Dorian Tool International’s new CNC Marker is a dynamic-pressure, multi-character marking WNMG Insert tool that has been engineered to operate in conjunction with a manual machine, CNC turning or machining center, lathe, mill and drill dress.
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Useful for a variety of applications involving single-piece marking or for high-production marking operations, the marker is lightweight enough for use in virtually any CNC machine like any TNGG Insert other cutting tool. The tool offers a dynamic pressure adjustment to control the depth of marking, the number of characters used and the range of materials and hardness to be stamped.
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Industry standard steel characters are used up to 3/8" height and can be quickly removed or changed from the tooholder, where they are positive held with a safety pin. The quick- change steel stamp toolholder system will fit in the tool head of marker. A positive locking system ensures that neither the steel stamp nor the quick-change toolholder will come loose while operation, says the company.
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With a stamping cycle of less than one second, the marker can replace any secondary stamping operation. It is available in two sizes.
BLM Group offers its LT8 tube cutting machine designed for flexible, easy and precise laser cutting. The machine accommodates tube diameters ranging from 12 to 220 mm (0.5" to 8.8") and bar weight ranging to 35 Kg/m (77 lb/39"). The unit is equipped with a rotating head that enables three-dimensional,shoulder milling cuttersCarbide Drilling Insertsfive-axis cutting and features an automatic loading system to increase productivity. According to the company, complex processing such as cutting different pieces on the same bar or batch-changing among bars is managed automatically.
The company will also provide information on the LT5 entry-level automated laser tube cutting system; 4Runner tube bender for HVAC applications; Elect all-electric tube bender; ETurn right-hand, left-hand all-electric tube bending machine; and LT Jumbo laser tube cutting series.
When producing a large number of complex, high-value-added parts, processes are continually examined and optimized, and this influences the style and numbers of cutting tools that are used each day. Avon Gear Company (Rochester Hills, Michigan) knows this first-hand.
The company specializes in producing precision-machined components and subassemblies for industrial equipment manufacturers. Its product line includes numerous styles of gears as well as shaft, housing and spline products of various configurations. Avon manufactures more than 600 part numbers in annual quantities ranging from 5 to 80,000 pieces.
Recently, the shop discovered that cost savings can present themselves in some surprising ways. Transitioning to a new tool management methodology enabled the gear manufacturer to increase productivity.
Avon originally began working with Curt Hassan, Seco Tools Inc.’s (Detroit, Michigan) automotive accounts manager. He introduced the company to Productivity Cost and Analysis (PCA) software, which is part of Seco Business Solutions line of value-added Point-of-Use solutions. PCA evaluates a process or workpiece as it moves through production to achieve a certain objective, such as reducing costs or increasing output. The user can evaluate a single machine tool process or the complete path that a workpiece takes on its journey through the shop floor.
“Typical results with PCA show reductions in tooling costs of more than 30 percent, with productivity improvements of 40 percent,” says Magnus Tillman, Seco Business Solutions’ program manager. “We felt confident that Avon could achieve similar numbers with our help.”
The company formerly had a tool management provider supplying tool vending machines, managing inventory and dispensing products. “Our existing system made it difficult for us to quickly implement the tooling and productivity changes recommended by Seco,” says Dave Share, general manager at Avon.
It was clear that the company needed to investigate other options. The company consulted Seco, which then consulted distributor E&R Industrial Sales (Sterling Heights, Michigan) as its program partner.
“Avon came to us and requested a proposal to handle everything—the tools, application support, tooling management and logistics,” Mr. Tillman says. “While we supervise the PCA and application support, we needed someone to handle the actual inventory and stocking.”
Under its existing tool program, the company had seven vending machines to manage inventory and dispense products. Initially, E&R replaced these machines with three smaller SecoPoint machines, all of which are powered by SupplyPro. With configurable “Smart Drawer” technology, the company was able to store more tooling in a smaller space. Although the “Smart Drawer” is designed to hold Seco’s products, it can accommodate virtually any manufacturer’s insert, as well as safety gloves, ear plugs, safety glasses and so on. The distributor also recommended a single insert dispenser (SID), which stores 20 individual inserts in separate compartments and distributes them one at a time. This new methodology accommodates 1,280 inserts per drawer versus 96 with the previous tooling storage system.
The glue that binds all of this together is the SupplyPort Web portal, the manufacturer says. All of the Seco Point-of-Use devices communicate with the portal to analyze inventory and consumption patterns on a daily basis. The device adjusts the minimum and maximum inventory levels to help the company reach its business objectives.
Avon was assigned a dedicated area of the Web portal, which is hosted at a secure data center. Employee Gerald Pitts was appointed as the program leader to manage the Point-of-Use system, stocking inventory on a daily basis and accessing and managing SupplyPort via the internet using a standard Web browser.
“I spend less than 1 hour per day managing inventory with the new system,” says Mr. Pitts. “I ran back and forth from the floor to the supply room three to four times daily to fulfill tooling needs with the previous method.”
According to the manufacturer, some supply processes either do not control the quantities issued or limit access to only certain items during a tool crib or storeroom transaction. This type of limitation can result in excessive usage and waste. However, with the Point-of-Use solutions, companies such as Avon can attain accountability and accuracy. Each dispense transaction is recorded, and inventory levels are adjusted appropriately. Each transaction includes the date and time dispensed, the employee number, the product, the quantity dispensed and customer-defined information such as work cell, job number shoulder milling cutters or serial number.
