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Dixons Surgical Instruments is using the Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 200-II MSY turning centre to keep ahead of the competition.

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, Dixons Surgical Instruments is proud of its status as a maker of high-quality surgical instruments, and of the craftsmanship that goes along with that business.

Technical director Jay Dixon, grandson of the company’s founder Frank Dixon, suggests that the art of surgical instrument making today revolves around combining modern machining techniques with the traditional crafts of handworking and polishing.

It was back in the early 1990s that Jay’s father, John Dixon, recognised that, with the advent of CNC, many of the parts being produced lent themselves to being CNC machined prior to hand finishing.

This recognition that technology could make life easier was to see the company’s first machining centre installed, quickly followed by a two-axis CNC lathe.

The early foray into CNC answered many of the questions being posed by this new technology while, at the same time, creating new challenges.

‘Our manufacturing is based around a catalogue of specialist instruments that stretches to over 5,000 individual items,’ said Jay Dixon.

‘Our batch sizes tend to be quite small, with 20-off being typical.

‘After a while we recognised that investing in a turning centre was the way to proceed with our investment plan.’ With the decision made, the challenge was to find a suitable machine and, influenced initially by price, the company purchased a twin-spindle, platen-type turning centre.

‘It didn’t take us long to realise that this was not the ideal machine tool, as we were finding that the complex set-ups for this machine and the time involved were far outweighing the initial capital expenditure saving we had made,’ said Dixon.

With the benefit of hindsight and this new-found experience the company renewed its efforts to find the ideal turning centre.

The result was the purchase a Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 200-II MSY.

Featuring twin spindles of 26kW and 11kW respectively, a footprint of 2.8m by 1.86m and a Y-axis movement of 100mm, this proved to be the ideal solution for the compact machine shop.

One of the key boxes that had to be ticked was the machine control.

‘One of our biggest problems has been machine setting time, so the first criteria that we had for the new machine was the control system,’ added Dixon.

‘We needed something that would lend itself to smaller batch sizes and allow us to program, set and get the machine running as quickly as possible.

‘The Mazatrol Matrix control ticked the most boxes.

‘Of particular interest with the Mazak control is the fact that the conversational language made programming much simpler.’ As with all potential customers, Jay Dixon and his colleagues were invited to visit Mazak’s European manufacturing plant in Worcester.

This in turn, played a major part in the final decision-making process.

‘The knowledge that there is a large engineering team ready to provide whatever support that might be needed is a definite buying influence,’ said Dixon.

This support included programming and operator training.

The five-day programming course at Mazak was a revelation to Dixons’ employees, whose previous experience of programming training courses was to be sat in their own canteen with a pen and paper.

While service and support is highly valuable, it is the performance of the machine that ultimately decides how successful the buying decision is.

Jay Dixon has nothing but praise for the performance of the Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 200-II MSY.

‘From a productivity point of view, we are not too interested in shaving seconds off cycle times as we only produce small batch sizes,’ he said.

‘However, the savings we have made, and have still to make, in reducing set-up times will make a significant difference to this business.’ What is key to a manufacturer of surgical instruments, though, is the precision and overall quality of parts being produced, and it is hear that Dixons is seeing major improvements.

Thanks to the build quality of the Mazak machine the company is finding it much easier to machine parts to high standards.

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TandR Precision Engineering has invested GBP1.5m in six CNC machine tools from Yamazaki Mazak including CNC turning centres.

Ray Maddison, managing director of TandR Precision, said: ‘A major contract from one of our longstanding customers drove home the fact that we needed to invest in CNC.

‘Aircraft manufacturers reviewed manufacturing processes in an attempt to reduce costs and improve productivity.

‘The result was components that are an amalgamation of two or three previous parts; to manufacture them efficiently, a five-axis capability became an essential requirement.’ The first Yamazaki Mazak machine TandR bought was a Mazak Variaxis 630-5X II multi-tasking machine tool, closely followed by a Mazak Integrex 300-IV ST multi-tasking machine tool.

Maddison said: ‘In the early days, much of the work we did was in light alloys.

