Productivity, energy-efficiency as innovation-drivers

Thanks to the currently buoyant state of the capital goods market, the METAV 2012 was focused primarily on productivity and efficiency. The exhibitors showcased new and improved solutions for meeting the market’s changing needs. Sectors like aviation and power engineering, for instance, now pose more stringent requirements for the design of machinery and tools. The goal is to ensure cost-efficient machining of special materials, which are being used here with increasing frequency, such as titanium or nickel-based alloys or CFRP materials. Another expanding market, moreover, is medical technology, where medical implants are produced by micro-milling and drilling, for example. The relevant machines have to possess ultra-high-precision traversing and concentricity characteristics even at extremely high speeds. The tools concerned necessitate cutting-edge designs that have been responsively harmonised down to the very last micrometre. In addition, solutions are being targeted, using appropriate automation, for example, that enables a manufacturing operation to be performed directly in doctors’ practices by staff without any specialised training.

Irrespective of the application category involved, the focus continues to lie on complete machining. On the new machining centres, it’s meanwhile possible to run not only turning, milling and drilling functions, but meanwhile grinding and ramping as well. In terms of the tools required, too, several machining operations are likewise performed by a single tool, e.g. when drilling. The issue of energy-savings is a major focus, not only in regard to the workpieces. In the design of the machines themselves, too, efforts are being made to steadily reduce their energy consumption. Examples include the recovery of the spindle’s braking energy, and maximally effective, requirement-driven use of ancillary units.

Continuing focus on the energy-efficiency of machine tools
In the automotive industry, particularly, the energy-efficiency of the machines employed is an important criterion for a purchasing decision. Which means that energy-efficiency is a vital sales argument for the machine tool manufacturers. In this context, abundant potential for savings is offered by hydraulic units, which are needed in clamping and drive systems, for example. In many cases, these components meanwhile operate on an electro-mechanical basis. One machinery manufacturer is advertising a hydraulics-free machining centre in which both tools and workpieces are clamped electro-mechanically (Grob-Werke GmbH & Co. KG, Mindelheim). Regenerative drives and friction-reduced bearings are further approaches for reducing energy consumption. In training facilities, too, where conventional machine tools are used for learning purposes, measures are being taken to upgrade energy-efficiency. Under the name of the “E-Tim Saving System”, one manufacturer is enabling users to match deployment of ancillary units to actual needs and to recover braking energy to be used by the machine (Weiler Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH, Emskirchen, Germany).

Upgrading productivity
In order to improve productivity levels, the manufacturers are endeavouring to perform wherever possible all machining steps up the finished components on a single machine. New machining centres enable drilling, turning, milling, grinding and ramping jobs to be performed in a single clamping. New tools mean that not only standard drilling processes, but also the classical ejector deep-drilling mode can be carried out in a single clamping setup as well, so that complex structures like aircraft landing gear struts can be manufactured (WFL Millturn Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, Linz, Austria).

One manufacturer of deep-drilling machines exhibited at the METV what he claims to be the world’s first deep-drilling machine to simultaneously feature a turning unit, thus enabling deep-drilling and turningNike Hyperdunk 2018