the particular panel structure and thickness, but share a common basic shape.

However, each wheel boundary ha s g ro ove s w it h d i f fe re nt sizes, depths and angles.

The grinding process requires precise edge grinding and polishing. Therefore, the wheel’s condition needs to be monitored during operation in order to ensure it will function p ro p e rl y du r i n g a l l o f t h e processing stages.

Figure 1: Various types of glass grinding wheels www.equipment-news.com

DESIGN&MEASUREMENT

Figure 2: Ditch in a grinding wheel groove

wheel active surface condition effect on the quality of the glass panel border and edge surface.

Defects inside the wheel grooves, such as scratches, may cause asymmetric pressure on the glass edge during grinding, which may cause mechanical de fe c t s on t he g la ss p a ne l or window.

A n e x a mple of a cr it ica l damage inside a groove is the appearance of a scratch (ditch) at it s b ot tom, a s show n i n Figure 2.

In the past, substantial efforts were invested in developing high resolution vision systems for groove inspection, but in most cases they resulted in failures, mainly due to the high-speed spinning rate of the grinding wheel.

Solution A n a l te r n a t i v e s o lu t i o n to vision inspection is to use a high data rate, collinear, noncontact 3D measuring sensor.

The collinea r config uration is needed in order to a llow measurement of the grooves’ bottom without obstruction from the side walls. This nonco nt ac t p oi nt se n sor mu st have submicron measurement accuracy for 3D measurements a nd i n sp e c t ion of comple x geometrical objects.

Some materials introduce challenges when the surface contains both highly absorbent (dim black) to highly reflective www.equipment-news.com

Figure 3: Grooves’ pitch and flank angles

(bright white) materials. One possible solution is an auto exposure feature that changes camera exposure according to material in real time without the need for setup modification.

The sensor emits eye safe laser radiation and samples at a high data rate. Its collinear operation has a clear advantage over other surface metrology methods when mea suring deep grooves.

The use of other technologies, such as tria ng ulation or confoca l, have, in part, limitations due to shadowing effects, lateral r e s o l u t i o n , s a m p l i n g r a te , or limited angular coverage.

As a result, grooves’ profiles obta ined using the se other methods a re in ma ny ca ses insufficient.

I n orde r to c ha rac te r ise grinding wheel grooves, we used Optimet’s Mark 10, high speed collinear non- contact

Table 1: Pitch measurement results

High Definition ( HD) sensor.

The sensor enabled measuring and characterising in detail, the grinding wheel grooves’ pa ra meters, such a s depth, w a l l a n g l e s , t h e e x i s te n ce of ditches, etc. In addition, the mea surements ca n be used for CA D compa rison under both dr y and wet surfaces conditions.

Application Description & Measurement Setup Qua lity a ssura nce of the grinding wheel requires measurement of: • • • • •

Groove pitch Groove profile angle Groove depth Fillet radii Detection of wear ditches

A Conoprobe Ma rk10 H D sensor, equipped with a 25 mm lens, was used to characterise grinding wheel grooves. The wheel was fixed on a scanning table. The direction of the scan was parallel to the grinding wheel axis of rotation. Results were compared to the grinding wheel CAD design.

Results We measured a group of four grooves of the grinding wheel (see Figure 3) and analysed the acquired data. The four angles and the pitch distances were measured and compared to the

Table 2: Flank angles measurement results

Drawing indicator

Measured distance [mm]

Stated value ±0.05 [mm]

Length difference [mm]

Drawing indicator

Measured angle [deg.]

Stated value ±0.4 [deg.]

Angle difference [deg.]

K1

13.4907

13.5

-0.0093

V1

64.392

65

-0.608

K2

15.5215

15.5

0.0215

V2

63.01

65

-1.99

K3

17.555

17.5

0.055

V3

63.392

65

-1.608

K4

19.5793

19.5

0.0793

V4

42.947

40

2.947

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

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DESIGN&MEASUREMENT

Defects inside the wheel grooves, such as scratches, may cause asymmetric pressure on the glass edge during grinding, which may cause mechanical defects on the glass panel or window. manufacturer’s nominal values (see tables 1 and 2).

The distances (K1-K4) were measured from the wheel’s edge.

Note that the grooves’ measured distances (see table 1) relative to the reference plane (not shown) deviate up to 80 µm from the nominal value. The measured angles (see table 2) deviate by as much as 1.6 deg from the nominal value of 65 deg and 2.94 deg from the nominal value of 40 deg. For some grinding wheels, these angles can be larger than 70 deg.

Figure 4: Grooves’ depth measurement results

grooves’ depth (see Figure 4).

The importance of this value stem s f rom t he fac t t hat it defines the panel edge shape.

Table 3 shows a comparison between measurement results and design goals.

Fillet Radii & The Grooves’ Flanks The grooves’ radii define the roundness of the panel side edge. In order to obtain accurate measurements, the sensor must be capable of measuring steep angles. We used the mark 10 HD sensor because of its capability of measuring angles up to ± 85 deg.

The nominal fillet radii for both flanks are 0.1±0.003 mm, where the actual range (see Figure 5) was measured to be 0.087 – 0.15 mm.

Groove Depth A n addit iona l pa ra meter that wa s mea sured wa s the

Detection Of Internal Ditches After the use of grinding wheel during re shaping of gla ss panels, small ditches may be formed at the centre of the groove (see Figure 2). These

Figure 5: Radii measurements on both corners of the grooves

Figure 6: Ditches inside groove profile

Drawing Radius values R1=R2=0.1mm Measured values -0.087-0.15

Groove indicator

Measured depth [mm]

Stated value ±0.1 [mm]

Measurement difference [mm]

F1

0.3275

0.3

0.0275

F2

0.3292

0.3

0.0292

F3

0.3262

0.3

0.0262

F4

0.3311

0.3

0.0311

Table 3: Grooves’ depth measurement results. Note that the grooves’ depths (table 3) are higher by up to 31 µm from the nominal values.

ditches must be detected and characterised immediately, in order to minimise the damage and reduce the amount of panels that have to be reworked. They are usually obser ved at the groove centre, and may reach a depth of up to 50 µm. Figure 6 contains measurement results of two ditches along with their features characterised.

Conclusion In this article, we have shown how the groove structure of a glass grinding wheel can be measured using Optimet’s point sensor. Measurement results of the grooves’ parameters, such as width, depth, and side wall angles, were given and compared to their nominal value. These parameters are typically measured during QA inspection. Moreover, we have also shown that it is possible to detect the existence of small ditches that are formed during operation.

In both cases, a non-contact high-speed sensor is required for accurately measuring the grooves’ typical characteristics. Collinear operation and auto exposure allows steep angle measurements, making it a suitable tool for measuring groove’s depths, since it is not limited by the groove’s side walls.

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

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Something exciting is coming to you in October 2014.

Watch out for it.

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FABRICATOR'S NOTE

CustomedFor Fibre made Laser Cutting We take a look at how a sheet metal machine tool builder worked with a laser OEM to build a fibre laser machine.

By Andy Sandford of Sticklebacks Communication, for LVD

W

hen LVD developed its Electra fibre laser machine, it decided to start with a blank piece of paper and with the objective of creating a machine that took maximum advantage of the fibre laser’s capabilities.

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asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

In material up to around 4 mm thick, 1 micron wavelength of the fibre laser beam is absorbed much better than the longer wavelength of CO2 laser. This opens up the possibility of much higher cutting speeds.

Working with Rofin Sinar, the

manufacturer of fibre laser, the sheet metal machine tool builder sets out to explore this possibility.

Thierry De Vleeschouwer, LVD’s chief laser engineer, says: “The really big advantage of the fibre laser is the speed at which you can cut thin materials. You can easily achieve cutting speeds of 50 m/min and more with a 3 kW laser on thin materials.”

Making A Stable Machine It was critical to design a machine that could maintain high cutting speeds on small features, holes and sharp corners as well as long straight edges. The machine axis mostly has to slow down to cut these features, so you can only maintain high cutting speeds if your machine axis can quickly accelerate to top speed. www.equipment-news.com

Shifting Metalworking’s Paradigm

19-22 NOVEMBER 2014

BITEC  BANGKOK  THAILAND ASEAN’s Largest International Machine Tools and Metalworking Technologies Trade Exhibition & Conference - 28th Edition

ASEAN metalworking landscape is about to change. As we are crossing into the new era of the AEC, becoming ready for new opportunities and challenges has become a critical quest of industrialists’ across Southeast Asia.

As an Exhibitor of METALEX 2014, you will play a vital role in the preparation process of your customers. Equipped with the latest technologies from you and over 2,700 brands plus new knowledge and regional collaborations the event will provide, the 70,000 Visitors at the show will definitely be ready to shift into the more dynamic environment of the AEC. Come join METALEX 2014 to grow your business and ASEAN’s pride as the manufacturing hub of the world.

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For more information: Tel. +66 2686 7299 e-mail : metalex@reedtradex.co.th

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FABRICATOR'SNOTE Mr De Vleesschouwer says: “ M a n y o f o u r co mp e t i to r s simply took their existing CO2 machine and fitted it with a fibre laser. But a CO2 machine is designed to carry a heavy optical system and cutting head, so it is overdesigned and doesn’t have the dynamics to bring out the benefits of the fibre laser.”