‘But as this started to change to a requirement to machine components in hard materials, such as titanium and Inconel, we needed a machine capable of handling the higher cutting forces and stresses.’ The Integrex’s versatility and its capability to finish machine components in a single set-up has meant the difference on certain tasks between breaking even and making a profit.

The rigidity of the Integrex’s construction allows higher cutting data on difficult-to-machine materials.

The simplicity of its Mazatrol Matrix control system helps speed up the programming of the most complex components.

Four jobs are about to be transferred to the Integrex 300-IV ST, which is expected to reduce their cycle-times by 40 per cent.

A third multi-axis Mazak machine, a Variaxis 500-5X II, has a multi-surface simultaneous five-axis machining capability that is producing a variety of aerospace components.

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RT Quaife Engineering has converted the entire turning section of its manufacturing facility using machines and control systems from Yamazaki Mazak.

For over 40 years, Sevenoaks-based RT Quaife Engineering has been developing specialist transmission systems for motor sport teams.

Investment in machine tool technology is helping to maintain that position.

Quaife’s client base ranges from the enthusiast, through professional teams right up to the OEMs including Ford, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler.

Quaife’s latest OEM success has been the development of the differential that will be used in the latest Ford to take the RS name, the RS Focus.

Quaife has always adopted the latest NC and CNC at the earliest opportunity.

‘Our early decisions to buy on price did not necessarily deliver the value/performance that was required, so some 3-4 years ago, Quaife began the process of converting its entire turning section at its Otford, Sevenoaks manufacturing facility over to Mazak,’ said Mick Quaife, technical director, RT Quaife Engineering.

‘This change was driven by the quality of the machines available from Mazak and a desire to move to a more user-friendly control system.

‘The quality of the Mazak machines was defined with the first five machines that we bought, which came with a good warranty.

‘We only had to call out Mazak’s service department once, and the problem was solved quickly and efficiently,’ added Quaife.

Even though the switch to the Mazatrol Matrix control system was a step change in progress from existing systems, it was found to be extremely easy to use and operators quickly came to terms with the conversational programming.

‘We have had a number of different control systems over the years,’ said Glen Molineux, general manager, RT Quaife Engineering.

‘The Mazatrol system has proved to be very easy to adapt to and we have seen improvements in set-up times as a result.’ Quaife’s latest purchase, which was delivered just three months ago, is a Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 250-II MY, equipped with optional bar feed unit.

As standard the machine features a 4,000rev/min 26kW turning spindle, with a 12-position turret with live tooling capability at each position.

When combined with the 100mm Y-axis, maximum turning diameter is 380mm while the maximum length that can be machined is 580mm.

This latest machine, along with the other five Mazak Quick Turn Nexus machines installed at Quaife, will be used to produce a wide variety of transmission components, including gear blanks and shafts for use in its range of gearboxes and differentials.

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Machine-tool builder Boxford has invested in Integrex and VTC 300C-II machines to help keep the manufacture of machine tools for the education market in Halifax for the foreseeable future.

Boxford makes bench-top CNC lathes, machining centres, routers and manual lathes.
Its machine shop was coming under pressure from the variety of work and the relatively small batch-quantities that it was being asked to produce.

Paul Barraclough, director of Boxford, and Steve Randerson, manufacturing manager, visited the UK manufacturing facility of Yamazaki Mazak in Worcester.

The Boxford employees initially wanted an Integrex multi-tasking machine but, after talking it through with Mazak, bought a VTC 300C-II 18.5kW, 12 000 rev/min vertical machining centre.

The employees decided to have the VTC 300C-II fitted with a partition on its 2000mm table, a feature that has eliminated set-up times at Boxford.

Boxford also invested in Mazak’s CPC software and laser tool probing, to allow precise tool-monitoring and management.

Randerson said: ‘Our criteria were to reduce downtime and increase productivity, especially on the small batches that we are called on to machine.

‘The VTC 300C-II has helped us to achieve these aims, with the ability to set one job while another is being machined, eliminating all of our set-up time.