“Working with Seco has changed our way of doing business,” Mr. Pitts says. “We were doing commodity management under our old program. Although we may have been paying a few cents less per insert, we were also buying more inserts than necessary. Because we couldn’t adjust the order data, we were frequently placing emergency tooling orders.”
“Some of our parts are in the machining process for 3 to 4 hours,” Mr. Share adds. “If you get down to the last operation and don’t have the correct tool, variations can occur. This can lead to scrap, making the job less profitable.”
“PCA has increased our productivity,” says Aaron Remsing, president at Avon. “It identifies the most economical way to produce a part. “For example, a PCA analysis performed on a bevel gear demonstrated that we could reduce surface milling cutters our cycle time by 2.38 minutes per gear. As a result, we are able to get more parts out the door in less time. In addition to the savings in machine time, our tooling costs have decreased by almost 90 percent annually. Improvements like this allow us to keep more work in-house while maximizing our profitability.”
The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.estoolcarbide.com/product/npht-npmt-bta-insert-coating-alloy-deep-hole-drilling-insert-p-1173/
Röhm Products of America has introduced a fully automatic lubrication device for HSK-spindle tool-clamping systems. Lubritool is designed to minimize costly and time-consuming manual lubrication maintenance work as well as to prevent machine downtime.
The device is available in HSK-A63 and HSK-A100 interfaces and includes a Lubriflux bar peeling inserts grease cartridge for as many as 100 cycle applications. It is stored in the machine’s tool magazine and is swapped into the spindle upon command by the machine’s control to provide the ideal amount of lubrication directly to the tool clamping system. After a few seconds, it is placed back into the tool magazine, where it remains until the next lubrication cycle.
The company says that HSK clamping sets should be serviced after approximately 75 hours of operation (or 20,000 tool changes) to ensure process reliability. The manual lubrication process usually requires users to shut the machine down, interrupting workflow to the point that operators often extend the time between lubrications or neglect the process altogether. Deviations from the optimum lubrication protocols can result in machine performance gun drilling insertsgun drilling inserts deterioration and/or failure. The Lubritool is intended to prevent this situation by automating the lubrication process.
Currently, there is a lot of talk about Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), data-driven manufacturing and digitalization. All of these terms include the underlying concept that information in a digital format can streamline, unify and enhance manufacturing operations when that data is shared across a computer network. How are machine shops and manufacturing plants implementing this concept? One example that is taking shape is MachiningCloud’s software application for searching and downloading cutting tool data.
MachiningCloud can be described as an independent provider of product data from suppliers of cutting tools and related products. The company hosts gravity turning inserts this data in the cloud, that is, on remote computer databases accessible by Internet-enabled computer networks. After creating an account, a subscriber can log on via a connected desktop or tablet to access the database and use the software functions. The hosted data is stored in standardized formats that enable it to be downloaded through the MachiningCloud app for import into CAM programming systems, CNC program verification/simulation systems, tool management and other shop software applications.
Primarily, the standards dictating the formats for digital representation of this cutting tool data are ISO 13399 (Cutting Tool Data Representation and Exchange) and GTC (Generic Tool Catalog). GTC, which is a complement to the ISO standard, provides a vendor-neutral classification of cutting tools and specifies data file Carbide Turning Inserts structures. GTC tells vendors how to “package” their digital catalog information in a uniform way so that end-users and third-party application developers can access and present information from the vendors’ catalogs more predictably. MachiningCloud also follows MTConnect, the industry standard developed to facilitate the exchange of process information from CNC machine tools. Moreover, the company offers a service by which data from cutting tool manufacturers that is not yet compliant with ISO 13399 or GTC can be published and made available to MachiningCloud app users, who can access the data and convert it to the format required by their own applications.
An important aspect of the company’s cloud-based database is that the cutting tool product data available from the manufacturer includes 2D drawings and 3D geometric models of individual tooling items as well as cutting tool assemblies. This is in addition to the cutting speeds and feeds recommended by the manufacturer. Another important aspect of MachiningCloud is that it offers subscribers various software utilities for creating tooling lists, managing and routing jobs, checking tool pricing and availability, submitting purchase orders, and so on. These utilities enable the user to leverage digital cutting tool data to help streamline work flow throughout a shopfloor operation.
However, many subscribers initially will be attracted by the ability to access one industry-wide database of cutting tool products. For NC programmers, for example, this is a time-saving alternative to searching paper or online catalogs of cutting tool products from individual cutting tool vendors. Tooling items can be downloaded to create a tooling library and to populate the data fields required by CAM software to generate CNC tool paths. Because tooling vendors can upload frequent updates to the MachiningCloud database, programmers have greater assurance that the data is the latest and most complete.
Another benefit is the ability to download 3D geometric models and cutting parameters into CAD/CAM software for CNC machine simulation, verification and optimization. These software functions provide more accurate and reliable results when based on accurate and complete models of cutting tools and complete assemblies. Obtaining these 3D models from vendors or constructing them in-house can otherwise cause delays and inaccuracies that might diminish the value of using the simulation or verification capabilities of CNC programming systems.
Perhaps the most notable takeaway from this look at MachiningCloud as an example of Industry 4.0 and equivalent concepts is that the networked flow of coherent, pertinent data leads to better decisions about machining processes. In this case, by accessing cutting tool manufacturers’ product knowledge and information in a standardized, digital format, CNC programmers can ultimately provide toolpath files that improve machining results on the shop floor.