So, how do you build a machine that does? The company looked at the fundamental requirements for such a machine and decided that it needed to be able to ‘cut’ at 2g on a typical nest that would allow the machine to work at top speed for around 90 percent of the time. It would also need to achieve that acceleration quickly from a standing start.

Most machines with acceleration specifications of 3 or even 4g use this acceleration only for rapids but need to bring this down to 1g or below for accurate cutting.

Mr De Vleeschouwer says: “When you start to move the axis, it takes time to get to its maximum acceleration, and this rate of increase in acceleration is called the ‘jerk’. There’s no point hav ing a 2g machine, or even a 4g machine if your jerk is slow, because you will never achieve your maximum accelerat ion. A 4g machine with low jerk might perform worse — in other words more slowly — than a 1g machine with high jerk.”

The way to achieve these dynamic characteristics is to design a machine where the

Mr De Vleeschouwer says the management of the rate of increase is important to produce faster performances.

moving parts have a low mass and a high stiffness, and the fixed parts (the frame) provide mechanical damping to absorb the forces of the high jerk.

“We looked at materials such as lightweight alloy castings and composites, and optimised the design of every component,” says Mr De Vleeschouwer. “And for the drives, we did a mechatronic a na lysis w it h Sieme n s to determine the best systems.

This includes linear motors on the short axes and a compact rack and pinion drive on the long axis. This means you can reduce inertia to the minimum and have a very dynamic drive system with high accuracy.

“The result is that the Electra is 20 percent faster than competitors’ machine s that

“The really big advantage of the fibre laser is the speed at which you can cut thin materials.”

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appear to have similar or even higher specifications on paper.”

Working Together “The laser is a standard product, so we don’t adapt it to the customer, but what we did with LVD was to start by discussing the market the machine was aimed at and the philosophy behind it. On that basis, we talked about the options they needed to consider, the types of laser, the control and so on,” says Dr Wolfram Rath, product manager of laser sources at Rofin.

“We shared ideas about the proce ss a nd about proce ss optimisation and carried out trials in our applications lab to help them choose the laser power, fibre size, cutting head, focal length and so on,” he adds.

For e x a mple , one of t he features is the way the process fibre — that which delivers the laser beam to the cutting head — is connected to the laser resonator.

The sheet metal machine tool maker uses Rofin’s fibreto-fibre coupling system to join the process fibre to the feed fibre that comes from the active fibre that produces the beam. www.equipment-news.com

FABRICATOR'SNOTE Working with a fibre laser manufacturer, the sheet metal machine tool builder managed to make their fibre laser cutting machine some 20 percent faster.

O n a lot of comp et itors’ machines, the feed fibre comes straight from the laser resonator to the cutting he ad. T here is no sepa rate process fibre, so it cannot be disconnected. If the fibre has to be replaced, it has to be spliced on by a trained engineer using special equipment. With Rofin’s system it is a matter of plugging a new fibre into the coupler.

W h e r e t h e l a s e r O E M ’s applications know-how really comes into play is in the way the laser and machine work together. One critical area is on the way the power of the laser is controlled.

Dr Rath explains: “If you have a very fast machine like the Electra, you have to reduce the cutting speed when you cut sharp corners, small holes and so on in thick plates. When you go slower, you have to turn the power down, so we use a special pulsed mode and change the frequency and duration of the pulses to control the laser power.

“Cutting at full speed, the laser works in continuous wave mode, but as you decelerate, it changes to a pulsed mode. You reduce the frequency and the duty cycle in proportion to the www.equipment-news.com

cutting speed — so you don’t turn down the power of the laser coming out of the resonator, you just use less of it. That gives you the optimum quality and you can optimise the parameters of the pulsing for any material and thickness.

“The laser pulsing control links directly to the machine’s CNC and LVD’s software. LVD has built all these parameters into the control software. The customer doesn’t have to worry about choosing the right parameters, they just enter the material and the thickness and the machine sets them automatically and communicates with the laser to deliver the required power.”

Protecting Both The User & The Laser Safety is a critical issue with fibre lasers, they can blind instantly if they shine into someone’s eye. To prevent this, the laser OEM uses a power supply that can shut down the laser in 10 milliseconds if there is a safety alarm. So if the operator opens the door, the laser shuts down before it can do any harm. When they close the door, it starts again without any warm-up or waiting time.

On the Electra machine, the

door ca n only be opened if the program and the laser is stopped, this creates even more safety for the user. This, together with certified machine windows and fully closed covers, creates a safe machine to work with.

It is important to protect the laser too. Back reflection can be a problem when cutting highly reflective materials such as aluminium, brass and copper.

W he n t he la se r i s work i n g within normal parameters, the laser OEM’s design conducts away the heat created by these back reflections to maintain reliability, and if the intensity of the back reflections gets too high, the laser is automatically shut off to protect itself.

Whole Package Dr Rath and Kurt Van Collie, LV D’s pro duc t ma na ger for laser cutting machines, both agree that working together is not just about the technology.

T he la se r OE M ’s ve r t ic a l ly integrated approach was also an important factor.

When the laser OEM developed fibre laser technology, it wanted to be in control of all the elements that went into the laser — such as the active fibre, the diode lasers that activate the fibre, the fibres themselves and the technology to splice them together to create an ‘allin-fibre’ system.

“Normally, we try to develop new machines through a process of evolution but, for us, developing this fibre laser mac h i ne wa s a re volut ion .

Our goal was to make the best mac h i ne i n t he ma rke t for cutting thin material quickly, and we achieved that,” said Mr Van Collie.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6301 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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Let Someone Else Take Care Of

Logistics

Why worry about tool logistics issues when you can outsource them? By Markus Gรถrg, tool management expert at Walter Multiply

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efore a component can be machined, ma ny prepa rator y steps are necessary. A manufacturing company must for instance, order the tools, book the incoming goods and deal with the inventory as well as keep up with various administration work. When the real action starts, operators have to select the tool for machining, fit the components, preset the tool and transport it from the presetting location to the machine.

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The work created after the machining process is nearly as much. The employees must disassemble the tool and return all the disassembled parts to the stores, and the tool cutting edges must either be stored, reground and recoated. When the tool reaches the end of its life, they have to be sent for recycling.

Tooling Logistics The previous paragraphs have demonstrated the amount of work put into a tool during its lifetime.

There is no question an efficient tool management system will no doubt be beneficial for any company.

With intelligent tool management, the customer can improve their processes and achieve transparency concerning cost structure. Walter Multiply, a multilevel service programme, can help provide solutions for tool logistics, alleviate capacity bottleneck and improve productivity.

T here a re t hre e se ctors within the programme. One of them is the logistic solutions division that covers all upstream and downstream administrative activities relating to the tool in series production.

Process Integration The actual tool management process varies depending on the individual requirements of the customer. The following example demonstrates this in practice.

One automotive supplier in western Germany uses only specific areas of tool management. Because www.equipment-news.com

INDUSTRYFOCUS

Tool management covers the entire process from purchase through to recycling of the tool.

processes through to filling the tool dispensing machine that Walter has installed there. The tool manufacturer supplies all the tools the customer requires for machining their component — the customer pays a fixed charge per machined workpiece.

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of this, a permanent Walter team is not required at the customer's site and instead, the field service employee deals with all open tasks once or twice a week.

A mongst other things, these tasks include reporting functions, optimising tools and

For the customer, this results in the advantage of a transparent cost structure. They know in advance the charge that is incurred per component for using the metal cutting tools as well as their monthly production quantities.

The monthly tool costs can be calculated easily from this.

During the first integration level, the cutting tool manufacturer a s si st s t he c u sto me r w it h optimising their wa rehouse m a n a g e m e n t . S p e c i f i c a l l y, this involve s reducing tool inventories, generating cost transparency, guaranteeing the tool supply, and simplifing order processing. Tool dispensing systems can be the means for achieving the required objective.

From the next integration level, which involves supply chain solutions, tool management in the proper sense of the word begins,

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How To‌ Optimise Process?

We take a look at how a process can be optimised in six simple steps, according to Walter.

Walter Roadshow 2014 Sea breeze, gentle waves, fireworks and cutting inserts are words generally not found in the same sentence until a roadshow with a twist shows up on your event calendar. By Joson Ng

Step 1: Situation analysis Step 2: Development of a new cost optimised process Step 3: CAD/CAM programming/ optimising non-productive times/ fixtures concept Step 4: Piloting and optimising the new process Step 5: Adaptive control Step 6: Project result

with the tool manufacturer also becoming more deeply integrated in the customer's production.

At the third level, unit cost solutions, which are suitable for mass production of medium to high quantities, are the supreme discipline of tool management and have the maximum integration.

The more components in the process chain that can be handled from a single source, the better the individual components will harmonise with each other and the greater the optimisation potential will be.

Engaging a holistic solutions provider to produce a more efficient process that connects seamlessly to the customer's production environment is a wo r t hw h i l e s te p fo r m a n y companies in order for them to return to the core competency of machining and to transfer everything that is secondary to this process to a partner.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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Walter recently conducted a roadshow in Singapore on July 15. To be more precise, the event was not technically on Singapore soil, it was held on board the Harbour Queen, a cruise ship. Some 90 passengers/participants from about 40 companies attended the event as the presenters talked about some of the product and services the company has in store as the ship sailed around neighbouring islands.