‘A situation helped by the 48-position tool carousel, which is monitored and controlled, along with the sister tools, by the CPC software.’ The VTC 300C-II has allowed Boxford to retire two ten-year-old vertical machining centres, while at the same time increasing productivity and improving component quality.

Having witnessed these improvements, attention returned to the initial plan to install an Integrex multi-tasking machine tool.

Boxford placed an order for an Integrex 200-IV ST, which features standard twin spindles (22kW and 18.5kW), 18.5kW/12 000 rev/min milling and a 120-position automatic tool change, bar feed and workpiece conveyor.

This machine was delivered in December 2008 and will be used to machine a variety of components and operate lights-out on one-off batches.

Randerson added: ‘The versatility that the bar feed, ATC and workpiece conveyor give us is a tremendous boost to productivity.

‘Our plan is to use a single diameter of bar stock to produce a number of components when we run the machine unmanned.

‘While this will result in some wasted material, the cost savings of being able to run lights-out will far outweigh this expense.’ Any components machined overnight will be straightforward chucking jobs that do not require second-end working.

During the manned day-shift, Boxford will use the Integrex’s second spindle to machine more complex components.

The Integrex will allow seven more machines to be taken out of commission, including every manual machine in the factory and the two Mazak machines providing the bulk of the company’s machining capacity for the short-to-medium term.

However, plans are already being developed for the next stage in the investment programme in the machine shop.

Both Paul Barraclough and Steve Randerson are keen to extend the Mazak presence with an additional horizontal machining centre equipped with either a pallet pool or Mazak’s Palletech system.

Barraclough added: ‘We are already witnessing the productivity boost that we expected from the Mazak machines and we are confident that the investment will be paid back on schedule.

‘In terms of productivity, I would say that after capital investment of well over GBP1m in the last few years, we are producing more here now with 50 employees than we did 25 years ago with 120 employees.’.

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Fuji has announced the availability of its PBS-300TT twin-turret chucker, which performs medium- to high-volume production with short cycle times.

Featuring four-axis simultaneous ID/OD-diameter rough and finish turning, the PBS-300TT reduces process cycle time by about 38 per cent.

The rigid box way construction of the chucker is said to ensure high-quality spindle output.

Equipped with Fuji’s own high-speed three-axis dual-hand gantry robot, the PBS-300TT provides work-piece loading and unloading.

The robot-carrying capacity of the chucker is 6.6lb + 6.6lb, with diameters up to 7in x 4.7in.

The PBS-300TT comes with Fuji’s SP1 Max Robot Controller for faster and smoother simultaneous multi-axis movement to access the front, back, left and right of the traverse axis.

A Fanuc 320i-A CNC control is standard with five-place decimal positioning control (English); four-place metric is also included.

The PBS-300TT operates at a maximum spindle speed of 3,000 revolutions per minute and generates 20HP at the spindle motor.

The turret head features a curvic coupling.

For improved chip flow, the machining position of the PBS-300TT is located directly above a large chip receptacle at the bottom of the machine.

Chips drop straight down from the cutting zone onto the Fuji-built chip conveyor.

The PBS-300TT is suitable for machining flanges, hubs, gear blanks, inner rings and outer rings.

The compact footprint of the PBS-300TT is intended to allow for easy integration into most shop environments.

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Fuji Machine America Corporation has introduced the ANS-300TTS and ANS-320TTS twin-turret automated shaft lathes for high-volume applications with short cycle times.

Featuring four-axis simultaneous operation and Fuji’s own gantry robot, the ANS-300TTS and the ANS-320TTS are claimed to achieve faster cycle times and faster takt for optimal work piece output.

The rigid box construction of these lathes is intended to ensure high-quality spindle output.

Approximately 50 per cent of the process cycle time is reduced by high spindle and cutting thrust.

A honeycomb-constructed column is said to enhance rigidity and reduce machine weight.

Featuring a compact design, floor space requirements are at a minimum.

