CONTENTS
Volume 177 Number 4291 December 2019
10 Lead feature Uptime focus
After its rst release in Japan back in 2017, FANUC’s Industry 4.0/
Internet of Things (IoT) platform now seems ready for expanding
global application. A now more fully formed eco-system will get its
European debut this coming year. Andrew Allcock has the detail
15 Tooling AM tools support subtractive machining
A number of new and bene cial tooling solutions are being made
possible via additive manufacturing (AM). Andrew Allcock casts his eye
over a representative sample
19 Tooling Heavy cuts
Ceratizit has supplied a tooling package to special-purpose machine
builder Weingärtner for roll machining, with the package destined for an
unnamed company in Asia. Machinery reports
22 Supply side Change in the air
Seco Tools UK’s recent Inspiration Through Innovation (ITI) event
signalled a change of direction for both the event and the company.
Andrew Allcock visited and reveals more
24 Supply side Anniversary splash
Engineering Technology Group (ETG), which recently acquired HK
Technologies, threw open the doors to give over 450 industry delegates
the latest insight into the world of turnkey solutions
27 Subcontracting Automated ambitions
Machinery has news of two subcontractors that have adopted
automated manufacture, a cobot-based machining cell and another a
5-axis machining centre with automation system
30 Motorsport Maintaining the pace
Global Technologies Racing chooses Hermle for metals and carbon bre;
Kadel Engineering opts for Baty to get the better measure of parts;
Autosport International in brief
33 Grinding & surface fi nishing Below the surface at EMO
Andrew Allcock provides a fast recap on high precision gear grinding
developments at the recent EMO show. They highlight the drive for ever
higher precision gears to support the needs of electric vehicle
gearboxes, robots and the aerospace industry
36 Profi ling Firm goes to amazing lengths
P.P. Pro les (West Yorkshire) has installed a Kerf two-table, three-
gantry, multi-head combined plasma/ ame cutting cell that stretches for
a length of 39 m to support its subcontract cutting service
38
Coolants & cutting oils Fluid management
Earlier this year, Machinery carried details of the WillFill coolant
monitoring and maintenance system (
https://is.gd/movuhe) and also
similar technology (
https://is.gd/oruwat) offered by Houghton. Jemtech
(
https://is.gd/jiyelo) has its Oracle system, too. But at September’s
EMO exhibition, it was Castrol’s turn to bang the Industry 4.0 drum
Regular sections
7 Comment
News round-up
8 Master Fluid Solutions’
UK HQ to close
8 Taiwan’s Quaser buys
UK’s Winbro
8 FANUC cloud intiative
8 Lantek/HSG collaboration
8 New DMG Mori additive
manufacturing tech unveiled
8 Automated additive
manufacturing from Trumpf
8 TDT Technology now offers
CMZ turning equipment
9 Forging rm selected for
SiG programme
9 Hurco’s Southern
Manufacturing news
9 ITC follows up on EMO
distributor leads
9 Appointments at: Gewefa,
LK Metrology, Walter Ewag
9 Apprentice news from ITC &
Sarginsons
New products
9 Haas WiFi camera add-on
9 CAD Viewer enhanced
9 Sheet metal marking
9 AM powder ushing system
9 Hard-to-break drills
9 Open Mind AM addition
9 Aero material milling
9 Die monitoring tech
9 Smart EDM wire
9 Horn Supermini
56 Classifi ed section
59 This month
25 years ago...
10
22
27
36
claiming that business is almost at pre-recession levels; Cincinnati
Milacron has won its rst order from Japan for low-cost Arrow vertical
machining centres (VMCs), 24 of them, while it also announces that
sales of its Sabre VMCs have passed the 1,000 mark – both models
are made in Birmingham (the factory closed in 2007); Hitachi Seiki
(UK) reports order intake doubled for the rst half of the year,
compared to 1993 (Hitachi Seiki was bought by Mori Seiki in 2002;
Mori Seiki is within DMG Mori); Ajax Machine Tool has bought the New
Era Conversion Company (Unidial) from Herbert Tooling, Coventry
(today’s Ajax Machine Tools is a resurrected version of this rm).
There’s interesting news from the EuroBlech sheet metalworking
machine tool show. Finnish rm Aliko Automation showed press
brakes turned though 90°, bending in a vertical not horizontal plane.
Two such machines with 2 m bending length each were placed side by
side, either side of a central beam, and each served by a 6-axis robot.