Paul Montgomery, MD of Walter Singapore kicked things off with a quick company introduction and he also reported a new sales ratio of more than 40 percent, ie: more than 40 percent of sales are attributed to products that are less than five years old.

Lincoln Dacy Customer Focus Program With some 45,000 standard tools in their product offering, it is no surprise that the company has a multilevel service program that focuses on customers' processes.

To give the attendees a better appreciation of the company’s Walter Multiply service program, Lincoln Dacy, the company’s application engineer told the participants that in order to provide better solutions to various manufacturing processes, it is important to understand the difficulties in various processes. For instance, he mentioned capacity bottlenecks and the access to production control as pertinent points of discussions before they can come up with a solution to help their customers.

After the initial discussions, his team would typically plan new machining processes, and optimise the existing machining processes for the company in need. Apart from the cutting aspect of the manufacturing process, they also look at CNC programming, fixtures, process simulation and prototype production.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6402 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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ENQUIRY NO 119

INDUSTRYFOCUS

How To Build A

Lean Mean Machine

For The Factory Of The Future Building real-time locating systems can deliver precise and immediate visibility of critical assets across the value chains.

By Ryan Goh, VP of sales, Asia Pacific, Zebra Technologies

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he old adage ‘knowledge is power’ cannot be truer in today’s terms. Between balancing the challenges in efficiency, rising costs, and a global supply chain that changes every second of every day, companies are turning to data analytics in order to stay ahead of the competition.

The factories of Industry 4.0, otherwise known as the fourth industrial revolution, will see knowledge -workers and data analytics take centre stage, backed by sensor-enabled systems that can intelligently communicate through the Internet of Things (IoT).

The importance of attaining true manufacturing visibility has proven to be more pertinent than ever as we approach a newly invigorated industrial age. Despite these trends, many enterprises have yet to perfect the processes required to ma x imise their production potential.

According to IDC Manufacturing Insights, there is currently US$900 billion of waste in global manufacturing supply chains. Further studies go to

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INDUSTRYFOCUS show that 20 percent of inventory shipments are processed as emergency orders, 35 percent of material handling equipment is underutilised, and manual processes cause 70 percent of forecasting errors. These inefficiencies and disconnect in the supply chain translate to unnecessary losses that the business has to carry.

These loopholes in the supply chain can be effectively sealed.

Increa sing efficiency where material handling, energy, and labour costs are concerned is far easier with visibility not only into individual processes, but also to a network of connected devices across the entire business ecosystem. But therein lies the second challenge. With multiple devices often running on different platforms and from different locations across the globe, harnessing data to draw realtime insights is nearly impossible without the right infrastructures in place, re sulting in more inefficiencies cascading up and down the value chain.

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In order to overcome these challenges and move closer to the goal of true manufacturing visibility, manufacturers need to unravel the relationships between assets, processes, and transactions by making data visible through strategic Big Data and the IoT, thereby deriving insights that can improve endto-end efficiency and operability throughout the value chain.

Making Data Visible 1. Strategic Big Data Big Data has been the catchphrase for many over the past few years — enterprises are looking at the advent of big data as a vast mine to gain a deeper and more actionable insight into their operations and processes, and do more with less. However, Big Data is more than just the volume of information collected, but also the velocity and value of data.

New technologies have the potential to gather and assimilate information that can help you identify connections within information and make intelligent

use of it. These insights shed light on where inefficiencies are happening, allowing chain managers and business leaders to take quick action to solve these issues, thereby helping the enterprise move towards operational excellence.

2. Actionable analytics made possible by the IoT IoT-enabled devices provide real-time access and visibility into supply chains, simplifying pro ce s se s l i ke i nve ntor y management and logistical planning. Businesses can use this data to optimise processes, reduce shrinkage, and provide better security and safety throughout the workplace.

Cloud-ready and accessible across the enterprise and beyond, these devices drive very tight process-driven tasks where instantaneous feedback and control are essential.

They pinpoint trends through measurable metrics that enable the enterprise to make informed decisions and inspire innovation.

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RTLS solutions are useful in logistics as they can identify the exact location of any particular asset on the value chain, track data to monitor and optimise processes.

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3. Integrated ecosystems IDC Manufacturing Insights predicted that the top trend in 2014 for manufacturers would be in building 3D value chains.

This extends beyond simply collecting data, but sharing information across the supply chain in order to achieve endto-end visibility in order to maximise business efficiencies and operability.

(AIDC) technologies, like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for example. Not only can you see where everything is, and what it is doing, but you can also see everything relative to everything else. Business decisions are made in full awareness, leading to greater efficiencies and an enhanced ability to fulfill customer needs precisely while meeting your own business goals.

Bringing together corporate and personal technology into a manageable entity creates efficiencies and delivers new value to the business by appropriating a diverse mix of fixed a nd mobile devices and systems into a manageable ecosystem. This creates a virtual plant floor that integrates all sites and systems which are supported by complete, connected supply chain visibility.

Connectivity and consistent visibility across operations, supply chains, and business partners s t r e a m l i n e p ro ce s s e s a n d operations, driving better customer service and loyalty, eliminating waste while reducing operating and capital expenditure.

The abovementioned methods to achieving complete end-toend value chain visibility can be brought to life through correct implementation of Automatic Identification and Data Capture

Bringing Data To Life 1. Barcodes and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Used mainly as a means of tracking stock, barcode applications have spread throughout the enterprise to include processes like warehousing, package delivery, as well as the assembly line operation itself, helping to improve data management and accessibility, and reduce costs.

For manufacturing enterprises looking to optimise efficiency, accuracy is critical. Barcoding is one of the most cost-effective tools that these organisations have to ensure data credibility a nd reduce the impact of human error.

Besides improving accuracy, R F ID a nd ba rcode data collection is faster than manual collection, which improves labour productivity. Replacing

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Ryan Goh

paper forms with much smaller barcode labels and embedded R FID tags produces media savings that frequently reach six figures annually, even for companies with moderate levels of production tracking and shipping activity.

A s c u s to m e r s d e m a n d built-to-order and just-in-time deliveries from their suppliers, traceability and data collection at the item level is critical. A relatively small investment in an RFID tracking system will ensure that scheduling and material applications deliver benefits, leveraging the investment placed in more expensive planning applications.

Case Study (RFID) Major Latin A merica n steel producer Siderúrgica del Orinoco’s (SIDOR) implementation of AIDC technologies helped simplify material management and streamline production line applications in a heavy-industrial environment.

The company is the largest supplier of steel in Venezuela and the Andean Community of Nations, and the fourth largest steel producer in Latin America and the largest exporter of finished steel products in the Americas.

However, their manufacturing process was largely manual, and www.equipment-news.com

INDUSTRYFOCUS

RFID and barcode data collection is faster than manual collection, which improves labour productivity. They are believed to improve accuracy as well.

Labels are part and parcel of logistics.

they suffered losses incurred from mismatched shipping labels, inaccurate product identification, and hand-written data that were often hard to read and had to be manually logged into their system, causing further errors.

In order to improve quality control processes, customer service, inventory management, and accurate and on-schedule shipments, the company adopted a combination of AIDC technologies (radio frequency wireless network, barcode data capture, and product identification technology) for automatic identification of their steel products. At warehousing facilities and packaging and shipping areas, operators carrying lightweight, rugged, wireless, thermal printers and scan-ready data terminals can read and capture the product ID and register any changes in the location or status of that product online.

As a result, the company has improved productivity through faster and better operational processes that can be reported and/or controlled online. In addition, the automatic verification of inbound/outbound products optimised SIDOR's maritime shipping operations and inventory management. With real-time cargo loading and shipping information, recording and tracking warehouse inventor y cou ld b e done

solutions, showed how RTLS solutions helped enhance their visibility in order to improve overall worker safety, ultimately creating an efficient, automated safety system.

Using Enterprise Solutions Real-Time Locating Systems, the company accelerated search and rescue time by nearly 100 percent as automated processes provided for a safer and more efficient evacuation process, increasing incident prevention through software capable of providing real-time visibility of critical assets.

E s s e n t i a l l y, e n te r p r i s e s need to recognise that there is potential in adapting existing processes to work with greater precision. Embracing advances in technology will enable supply chain managers and business leaders to gain visibility and control over their operational events — assets, transactions and people — in real-time, enabling them to see more and do more.

When this visibility is aligned to single network connectivity, it creates an integrated production environment with data excellence at its heart.

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automatically, resulting in lower warehousing costs and reduced loss of materials.

2. Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS) Real Time Locating Systems ( RT L S ) incorporate a mi x of barcode, RFID, GPS and sensory technologies to deliver precise, real-time visibility of critical assets across the value chain. For enterprises with geographically dispersed sites, this means having end-to-end visibility and traceability of all containers, pallets, and packages. For manufacturers, it enables intelligent management and flow of all critical assets, whether in the facility or in the yard.

With RTL S solutions, enterprises can easily identify the exact location of a ny particular asset on the value chain quickly, track data to monitor and optimise processes, as well as improve the workflow cycle time and dwell time.

Case Study (RTLS) Through the implementation of RTLS solutions and operational software at its steel manufacturing plant in Austria, Voestapline, an automotive components supplier that produces customised and high-tech steel products and

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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Achieving The

To d a y ’s c u s t o m e r s a r e a cc u s to m e d to fa s t p a ce d business environments where they can quickly find and engage their suppliers, or to switch from an existing supplier to a new supplier. Savvy suppliers and shippers are increasingly leveraging information and the digital marketplace to gain new types of competitive advantage.

space in the container is inventory that once the container is shipped, the potential value is lost.

