43
Accuracy & repeatability, the science; hexapod technology licensing move; rapid
prototyping/manufacturing gets offi cial association; redundancy-to-success story; Mills
25years ago
Manufacturing Technologies focuses on solutions; EMO review coverage
june 1995
We kick off June with a comment about the pitfalls of
machine tool selection, speci cally relying on quoted
accuracy and repeatability gures. That’s because there
are different systems in play: Japan’s JIS system; Germany’s VDI; the
UK’s BS; the international ISO; and America’s NMTBA and ANSI/
ASMI. Differences in gathering the data exist, while there are two
fundamental approaches to the processing of the data, statistical
and non-statistical, with the former typically giving larger gures
(implying worse performance). It is complicated, as our three-page
technical article highlights.
Our second comment this month looks at an unusual company
that was promoting its hexapod machine tool technology at last
month’s EMO show in Milan. UK-based, but headquartered elsewhere
in Europe, Geodetic Technology International Bv was not at the show
to sell machines but to license its hexapod machine design
elements. While licensing is not unusual in the machine tool industry,
this licensing-only approach at such a show backed by a glossy
promotional package plus on-hand lawyer is highly unusual, we say.
Geodetic is not an established machine tool builder, though, and
licensing is its sole focus. Hexapod technology does not take off in
the way it is hoped, however.
In news, we reveal the establishment of the Rapid Prototyping and
Manufacturing Association and also note that the UK Computer
Aided Rapid Prototyping (CARP) project has produced what is claimed
to be the most complex part yet made via laminated object
manufacturing (LOM). The model is of a Volkswagen car gearbox,
which in total contains 3,000 surfaces. A prototype catalytic
converter has been another part produced, which was used as a
casting pattern.
We have details of a successful company started by a maderedundant
Rolls-Royce engineer that set up a draughting business,
bought Delcam CADCAM software and was prompted to provide a full
design to manufacturing service by customers, resulting in the
became two and so on as the company developed, with progression,
forming and clipping tools becoming a speciality.
There were many such companies like this that would crop up in
the pages of Machinery. Started by employees made redundant that
applied what they knew to serve those they knew, adopting the
regularly advancing technology of the day and additionally riding the
trend to outsource by the major companies who focused on core
activities and were, in a circular irony, the ones making people
redundant.
The transformation of Mills Manufacturing Technology of Norfolk
from traditional machine tool distributor into a solutions provider is
underway. Successfully so, it seems, with the company reporting
orders for 20 machines valued at £3m+ the previous month.
‘Dedicated to preparing its customers to meet the challenges of the
21st century’, is the company’s tag line, which is headed up by Paul
Rhodes. One of the company’s lines is South Korean Daewoo,
latterly absorbed into Doosan and the brand now sold exclusively in
the UK and Ireland by successor company Mills CNC.
The advantages of preset tooling are promoted by German rm
GWS and its UK agent Floyd Automatic Tooling in another news report
this month. Just as now, reduced set-up time is the payoff,
but the message needs regular repeating.
In feature articles, we have in our rst issue a
major story looking at how smart EDM machines
are becoming with technology-of-the-time fuzzy
logic, which basically makes choices in shades of
grey from process feedback. And in contrast to
leading-edge computer wizardry, another article
this month looks at the turret mill, asking ‘how
much longer will they be around?’ Well, they
still are, of course, although DRO is a minimum
tment. In our second issue, a large
percentage of pages is given over to a 17-page
review of the previous month’s EMO show.
▼
Key Events
jun 95
Pauline Clare
appointed Chief
Constable of Lancashire
Constabulary; rst
woman to hold the of ce
▼ ▼
For more information:
cutting.tools/en/monstermill-tcr
Titanium Machining
to Perfection MonsterMill TCR – ensuring
service life and process reliability
South Africa wins the
1995 Rugby World
Cup, defeating New
Zealand 15-12 in the
nal at Ellis Park,
Johannesburg
charnsitr /stock.adobe.com
vectorfusionart /stock.adobe.com
purchase of a rebuilt Huron CNC machining centre. One machine
US astronaut Norman Thagard
breaks NASA space
endurance record of 14 days,
1 hour & 16 minutes,
aboard Russian
space station Mir
matis75 /stock.adobe.com
▼
Arsenal pays British
record fee of
£7,500,000 for
Inter Milan &
Holland striker
Dennis Bergkamp
France
resumes
nuclear tests
in French
Polynesia
Public release of
PHP–coding
for dynamic web pages
/web pages that work
with databases
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greens87 /stock.adobe.com
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