The footprint of the ANS-300TTS measures 5ft 7in (width) x 7ft (diameter) x 9ft 6in (height), while the footprint of the ANS-320TTS measures 6ft 6in (width) x 7ft (diameter) x 10ft 8in (height).

The included Fuji-designed and -built high-speed two-axis gantry robot enables the ANS-300TTS to carry up to 11lb + 11lb, while the ANS-320TTS can carry up to 22lb + 22lb.

For faster and smoother simultaneous multi-axis movement to access the front, back, left and right of the traverse axis, the ANS-300TTS and the ANS-320TTS are equipped with Fuji’s SP1 Max Robot Controller.

A Fanuc 320i-A CNC control with five-place decimal positioning control (English) and four-place metric are also included.

Both the ANS-300TTS and the ANS-320TTS operate at a maximum spindle speed of 3,500 revolutions per minute and hard-turn with a 20HP spindle motor.

Featuring a curvic coupling, the turret heads on each slide are capable of heavy radial force developed during cuts.

The programmable travelling tailstock features a long stroke of 13.78in.

Suitable for machining pinion shafts, turbo charger shafts, input shafts, output shafts, axle shafts, electric motor shafts and more, the ANS-300TTS and the ANS-320TTS machines turn diameters up to 7.1in and shaft work up to 11.81in long (with the option to upgrade to the ANS-320TTS to machine shaft work up to 23.62in long).

These machines employ built-in robotic automation and in-process auto-gauging for quality control and are engineered with Fuji-custom work holding, all from one source.

This allows Fuji engineers to guarantee takt time, cycle time and CPK with turnkey and run-off solutions that are built for lean manufacturing.

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Available from DMG, the CTX beta 800 linear is offered with the option of +60mm of Y-axis travel to a choice of a 12 or 16-station 40 VDI turret with all positions having a driven tool capability.

The CTX beta 800 linear machine is the mid-range version of the CTX series, which can also be specified with 500mm and 1250mm turning lengths.

The machine has a 34kW water-cooled main spindle capable of delivering up to 380Nm of torque.

The main spindle chuck diameter options are up to 400mm diameter with a swing of 700mm and the counter-spindle chuck is 250mm diameter.

Optional bar capacities are 65mm, 76mm, 93mm and 102mm diameter.

High-precision glass scales are used on both the X-axis and Z-axis to provide positioning within one micron.

DMG’s Ergoline control with a 19in screen, 3D simulation and customisable DMG Softkeys can incorporate either Siemens 840D Solutionline with its Shopturn programming extension, or the Heidenhain Plus IT unit with DINplus and the option for Turnplus interactive programming software.

The fifth generation of CTX beta universal lathes in 500, 800 or 1250 versions give high visibility of the working area through scratch resistant, shatterproof windows produced to an aerospace standard with brushed chrome surfaces.

DMG’s Smartkey provides various levels of machine-user security and its Lightline provides an indication of the machine operational status.

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Currently, a large variety of software is available to the manufacturing industry. The software helps the industry to improve a multitude of manufacturing as well as organizational functions.

Firstly, software has been developed to control and monitor machines used in manufacture of products. Each type of machinery works in a different way and therefore requires a specifically designed software program.

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is software used to generate the codes to give instruction to CNC machines to enable them to form shapes designed in a computer-aided (CAD) system. This helps the modern manufacturing plants to meet their high volume high accuracy production requirements.This also simplifies the job of the person who is watching over the machines and makes it significantly less strainous.

The second important function of a software programs is to facilitate better control on financial and personnel management. The software for this purpose is usually applicable to all types of industries and institutions. Nevertheless, minor changes may be necessary to tailor the general software for a particular industry or institution.

Thirdly software programs are able to streamline and improve management functions within the manufacturing industry. Because computers control the machines, time and motion studies of various manufacturing operations, and stages can be more easily undertaken. It is possible to stay up-dated and effectively control the status of critical items, such as raw materials, inventory and order status, goods in-process status, finished goods inventory, and delivery status. Planning and scheduling software enables the industry to monitor manufacturing activity, through time and action calendars that track key milestone events and create alerts. Activities such as packing and labeling can be controlled, by getting real time status on exact quantity of pieces packed for different orders, per quantity, per color, and per size, to reduce possible back charges.