Likewise, the carrying capacity of ships or vehicles is perishable inventory. If the vessel departs with unused space, or even if the vessel is setting idle, then this is perishable inventory. For this discussion, a vessel is any truck, ship, plane or other vehicles used to transport items.

The airline industry has long recognised the importance of perishable inventory with respect to empt y seats. They have developed sophisticated pricing models, advertising campaigns and dynamic offers to minimise the loss of their perishable inventory.

I n c r e a s i n g l y, s h i p p i n g companies are adopting similar models for enticing logistics customers to ship at times and in ways that enable the shipper to maximise the use of their inventory, which in turn lowers their costs.

Logistics & Perishable Inventory Perishable inventory is any item or offering that loses its value after some time. For logistics, the perishable inventory is the capacity to move items. For example, consider the available space within a container; empty

How Useful Is Big Data?

Lowering of cost can arise from skillful manipulation of information and these information increasingly come in the form of Big Data. Big Data is not only about volume, but also about new types (variety) of information and incorporating recent changes for information in a

Fast Data Advantage In Logistics And Supply Chains Companies that leverage Fast Data are reaping huge benefits. By Kevin Pool, CTO, Tibco Asia

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he logistics marketplace is extremely price sensitive.

Savvy enterprise customers and frequent shippers focus on very small price differences, all the time expecting top-notch service and handling of their items.

Logistics providers are under huge pressure to maintain and reduce costs. How the individual providers achieve their operational efficiencies varies by their approach and strategy, but providers that find unique and innovative ways to optimise their costs can distinguish themselves in this intensely competitive industry.

According to the World Bank’s 2012 Logistics Performance Index, Singapore came up on top as the leading logistics hub amongst 155 countries globally. This is no small feat and is only possible due to the nation’s strategic geographical location and a strong infrastructure.

Competition amongst the providers is strong. In today’s market of thin margins, competitors and new market entrants are always looking for opportunities and new angles, and are ready to pounce whenever an opportunity arises.

Logistics enterprises must understand that in order to stay ahead of the pack, a forwardlooking vision paired with the right strategy and technology will be key to grow or even sustain current market position.

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Skillful manipulation of information can lead to lower costs.

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INDUSTRYFOCUS much faster manner (velocity). The real success stories with Big Data are all about getting big value from new types of information in new and different ways. Powerful yet easy to use, visual analytics tools are used by progressive enterprises to leverage their data to identify key strategies and opportunities.

For example, a transportation company may use Big Data and visual analytics to identify a weekly trend for unused capacity on Thursdays, and a monthly trend for unused capacity on the third week of the month. They could leverage that information to contact a special large manufacturing customer and offer them a discount if they ship materials to their warehouse on that particular day.

Likewise, a manufacturer might analyse the variable shipping costs for different time periods.

Using that information, they could schedule their supply chain and manufacturing cycles for both operational efficiency and cost optimisation. An understanding of the varying costs can also be used for negotiating beneficial pricing if certain schedules are used for shipping.

Predictive Analytics The ability to spot trends or patterns in data and predict future values has long been the arena for highly trained statisticians with complicated analy tical models. Easy-to-use tools are now available which put the power of predictive modelling into the hands of everyday business users.

Typically, the tools guide the users through the process of developing the models on a training set of data, then validating the model on a test set of data.

A shipper might use one of these tools to analyse their inventory utilisation trends to develop a predictive model. For example, they might identify that they usually receive 50 percent of the orders for items that ship on Thursday www.equipment-news.com

Visual analytics tools are used by progressive enterprises to leverage their data to identify key strategies and opportunities.

morning by noon on Wednesday.

They can use the actual order volume at noon on Wednesday to predict the volume that will need to be shipped. Depending on a higher or lower than normal predicted volume, the shipper might plan additional resources or generate ‘Last Minute Special’ offers for reduced prices in order to maximise their utilisation.

Fast Data Data that must be responded to in a short time frame is called Fast Data. Other dimensions of Fast Data are information that has a rapidly reducing value over time.

For example, knowledge of you r p e r i sh a ble i nve ntor y unitisation from last month might be interesting, but it is much more valuable to know where you stand right now for upcoming shipments.

Or consider a disruption event such as a truck break down. It is important that you are informed about the disruption very quickly, then assess the impact and respond in a short time frame.

Companies that leverage Fast Data are reaping huge benefits.

Major global shippers commonly have their routes, item handling and resources predefined. A select few are receiving benefits by incorporating fast data and real time information to react and

respond with dynamic handling and allocation of resources.

For example, a shipper might have next day and second day services, which have different handling of packages. If they can determine and predict that there will be unused capacity on the next day service, they can dynamically divert the second day items to fill the capacity on the next day transportation route. This can allow them to maximise the perishable inventory utilisation on the current day, and to schedule less or smaller resources for the following day.

Logistics Moving Forward The logistics and supply chain enterprises that will thrive are the ones that innovate to use every available advantage and opportunity. Gone are the days where business can be run with decisions made based on legacy policies or even intuition.

Organisations that leverage increa sing va rietie s of fa st data along with analytics and predictive models w ill find themselves a few steps ahead of their competition.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6404 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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INDUSTRYFOCUS When a customer already has a preferred tool and grade in mind, Novo smart-attribute filters select the products available to do the job and give the options on what cutting item and adaptive item fits and works with the selected solution. The filters take the task of selecting all cutting tool components from hours to minutes, while users get the assurance that the list is both comprehensive and correct.

How To Transform Digital Tool Knowledge Into

Productivity Improvement?

A digital tool selector & process planner can power shop systems that are hungry for accurate and timely tool knowledge by interfacing with tool management, e-commerce, and other programs.

K

e n n a m e t a l’s N ovo digital tool and process pla nning applicat ion has continued growing by adding process capability constantly. Now, Novo Version 1.3 is connecting via the cloud to tool management, e-commerce, and other shop systems, reducing data errors and making non-valueadded data-transfer efforts a thing of the past.

How It Works…

Scenario 1: I need to make a ½” hole x 1 ½” deep in ANSI 4140 The application helps users define machining features, drilling a blind hole in this case, and

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then immediately reduces the product set to those that can do the job, taking into account constraint requirements such as material, tolerance, and machining sequence for both single tools and multi-tools.

The application then ranks the results — based on knowledgebased rules — to best meet the challenges of the application as defined by the customer’s operating environment and user preferences, providing more useful process knowledge than any online catalogue alone.

Scenario 2: I need a ½” by 5xD solid-carbide drill in grade KC7315.

Bottom-Line Is… In both ca se s, Novo’s Tool Configurator provides all CAD files and graphic support for all tool components and their assembly — time savings for customers.

“Novo thinks like a process planner,” explains Thomas Long, head of the Virtual Machining RDE department at Kennametal. “ It work s f rom t he fe atu re back to the tooling strategy. In addition, each order number is tied to application data gleaned f r o m hu n d r e d s o f s u b j e c t matter experts and decades of Kennametal experience. Request a part number and you also get pictures, assemblies, spare parts lists, as well as inserts that fit. Not only does it accomplish in minutes what formerly took hours, it yields an optimised solution every time.”

In addition, the application’s Job Functionality option is a cloud-based repository linked to a user by a unique ID where tool lists can be stored for future use, editing, copying, and sharing.

These can be downloaded into standard report formats and include tooling commercial and dimensional data and weights, speeds and feeds, and photo or CAD model images.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6405 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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MANAGER'S TAKE

Good Safety Is Good Business Speaking at the Singapore WSH Conference was Mark Goodsell, the director of the Australian Industry Group, an industry association in Australia that helps their members build competitive and sustainable industries. He talked about the importance of viewing workplace safety seriously and he brought forward some mainstream business reasons to make his argument all the more compelling. www.equipment-news.com

Safety Is

GoodFor Business

Attaching a business case to workplace safety may well be the much needed catalyst for organisations to finally sit up and take notice. By Joson Ng “A company that takes safety seriously for its own sake as a business discipline rather than a compliance issue will generally reap the twin benefits of better business results and also being compliant with safety rule,” he said. He added it is important to internalise safety management, as the organisation will then stand a better chance of making safety part of its culture. It will lead to sustained behaviour that

Steve Campbell, San Francisco, US

T

he families of employees have all the right in the world to expect their loved ones to return home safe ever y day. While every organisation has the moral obligation to ensure workplace safety, it is fair to say regulations are its driving force in many organisations, which generally view workplace safety as costs.

“Well-being is an absolute fundamental beginning of that conversation with the workforce on what needs to be done in partnership between employer and worker in order to improve health generally, and you will end up with a workforce that is healthy and happy in the workplace and who are much more productive,” said Lawrence Waterman, head of Health and Safety, London Legacy Development Corporation, United Kingdom. He was tasked with the health and safety aspects of 70,000 sub-contractors during the construction of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London for the London Olympics.

Companies may not care about ‘health’ and ‘happiness’ mentioned by Mr Waterman, but the word ‘productive’ will no doubt catch their attention.

F u r t h e r i n g t h i s a rg u m e n t , productivity ultimately translates into money and establishing a business case for workplace safety and health is a potential game changer.

will transcend future changes in management.