Minimal oorspace requirement was a bene t. Another innovation was
Mazak’s Super Charger Laser that, with its constant beam length,
boasted 3 kW CO2 laser performance from a 2 kW source.
We have two major feature articles. One looks at the further
progress of John Guest, a toolmaker turned push- t pipe coupling
innovator and moulder, the other reviews the development and
progress of exible manufacturing systems. Basically automated
versions of the 1960s’ Group Technology multi-manual-machine cells,
then becoming multiple CNC machining units of the 1980s (typically
pallet-pool-fed horizontal machining centres plus automated parts
handling), but which have now given way to single CNC machine cells
as individual machines become more capable. In whatever form,
reduced lead times, costs and rejects are the essence. Those are still
sought after today, of course, and single-machine, one-hit manufacture
press specialist Bruderer is
same. But it’s still early days for mass adoption of that process.
▼
▼ ▼
▼
michelangeloop/stock.adobe.com
38
OVER A CENTURY OF MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT
SPEAKINGSPEAKINGSPEAKING
SUCCESSSUCCESSSUCCESSOFOFOF
OF201920192019
www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets December 2019 5
Image: FANUC
The nal opinion piece of this year returns to the issue of
training. We cite two events, an industrial one at Birmingham’s
NEC, the other a political one at the House of Commons. The
expansion of The
announcement of the the Programme, which
latter concerned Technology Enhancement promote STEM.
Engineering Council’s colleges by 1997 to 1,000 schools and efforts to promote itself,
aims to reach encouragement for industrial for
for greater support Support exgovernment
and industrialists were calling an basically. At the NEC, by manufacturing sector but were chided certainly in smaller
training in the not training enough, minister for companies. An interesting juxtaposition of government and industry
views on boosting training. But at least the two events demonstrated
a united front on the importance of the activity, we conclude.
In news, we have an extended report on Sweden’s SMT, the
manufacturer of medium to large Swedturn CNC lathes, whose
Swedish owner plus its UK agent had both failed back in 1991. But it
had been rescued by the previous owners of Swedish milling machine
tool rm Varnemo (they sold that to Thai rm MKL). In the UK, ex-SMT
service engineer David Clarke established Advanced Technology
Machines, following SMT’s failure, to support the 400-odd Swedturn
machines in the UK (today still active as ATM Machine Tools). We
report that it is also now the agent for SMT and Modig (see last issue,
p28). SMT is developing a new CNC to support its engineered
solutions/CNC tailoring approach, while a new modular machine with
twin spindles and Y-axis is being considered, we report. SMT merged
with Storebro Machine Tools in 2004, a
company whose continued activity
Machinery cannot verify today.
In other news, we report that:
Jones & Shipman has won its largest
ever single order in the UK, for eight
CNC grinding machines; high speed
is now well entrenched. Today, additive manufacturing provides one-hit
manufacture of complex parts that would have required multiple parts,
albeit made in one-hit operations, to be assembled to deliver the
59
244361_V23_MACH_Ceratizit 28/03/2019 11:08 Page 1
▼PA
25this month
years ago
Industry & government talk training; Swedish machine tools; business recovering for
UK-based machine tool fi rms; press brake and CO2 laser profi ler innovation;
toolmaker-to-OEM journey; past & present of fl exible manufacturing cells
december 1994
Key Events
PA
Football player
Raheem
Sterling born
in Kingston,
Jamaica
STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA Archive/PA Images
Xmas No 1
single: East 17 –
Stay another day
dec 94
Rover Group
ends
production of
Maestro &
Montego
▼ Rolls-Royce
Cars says it
will use BMW
V12 engines
Disney live
action lm
The Jungle
Book
released
British
government
& Sinn Féin
meet: rst
time in
70 years
PA
Akkharat J./stock.adobe.com
PA
059_MACH_DEC19.indd 59 27/11/2019 09:45
)) www.machinery.co.uk December 2019
6th-7th July 2016
Ceratizit UK & Ireland, CGTech, C Dugard Machine Tools, Horn Cutting Tools,
Quaker Houghton, Kerf Developments, RK International Machine Tools, Turbex
041_MACH_DEC19.indd 41 29/11/2019 10:23
41 Speaking of Success Supplement
Firms review their year, taking in: Ceratizit UK & Ireland, CGTech,
C Dugard Machine Tools, Horn Cutting Tools, Quaker Houghton,
Kerf Developments, RK International Machine Tools, Turbex
/movuhe)
/oruwat)
/jiyelo)
/stock.adobe.com
/www.machinery.co.uk
/www.machinery.co.uk
/stock.adobe.com