Manufacturing Software provides detailed information on Manufacturing Software, Manufacturing Inventory Software, Manufacturing Business Software, Manufacturing Management Software and more. Manufacturing Software is affiliated with Free CAD Software.

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CNC machining in the industrial the context refers to Computer Numerical Control. Computers are used to control machine tools for the purpose of manufacturing complex and intricate parts of metal and other material. More over the cutting process is enabled, using a program written in a notation confirming to EIA-274-D standard, which is often referred as G-code. The computer numerical controls were developed in late 1940’s and 1950’s, but were briefly preceded due to less advanced numerically controlled machines. However the CNC technology has developed greatly, with advances in mechanics and the computer sector. The developed CNC machines have drastically changed the face of the manufacturing industry.

More over the CNC structure has dramatically reduced human intervention in machining. It is easy to cut curves or straight lines, and structuring intricate 3-D parts has become relatively easy.

However CNC machines have helped to increase automation of the manufacturing sector, and have enabled improvements in consistent and quality production. The machininig technology has even helped significantly in reducing the frequency of errors and has provided the CNC operators with time to perform additional tasks. CNC automation also gives higher flexibility to the way tools are gripped in the manufacturing process, and the time required to produce different products.

Often for producing parts requiring several operations, a series of CNC machines are combined into one station, commonly referred to as a cell. However CNC structures today are controlled directly, with help of the files created by CAM software packages. Wherein the assembly can go directly from design to manufacturing, eliminating the need of producing a paper draft of the manufactured component.

Moreover CNC technology has enabled convenient and automated handling, of various machine tools such as drills, edm, lathes, milling machines, wood routers, sheet metal works, and hot-wire foam cutters. CNC technologies represent a special segment of industrial robot systems, as they are flexible and programmable to undertake any machine operation task.

Machining provides detailed information on Machining, CNC Machining, Casting Molding Machining, Precision Machining and more. Machining is affiliated with Automotive Machine Shop Services.

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Part I, Utilizing an off the shelf PC as a CNC Controller

There are two main groups that can take advantage of today’s low cost PCs as an effective and inexpensive CNC controller.

• Retrofits to existing CNC machines with outdated or proprietary controls in need of service.

• Shop built and home built CNC machines.

Inexpensive PCs can cost as little as $150.00 and yet provide a dependable and effective CNC machine controller. Some sources to consider for obtaining such a system are outpost.com and dell.com. Oupost.com is an outlet for Fry’s electronics. They have one PC on sale ranging from $150.00 to $199.00. Several have successfully used this PC in conjunction with MACH2 CNC controller software.

Tradeoffs: Price vs. Quality. With the lowest cost PCs there a tradeoff in performance, quality, and reliability. The manufacturers of these machines use low cost hardware in their manufacture and they make compromises in the design of the systems to keep their costs down. Inexpensive hardware translates directly to a higher failure rate and more difficult to obtain manufacturer support. This can be a deciding factor by itself if you rely on this machine for production.

Design compromises which are common in low cost PC have an impact on performance. The primary concerns are: insufficient memory, the use of shared memory, and on-board graphics devices. The primary hardware requirements for a PC based CNC controller are sufficient memory, and sufficient processor speed. You can see that the compromises present in these systems are in direct opposition to the requirements for CNC controller.

At the bottom end of the Inexpensive PC market there are off the self solutions that will function well as a PC based CNC controller. As with all things, you tend to get what you pay for, so the buyer is advised to be aware of the requirements and limitations that are in play.

Part II in this series of articles will examine an alternative to buying an off the shelf solution and explore building a PC to meet your specifications.

Dan Staber a Mechanical Engineer offering design, analysis, consultation, and project management services. Dan is also a licensed professional engineer is the states of South Dakota and Washington. For more information please vist - http://www.qacad.com

dcstaber@qacad.com

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