Why Be Safe?

In matured economies where legislations on workplace health and safety reflect the serious stance taken towards safety, a poor safety record can literally cost a company millions of dollars.

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MANAGER'STAKE stood at 19 workplace fatalities, five more compared to the same period in 2013. Calling the situation “unacceptable”, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s deputy PM and minister for Finance announced a slew of measures to help reverse this worrying trend.

“The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has taken immediate measures to step up its regulatory controls as well as its enforcement efforts. These measures include the strengthening of the Business under Sur veillance (or BUS) programme and the Stop Work Order (or SWO) regime, and heavier penalties for companies and individuals found responsible for WSH infringements. It is undertaking a further review of its regulatory penalties and the legislative framework, to ensure that both MOM and the Courts are able to send a stronger deterrent message,” he said.

Whether these deterrences are in the form of higher fines or work stoppages, they all eventually translate to dollars and cents for the organisation that runs afoul of safety regulations. This comes nicely to a point that Mr Goodsell made during his speech. “Poor safety costs money.”

Examples of these costs are loss of production, fines, insurance premium increase and legal costs. According to him, there are less tangible costs as well like customers’ reaction, and damage to company’s reputation and employees’ morale. Finally, a poor safety record may also deter potential investors from working with the company.

On the flip side, having a good safety record may command a premium for contractors, said Mr Goodsell. In fact, some companies can even market good safety as a client benefit. Away from the marketing arena, having a good safety system in an organisation can also help identify red flags in 64

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its manufacturing department.

“Good safety systems can now uncover and address many issues that manifest themselves as safety risks, which are also very often business risks within an organisation,” he said, citing waste, poorly maintained equipment, quality problems, and poor work flow designs as signs of business risks.

A Better Workplace For All A business exists to make money.

This is a point that everyone understands. Instead of adopting a myopic view and ignoring the big picture, organisations should start to view workplace safety

seriously as it will not only keep them on the right side of the law, but prevent bad publicity which can potentially be disastrous, leading to customer boycott.

Back to the point made by Mr Waterman, productive workers are also healthy and happy workers. It seems that workplace safety is not only part of good human resource practices, it is also a win-win in terms of the overall business and therefore should be embraced for the common good.

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ENQUIRY No. 6501 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Integrating Safety & Health

Many ideas on workplace safety were exchanged at the Singapore WSH Conference The Singapore WSH Conference was held at the Suntec convention centre from May 7 – 8, 2014. It saw participation from over 900 leaders, experts and delegates from around the world. The two-day conference focused on key areas such as the need to create a balance between health and safety practices as well as to incorporate WSH ownership, leadership and partnership capabilities within an organisation.

The conference also touched on Vision Zero, a mindset that will bring WSH performance to the next level. Vision Zero is a numerical target of zero accidents or zero risks at the workplace. It is hoped that the philosophy will bring about a conscious mindset that strives for zero harm in the workplace.

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MANAGER'STAKE

Conduct Total WSH Gap Analysis In 7 Steps

Total Safety

1. Data Collection Take stock of existing data collected from all sources such as in-house incident repor ting systems, aggregated health screening data, diseases and ill health records and WSH monitoring data.

Traditionally, organisations tend to focus more on tackling workplace safety hazards as compared to workplace health hazards. However, things are changing.

As employers are realising that their employees’ health, safety and wellbeing are very much interconnected to the individual’s capacity to work, there is now a need to push for a new approach.

In Singapore, the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council, together with Ministry of Manpower will promote a new approach, called ‘Total WSH’. This programme involves an integrated assessment of all workplace risks – from employee’s safety, health to wellbeing.

3. Employee Survey Bridge gaps where there is missing data through focus group discussions and employee surveys.

Conduct periodic health screening for staff to get a better idea of their health profiles.

4. Walkthrough Survey Verif y trends and findings by walking through the work processes and talking to employees about issues at hand. Check if risk control measures implemented are adequate and effective.

5. Evaluate Findings & Suggest Improvements Evaluate outcomes of R A and gap analysis and recommend improvements and prioritise actions.

6. Communicate Findings Communicate the findings of the gap analysis and encourage employee feedback and participation in programmes.

7. Act On Recommendations Prioritise and implement recommendations or solutions.

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Jenny Rollo, Sydney, Australia

2. Baseline Analysis Analyse the data looking for patterns and trends across departments, occupations, demographics, work processes etc.

Why stop at workplace safety when you can add a ‘health’ element into a holistic workplace safety approach?

Get The Approach Right To support employers in implementing Total WSH, the WSH Council, MOM and Health Promotion Board have jointly developed a Guide to Total WSH. The guide outlines a sixstep process to implement the approach.

1. Top Management Commitment a. Allocate resources b. Participate in activities 2. Set Up A Multidisciplinary Team 3. Identify Issues & Concerns a. Relook risk assessments b. Conduct WSH Gap Analysis

4. Prioritise & Strategise a. Rank concerns based on urgency b. Devise intervention programmes 5. Implement Interventions 6. Monitor & Review (Go back to step 3 if required)

Holistic Risk Assessment A key feature of Total WSH is that it takes a holistic approach to Risk Assessment (RA). A holistic RA includes the consideration of risks from these three aspects: 1. Physical Work Environment & Processes Hazards in the physical work environment and processes can result in physical harm to persons, causing death, disability, injury and/or ill health.

2. Work Organisation Work organisation refers to how work is structured within the organisation and how the organisation is managed. Tasks could be organised so that underlying causes of unsafe behaviour and ill health are reduced, and work can be carried out safely.

3. Individual Health Risk Factors The individual health risk factors of employees should also be considered when conducting RAs, as these factors may cause them to be more affected by the work environment, processes and organisation.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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FEATURES

Vietnam Metalworking Market:

On The Right Track While anti-China protests in Vietnam threatened businesses back in May, there was a scene of normality at the SECC where MTA Vietnam 2014 took place.

By Joson Ng

A

ny fears of a poor visitor turnout were firmly dispelled from the get go as MTA Vietnam show organiser SES reported a total of 11,159 trade attendees comprising trade visitors, exhibiting staff, seminar speakers and delegates, competition participants and members of the press. Among them included 295 group delegations from various parts of the country.

In terms of manufacturing and the business outlook of the country, it looks as though it is all systems go as well. HSBC reported that the Vietnamese manufacturing sector continued to see improvements in business conditions in June, although rate of growth in output and new orders eased during the month.

The PMI stood at 52.3 in June, down slightly from 52.5 in May. The key point to take away however, is that the number signals a further improvement in business conditions in the sector and manufacturing output has now risen in each of the past nine months.

market for us, the first half (numbers) doubled compared to last year’s first half figures,” said Lee Wai Yip, GM of Hurco.

“We were quite optimistic until things became uncertain with the straining of relationship with China. Customers have reflected to us that they are a bit edgy to how things are developing. Those with no immediate requirements are putting their purchasing plans on hold. There may be some hiccups along the way this year but going forward, there is no doubt it is going to be a fast growing market for us.”

Experiencing similar trends in Vietnam are OEMs of metrology and band saw products. Steve Bell, the GM of Renishaw (ASEAN) said: “Our feeling is for the last two to three years, the Vietnamese market

has been about the potential but it has been purely talk. For the first time this year, we can see things are happening. Orders have been placed.” He revealed to APMEN that the sales figures are “definitely growing compared to last year”.

Fellow metrology equipment producer Blum has noticed a few sizable projects going on in the country. Candy Ong, the MD of the company’s Southeast Asia establishment said they are working hard to clinch 80 percent of those projects. It will no doubt be a shot in the arm for the company as she is looking for better results in the Vietnamese market.

“Since the last quarter of last year and the beginning of this year, the market has actually been slow but considering the number of orders (we had), we are quite satisfied,” she said, adding that they are some 40 percent better off in sales compared to the year before.

Over at Wenzel, which is working closely with their local partner in Vietnam, they too have a reason to be upbeat about the market. CP Chuah, the GM in charge of the company’s Asia Pacific commercial operations, said they managed to get good leads at the show (more than last year) to follow up on and there is a good chance for a better second half of the year.

A total of 11,159 trade attendees thronged the show floor during the four-day show.

Positive Showing Expected In The 2nd Half Of 2014 Like the manufacturing sector, positive trends can also be seen in the metalworking sector. “We started the year pretty well.

It was quite a positive year.

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FEATURES In the band saw segment, the situation is rosy as well.

“For us, it is a new and growing market. Although there were some political issues between China and Vietnam a couple of months ago, we do not see this as having much influence on the market as a whole as most investors are coming in from Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the US. Most European companies are looking outside China and they are coming to Vietnam. I see this as an opportunity,” said Vincent Chai, sales manager of Lenox.

He told APMEN that they experienced a steady increase of 30 percent in total sales compared to last year. When asked, he said he expects at least another 30 percent increase from last year’s numbers come the end of the year.

Also predicting good growth was Charles Tay, deputy MD of Erowa, a company specialising in EDM, tool-making and automation.

He said: “First half of the year was quite smooth with some orders in Vietnam. There was a 15 to 20 percent growth in the first half. I hope to achieve 30 to 40 percent growth for the whole year.”

Looks like the demonstrations in May has failed to put a serious dent in the enthusiasm of investors in Vietnam and this is good news for all parties involved.

From the show organiser’s point of view, the increase in the number of export-based industries setting up their operations in Vietnam will see higher demands in engineering and productivity requirements. They hope that the show will continue to play a supporting role in bringing technology buyers and suppliers together in a vibrant marketplace for Vietnam and beyond.

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Mr Bell told APMEN that things are on the up in Vietnam

Products Debuting In Vietnam With 289 exhibitors from 19 countries/regions, the event’s international exhibitors brought with them a multitude of manufacturing solutions to keep pace with the country’s growing market.

Lee Wai Yip, GM of Hurco: We are showcasing AdaptiPath, a proprietary software option that we have bundled in with our Ultipocket option. The software is for trochoidal milling. We are showing the difference between the adaptive path and our traditional conversational process. You can see time savings of 61 percent.

Vincent Chai, sales manager of Lenox: The Q88+ is an advanced and improved version of the Q88. With the peening process, it releases some of the stress (on the band saw) after hardening to make it more even and reduce the tendency of breakage. The tool life is therefore extended.

Charles Tay, deputy MD of Erowa: We brought the F-Tool Centro clamp, which is suitable for Vietnam’s high mix high volume manufacturing space. This product is responsible for most of our enquiries which stands between 20 to 50.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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FEATURES

It’s Always Better To

Do It Yourself

We see how a Taiwanese contract manufacturer improved their delivery of parts for an optical communication components and sub-systems supplier by moving production in-house. By Matt Bailey, international correspondent for Haas Automation

F

ibre optic technolog y first gained widespread public awareness in the late 1990s when the world began to witness massive hikes in demand for communications bandwidth. This was mainly due to increased use of the Internet, and the commercialisation of various bandwidth-intensive consumer ser v ices, such as video on demand.

In 2014, the growth of this technology shows no signs of abating, with demand being driven by Internet video traffic, reque sts from the fina ncia l sector for ever-faster trading connections, and cell phone use which, by design, has to be linked into landline networks.

Stroke Of Luck This is all good news for Year Round Technology Corp, a diecasting business based in the Wugu district of New Taipei City, Taiwan.

“We went into the fibre optic market because someone found us by chance,” admits the company’s sales manager, Jean Kuo. “Our customer began growing very quickly, and before we knew it, we were doing more and more work for them. We were very lucky to start in the fibre optic sector from the very beginning. As a result, we have a good understanding of our customer’s needs and expectations.”

Difficulty: Parts from external suppliers were suffering from poor yield.

Solution: Move production in-house by building up a new line.

Conclusion: Improvements in quality and cost of parts. The company also experienced a turnaround performance of 30 days for their first article items, many of which can be taken directly into production.

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FEATURES Jean Kuo says her company went into the fibre optic business by chance

The customer in question is a US-based company that has grown from humble beginnings to become the world’s largest supplier of optical communication components and sub-systems, employing around 12,000 people worldw ide . T he compa ny ’s products enable high-speed voice, video, and data communications for networking, storage, wireless, and cable TV applications.

With steady dema nd, Year Round opened a second manufacturing facility in 2008, a move that has since helped triple output. Today, fibre optic contracts account for around 70 percent of the company’s business.

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Housing Requirements One of the main fibre optic components manufactured by the company is the housing — the ca se for the module t hat generate s t he lig ht.

T he se mo du le s, wh ic h a re approximately the size of a human hand, are used in large systems for data communications/fibre optic servers. Ultimate end users include global business giants such as Cisco and Microsoft.

“The housing needs to be d i m e n s i o n a l l y a c c u r a te to within 25 µm, largely because o f t he f ibre t ra n sm i s sio n ,” say s M s Kuo. “ I f t he re a re any deviations, it will impact

performance. The housings also need to present an aesthetically pleasing exterior finish.”

Although the company has specialised in zinc die-castings since it was formed in 1980, around five years ago, the fibre optic industry began to shift towards aluminium die-castings, as these provide less weight and better thermal dynamics.

However, the drawback with aluminium is that it requires more post-cast machining.

In-House Production The manufacturer began aluminium die-casting in 2009 and initially outsourced the second- operation machining.

However, the company soon confronted one of the biggest problems of outsourcing: quality control. “ We discovere d t hat t he yield — the number of castings returning from succe ssful mach in ing — wa s not ver y g o o d ,” s ay s M s K u o . “ O u r subcontractor was only finding an out-of-tolerance dimension a f te r m a c h i n i n g h a d b e e n completed. When machining die-castings, dimensions need to be checked during process, almost step-by-step. The design and accuracy of the fixture is also influential in achieving a successful part.”

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FEATURES A r o u n d t wo y e a r s a g o , t he comp a ny de cide d t hat outsourcing was not proving successful, and instead opted to purchase its own machine tools and started machining in-house.

They eventually invested in four Haas VF-2SS Super Speed vertical machining centres and two DT-1 Dril/Tap Centres.

Better Yields Three of the four vertical machining centres are used for performing second-operation machining of aluminium die-cast housings, with typical cycle times of around 40 minutes. The parts are loaded on a rotary fixture, machining two at once. Three sides are machined in a single clamping, before the housing is flipped for further operations.

One of the four- a x is V F2SS machines is also used to produce copper electrodes for the company’s EDM machines, which are used to manufacture the die-cast tooling. The electrodes, often with very thin features, are critical, as the tooling needs to be of high quality to produce upwards of 100,000 die-castings a week.

The other VF-2SS is a five-axis

The company decided to move production in-house after suffering lessthan-satisfying results while working with external contractors.

version that, although used for second-operation machining, is also deployed for prototype work.

Prototypes are often made in batches of around 100, and allow the customer to ascertain if the design is good before the mould is produced.

The DT-1 machines are also used for a certain amount of prototyping, along with secondoperation machining. Regardless of the machine deployed, regular

dimension checking takes place t h ro u g ho u t t he m ac h i n i n g process.

The upshot is a far better yield of castings through the machining stage, which allows Year Round to better control its costs. This fact is appreciated by the customer.

Aside from cost and quality, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer also managed to offer turnaround performance of approximately 30 days (from new mould to firstarticle die-casting). They added that most of these first article items can then be taken directly into production.

“A lot of customers don’t require a prototype anymore; they order the first batch from the beginning, when we run the first cycle,” says Ms Kuo. “To achieve this, we must focus on quality. Although we are always threatened by cost-competition, the real value is being able to provide a mould that can produce hundreds of thousands of diecastings without any problems.”

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FEATURES

T

he steel industry plants can now measure the contours of glowing wires, bar steel and tubes in the production process automatically.

This is partly due to a profile measurement system’s ability to warn in real-time imminent tolerance infringements even before the product quality suffers.

With this particular function, the RDMS profile measurement system from Lap allows users to optimise the capability of the individual structures locally and avoid costly rework. The profile measurement system can also be integrated in existing lines where space is limited.

This system fits comfortably into the times of increasing competitive pressure in the steel industry where maximum production efficiency is required. This is because many manufacturers are migrating to measuring wires, steel bars and tubes not only at the end of the production process but between each production step. By doing so, they can assign tolerance errors directly to the respective systems and adjust these optimally.

Automatic Profile Measurement “The profile of common bar steel geometries can be measured with the RDMS profile measurement system — including rounds, squares, flats and hexagons,” explains Frank Lohmann, senior sales manager (steel industry) at Lap. “Stationary sensors measure over several axes during the rolling. Not only diameters of wire, bar steel and tubes — they also provide precise measured values about roll offset and breakout, eccentricity, ovality and tension and pressure influences.”

Up to six Metis measuring systems can be integrated in the round measuring frame of the RDMS, which the product passes through. They consist in each case a transmitter and receiver. The laser beam of a diode laser in the transmitter falls onto a rotating

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Measure Profile Of Glowing Wires, Bar Steel & Tubes Automatically The ability to generate instantaneous warnings may prove to be a welcome addition to the increasingly competitive steel industry. By Thomas Armbruster, head of marketing/PR, Lap polygon mirror. A precision lens converts the deflected laser beam into a parallel running beam, which passes through the measuring range cyclically.

The glowing steel shades the opposite receiver when it passes through the maximum 500 mm wide measuring field. The time interval can be converted into dimension values. Each pair of devices provides an authentic c ro s s s e c t i o n p ro f i l e f ro m different viewing angles, even at high rolling speeds.

Real-Time Warnings The Lap software evaluates the measurements in real-time. “With trend analyses and statistics functions, they can indicate on a monitor to the local employees in good time when tolerance infringements are approaching,” says Mr Lohmann. “They can then

optimise the rolling process directly and specifically.”

For example, from the furnace to the cooling bed, the user can install a measurement system after each production step. This provides him with an overview of the complete production process.

The user can therefore detect sources of error immediately and eliminate them specifically.

All measured data can be stored in the IT system, optionally in an open SQL database of Lap, whose data can then be further processed statistically. In the future, the company is planning a closed loop so that rolling lines can be automatically controlled in realtime using measured data.

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EVENTS& EXHIBITIONS

T EMTE-Eastpo 2014 Special Report:

Yoyo Xie was in Shanghai to see what Europe’s finest had to offer.

he inaugural EMTE Eastpo 2014 exhibition attracted a total of 650 international exhibitors from 24 countries, showcasing their machinery to buyers from 5 4 economie s. T he number of v isitors wa s recorded at 47,654, with the biggest group of domestic visitors coming from south- eastern China. Buyers from India, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia made up the majority of international visitors.

In addition, a total of eight country pavilions and national groups were present, adding to the internationality of the show.

The groups were represented

by Czech Republic, Fra nce, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan.

Exhibitor’s Showcase & Opinion The exhibition hosted manufacturers who are eager to tap into the va st ma rket opportunities in China. One of them is Fagor Automation, a Spain-based company developing products for machine automation a nd control. This time, it presented a machine tool controller within its CNC ra nge. The product feature s a n ergonomic look and is suitable for industrial environments.

According to Mr I ña k i A nto ñ a n z a s, A sia m a n a g e r of t he comp a ny, t hey have positioned themselves in the Chinese ma rket for the la st 27 years, and they are glad to see the upsurge of European machine tools in this strategic market due to their quality and precision.

This year, he predicted a growth rate of about 10 percent for their business performance in China. For the second half of the year, the market prospect for laser cutting technologies is showing some optimistic signs.

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EVENTS&EXHIBITIONS Over at the grinding segment, U n ite d G r i nd i n g pre se nte d some machines with an updated design and look at the show. For instance, the Studer S11 is a cylindrical grinding machine that is capable of short reaction times and optimised traverses.

Jo Santens, GM of its China base said the show is a good fit for their marketing strategy. He added that about 76 percent of the enquiries received for the first two days are almost all new customers.

According to him, a s the metalworking market in China is evolv ing w ith continuing increase in labour and material costs, manufacturers of grinding products are looking for better machines with higher e f ficienc y t hat a re capable of e xe cut ing more comple x application and processes.

Meanwhile, China is looking to manufacture products with higher quality. The mechanical components and parts made in the country have become more sophisticated, so they need to use equipment with higher quality, precision and flexibility.

Many other domestic and international exhibitors also rated the show as a suitable sourcing platform. They e x p re s s e d t he i mp o r t a n ce to f u r t h e r s t r e n g t h e n t h e automation trend, which is gradually gathering steam in the Chinese manufacturing industry as they predict less manpower in the future.

Shanghai New International Expo Centre Shanghai, China July 14 - 17, 2014 Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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Voice From CECIMO Dr Frank Brinken, chairman of CECIMO Dr Brinken believes China Economic Committee remarked at the is slowly moving opening ceremony of the show: “We are into automation very pleased with the outcome of our maiden and this will bode well for efforts to stage the EMTE-Eastpo exhibition European — a showcase of technology and practical machine makers. solutions presented by leading brands from around the world.”

He said later during an interview with APMEN that the exhibition received positive feedback from the participants, as machine tool manufacturers expressed satisfaction with the number of qualified visitors who have purchasing intention.

With regard to the current metalworking market sentiments in China, he commented that the country is the world’s largest market in machine tool consumption. Many SMEs are eager to invest in response to the five-year plan and they normally invest in high-end equipment to cut down the rising labour cost.

“If we look back to the innovations that came up in the last 20 to 25 years, many of them were actually from medium-size companies. In addition, private companies showed the most dynamic developments and they know the philosophy of Six Sigma as well as the importance of consistent quality control. They try to take any human error element out of the manufacturing process, as this is the driving force for light automation,” he said.

Other key words propelling the industry are ‘intelligent’, ‘green’ and ‘sustainable manufacturing’. With energy prices becoming even higher in China, development of energy-efficient machine tools must be given stronger emphasis.

Statistics show that China is the most important export market for European machine tool builders. In 2013, Chinese imports from CECIMO countries recorded over €3.3 billion (US$4.4 billion). The growing Chinese labour costs and the need to meet environmental requirements increase the attractiveness of European machining tools.

On the other hand, Chinese machine tool producers also find more potential in Europe. With exports worth up to €335 million, the country has become the third largest overseas supplier to Europe.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

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EMO Milano 2015 Press Conference The EMO Milano 2015 press conference was held on July 16, 2014 alongside the exhibition. The upcoming world machine tool exhibition is scheduled to take place from October 5 to 10, 2015 at the exhibition centre of Fiera Milano. Visitors and users can expect to find metalworking machines and solutions that will build and shape the future.

The last edition in 2009 recorded 1,400 exhibitors representing 39 countries, while the number of professional visitors stood at 124,660, among which 41 percent came from Italy and the rest from 99 countries around the world.

The event next year will coincide with Expo 2015, an event that is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of people to the city. Filip Geerts, director general of CECIMO, predicted the range and quality of the exhibits at the upcoming edition will see new rounds of expansion and upgrade.

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EVENTS&EXHIBITIONS

CEO Summit:

Knowledge-Sharing & Networking Platform

H

eld on 15 July, 2014 at the Kerry Hotel Pudong Shanghai, the summit attracted 100 participants to learn and exchange ideas with a panel of speakers led by keynote presenter, Dr Fritz Klocke, professor and director of laboratory for machine tools and production engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University (Germany).

The summit comprised three sessions. In the first part, Mats Harborn, VP of European Union Chamber of Commerce in China gave a speech titled ‘2014 Business Perspectives: China’s Weight in The Global Outlook’. According to him, for global players in this industry, China is still one of the most important income generators contributing 10 percent of the total

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share. Its scale of economy will double again by 2025.

He added that people must notice how different industries look from the growth perspective in China, for instance in the aerospace, automotive & machinery and medical device & health care sectors. According to him, it is the golden age for multinational companies to make further inroads into these segmented markets.

Manufacturers in China should focus more on productivity and quality instead of quantity while paying more attention to the pricing mechanism.

Next, Hellmut Schütte, professor of International Management, CEIBS China presented a keynote speech on the topic of ‘Automating for Optimised Productivity and

Competitiveness’. He mentioned that the success of multinationals lies in the fact that they pursue unceasing competition, automation and constant upgrading of frontier technologies.

T he se cond pa r t of t he Summit focused on the voice of customers and perspectives from producers and suppliers. Sancha Garcia, executive VP and head of purchasing department from Volkswagen Group China shared his view on the best practices and trends impacting the industry as a car OEM in China, while Dr Stefan Sack, CEO of Comau China, talked about using new technology solutions to meet customer’s growing demands.

In the third part, several selected speakers introduced various solutions for effective production operations a nd ma x imising operational excellence. Ken Kofsky, MD of Rockwell Automation (Greater China) talked about the trend of smart manufacturing. As this era has seen increasing connectivity and big data being embedded into a whole set of industrials sectors, the continuous development of intelligent machineries and the cultivation of global perspective and mindset are imperative to all manufacturers alike.

Other topics at the summit included the utilisation of lean management tools and the use of leasing and financing services for assessing the impact of equipment investments.

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ENQUIRY No. 6704 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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PRODUCTFINDER Ametek Land: Non-Contact Thermometers With Additional Damage Protection Ametek Land has added a Route Manager and protections against accidental damage to its Cyclops line of por table non - contact thermometers.

The Cyclops L family includes four models measuring across a range from 200 to 3,000 deg C. They are aimed at a wide range of applications including liquid metal, steel and glass production, and furnaces.

The Route Manager enables users to identify each location with a description, an emissivity value, a window correction factor (if applicable), and a unique identifier. This mode allows for complete repeatability of readings, making the thermometer a suitable tool for multiple locations requiring regular and reliable monitoring. Finally, an industrial rubber casing cover and lens hood provide additional damage protection.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6801 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Beckhoff Drive Technology: Servomotors For Small Installation Spaces

Beckhoff is adding the flange size F1 with a 40 mm edge length to the AM8000 servomotor series. Three overall lengths cover a torque range from 0.22 to 0.55 Nm, enabling drive solutions to be implemented with minimised space requirements.

The AM801x and AM811x servomotors offer a low rotor moment of inertia as well as quadruple overload capacity and therefore meet the requirements for motion dynamics even in the smallest of installation spaces. This makes them suitable for applications with fast cycle changes.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6802 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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CribMaster: Modular Industrial Benchtop Vending Solution CribMaster has released the X3 System, combining both helix and carousel dispensing, that is designed for smaller scale point-of-use vending of high-volume inventory.

As in any of the company’s inventor y ma na gement solution, the system is simple to use. For example, the authorised user simply walks up to the system and scans his/her employee badge or uses other optional login methods. Then, they select the required item(s), enter the quantity on the touchscreen interface, and remove the dispensed items to do the task at hand. The software records the transaction and the database is automatically updated.

The system’s inventory management software also handles a large range of functions including cost accounting, purchasing optimisation, supply chain tracking, inventory level monitoring, and cost saving opportunity identification.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6803 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Doosan: VMC & Horizontal Turning Centre In One Doosan’s Puma SMX 3100 S is the company’s third generation mill-turn multitasking machine, integrating the capabilities of a ve r t ic a l machining centre and horizontal turning centre into one platform. The machine distinguishes itself with a more rigid 90 deg vertical axis and forward positioned automatic tool changer, for improved milling capabilities as well as enhanced operator ergonomics.

According to the builder, the multi-tasking functions decrease the total processing time and number of machining operations by using a single setup. This provides high-speed performance for component manufacturing processes that require accurate and complex machining capabilities for turning, milling and secondary operations using the sub-spindle, which is optional.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6804 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

75

PRODUCTFINDER GE Phoenix: Low-Maintenance CT System

Goudsmit Magnetic Systems: Magnet Gripper

GE Phoenix has introduced the v|tome|x c, a compact 320/450 kV CT system for NDT a nd qua lity assurance labs i n fou nd r ie s or aerospace applications and 3D metrology. Low-maintenance, production-oriented design features like easy loading tools, barcode reader and one-button CT automation functionality make this system an efficient tool for industrial quality assurance.

The system offers flexibility and penetration power for high absorbing samples at 450 kV. It is available with a line-detector for high quality fan beam CT with reduced artifacts caused by scattered radiation; or with a digital detector array for high throughput cone beam CT; or a combination of both detectors.

Goudsmit Magnetic Systems has developed a magnet g ripper used for lifting and gripping.

The magnet gripper is fitted w ith a rubber pad; this is a modification to the existing design where moving the work piece during vertical lifting posed a problem.

A n additional benefit of the revised version is that the work piece does not become damaged; the gripper is wear-resistant and has a longer life expectancy.

According to the manufacturer, the system can be used to lift and transport extremely thin steel sheets one by one. The system is simple to connect, and is already in use with many large vehicle manufacturers.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6805 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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Gleason: Productive Skiving Machine

Ingersoll Rand: Efficient Centrifugal Compressor

The Gleason 3 0 0PS Power skiving machine d e l i v e r s productivity and quality gains for cylindrical external and internal gears up to 300 mm in diameter, says the manufacturer.

In addition, it combines machine, cutting tool, workholding and power skiving process expertise to offer users performance improvements, particularly in operations where shaping, forming, pressing and broaching are typically used.

As compared to shaping, for example, the machine can deliver productivity rates as much as eight times higher. The modular tool-less workholding is designed for fast installation and changeover to handle the highest process forces, with superior internal chip evacuation.

Ingersoll Rand, a producer of air compre ssors, tools, fluid management a nd material h a n d l i n g equipment, ha s developed the Centac C800 centrifugal air compressor.

The compressor is built on an integrated and simplified centrifugal compressor platform, and is an extension of the Centac C1000 product line. Certified as ISO 8573-1Class 0, the compressor provides 100 percent clean, oil-free air, and is designed to minimise downtime and lower total cost of ownership.

According to the manufacturer, the optimised components and systems in the compressor reduce energy use by up to six percent at full load.

In addition, inlet guide vanes are standard on the compressor, delivering up to 10 percent additional energy savings at partial load.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6806 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

76

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6807

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6808 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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ENQUIRY NO 115

PRODUCTFINDER

Iscar: Intelligent Milling Solutions

OVENS & FURNACES

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6809 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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Inert Atmosphere Ovens 8-36 cu. ft. capacity Temps to 1250ยบF UL Listed controls, NFPA 86 Rated Interior seams welded gas-tight Pressure regulator/Flowmeter maintain atmosphere Air jacketed for cooling

www.grievecorp.com 847-546-8225

ENQUIRY NO 114

Iscar has expanded its milling insert line with the HeliIQ-Mill 390. This range offers tools carrying inserts with three cutting edges. The manufacturer also said that the inserts have a more advanced cutting geometry.

Staying on milling, the company has also developed the Helido 490 that features double-sided inserts with four cutting edges. Together with the Helido 690, the manufacturer said both cutting tools belong to a durable and reliable family of indexable milling tools, where their double-sided inserts have six cutting edges.

Fina lly, for those involved in machining aluminium, they can use the Helialu HSM cutters to increase productivity.

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

77

PRODUCTFINDER LMT: Low Cost Measuring Machine

Laser Measuring Technologies has added new abilities to the Accu-Tool measuring machine. It is specifically designed for the cutting tool industry, making production quicker, easier and more accurate, according to the developer.

The machine has precision guide rails that are mounted directly to the X & Z axis for optimal thermal stability due to the solid granite base. The cutting tool measuring software system allows for automatic measuring, auto edge detection and complex geometry inspection.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6810 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6812 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

Mitsubishi EDM: EDM For Large Parts

Tungaloy: Drills For Smaller Diameter

Mitsubishi EDM has developed the MV4800 Advance, an addition to the MV Series EDM family. According to the builder, the machine’s standout features are its cylindrical drive and its increased travel, making it suitable for larger part production. The machine features an extensive travel of 31.5 inches x 23.6 inches x 20.0 inches, and can machine workpieces up to 53.1 inches x 43.3 inches x 20.0 inches. Submerged, it can cut 20 inches deep.

This machine allows for a lower wire speed, reducing wire cost by as much as 60 percent. Finally, it has an intelligent auto-threading systems designed to anneal up to 27 inches of wire, reducing the curl ratio to less than 10 percent.

Tungaloy has expanded its TungSix line of indexable drills. The company claims that it is the world’s only indexable drill that offers six cutting edges. This expansion includes the diameters from 20 mm to 27 mm, effectively covering a drilling range from 20 mm to 54 mm (diameters).

This line also comes with it two new sizes for the insert — the WWMU05 and the 06 size, as well as the ‘DJ’ chipbreaker, which covers most of the applications in the market.

Finally, the manufacturer says that the drill inserts reduce cutting forces and its geometry design reduces the cutting forces to levels comparable with the competitor’s positive insert indexable drills.

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6811 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

78

Panasonic: Aluminium MIG Welding Robot System To avoid welding spatters, which occur during pulse welding, Panasonic has developed the Tawers Aluminium MIG welding robot system. MIG welding provides a higher melting rate compared to TIG welding. The technology offers the possibility of an active reversing of the aluminium wire during the welding process.

By targeting drop separation as a result of the controlled wire guiding, the welding spatters and deposits on the aluminium material are greatly reduced so that a good welding result can be achieved. The welding torch is a servo pull wire feed type so that an accurate feeding of the aluminium wire can be guaranteed.

By avoiding welding spatters during the active aluminium process, customers can omit expensive rework of the basic material whereby cost reduction potentials can be achieved.

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

Got a Question? Make An Enquiry.

ENQUIRY No. 6813 Turn to page 80a or log on to www.equipment-news.com to enquire

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EXHIBITIONPROGRAMMES

EXHIBITION

PROGRAMMES

2014-2015 SEPTEMBER

9 – 11 Medical Manufacturing Asia

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

Sep 30 – Oct 4 BIMU Fiera Milano Milan, Italy UCIMU bimu.esp@ucimu.it www.bimu.it

OCTOBER

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

9 – 11 Metalex Vietnam 2014

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

SECC Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Reed Tradex metalexvietnam@reedtradex.co.th www.metalexvietnam.com

JI Expo Kemayoran Jakarta Jakarta, Indonesia PT Napindo Media Ashatama yulisa@napindo.com www.indoaerospace.com

13 – 15 AMB China

5–8 Indo Marine 2014

Nanjing International Expo Centre Nanjing, China Messe Stuttgart China ambchina@messenanjing.cn www.ambchina.com

JI Expo Kemayoran Jakarta Jakarta, Indonesia PT Napindo Media Ashatama yulisa@napindo.com www.indomarine.org

21 – 25 Euroblech

5–9 TMTS 2014

Exhibition Grounds Hanover, Germany Mack Brooks Exhibitions info@euroblech.com www.euroblech.com www.equipment-news.com

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

2015 JANUARY

14 – 16 NEPCON Japan Tokyo Big Sight Tokyo, Japan Reed Exhibitions Japan inw@reedexpo.co.jp www.nepconjapan.jp

MARCH 3–8 TIMTOS

TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall Taipei, Taiwan TAMI timtos@taitra.org.tw www.timtos.com.tw 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

September 2014 asia pacific metalworking equipment news

79

ADVERTISING INDEX Page No.

Enquiry No.

BENIGN ENTERPRISE CO LTD

27

120

BYSTRONIC PTE LTD

05

121

DELCAM PLC

07

099

Advertiser

DMG ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD

02/03

132

11

113

FC/IFC

124

KENNAMETAL INC

BC

102

MESSE DUSSELDORF ASIA (INDOMETAL 2014)

37

116

NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

19

123

PT PAMERINDO INDONESIA (MANUFACTURING INDONESIA 2014)

55

119

REED TRADEX COMPANY (METALEX THAILAND 2014)

49

129

SCHUNK PTE LTD

15

126

SECO TOOLS (S.E.A) PTE LTD

01

070

SINGAPORE EXHIBITION SERVICES PTE LTD (MTA 2015)

53

131

TAEGUTEC CO

13

122

TAIWAN EXTERNAL TRADE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL / TIMTOS 2015

39

117

HAAS AUTOMATION INC

ISCAR LTD

80

TAIWAN TAKISAWA CO LTD

77

115

THE GRIEVE CORPORATION

77

114

TMBA / TMTS 2014

41

097

TRUMPF PTE LTD

21

130

TUNGALOY SINGAPORE PTE LTD

IBC

125

WALTER AG SINGAPORE PTE LTD

09

118

WENZEL ASIA PACIFIC

17

128

WIKUS SAGENFABRIK WILHELM H KULLMANN GMBH & CO KG

25

027

YIH CHUAN MACHINERY CO LTD

31

127

asia pacific metalworking equipment news September 2014

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ASIA PACIFIC METALWORKING

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Tungaloy Singapore Pte. Ltd. 62 Ubi Road 1 #06-11 Oxley BizHub 2 Singapore 408734 Tel: (65) 6391 1833 • Fax: (65) 6299 4557 www.tungaloy.co.jp/tspl/

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