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Siemens Presents New Innovations That Enhance Machine Tool Productivity

            CHICAGO, April 5, 2011 — At this year’s AERODEF show in Anaheim, California, Siemens will demonstrate new solutions and services for machine tool end-users and manufacturers.  Under the theme, “Productivity in motion,” the presentation will focus on turnkey solutions for the aerospace manufacturing industry.

For machine tool end-users and OEMs, Siemens will exhibit new value-added services ranging from condition monitoring and manufacturing IT to innovative solutions for CNC training and machine tool retrofit, as well as the newest innovations in CNC (computer numerical control), motor and drive technology.

SOLUTIONS FOR MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE

Condition Monitoring and Manufacturing IT are two value-added services that are continuing their introduction to the U.S. machine tool market.

Condition Monitoring is an internet-based service from Siemens that supports maintenance processes while simultaneously forming a platform for cross-company service and support between OEMs and machine operators.  Services can be configured over secure Internet connections from anywhere in the world via a standard PC, an internet connection and a web browser.

Manufacturing IT solutions from Siemens provide software tools for fast, easy integration of machines in a production network, while ensuring that production planning, scheduling and execution
is always problem-free and based on the very latest data.

An entire line of powerful software modules for production machines ensures optimum integration of the machines in the IT-environment and supports a wide range of different functionalities including:

  • Production data management (MDA / PMT / PDA)
  • Numerical control program management (DNC)
  • Tool management (TDI)
  • Maintenance management (TPM)
  • Service management (RCS)
  • Computer interfacing (RPC)


SOLUTIONS FOR AEROSPACE

For the aerospace market, the new Sinumerik 840D solution line is the latest in CNC technology that increases performance and user productivity.  The Sinumerik 840D sl is a universal and flexible CNC system featuring the innovative Sinamics S120 drives that can be used for up to 31 axes.  It is a distributed, scalable, open and inter-connecting system offering a wide range of specialized functions for milling, drilling, turning, grinding and handling technologies.

The Sinumerik 840D offers users innovative features that increase productivity on the manufacturing floor, especially the challenging segments of high-speed and five-axis aerospace machining.

SOLUTIONS FOR THE JOB SHOP

For the job shop, the new Sinumerik 828D numerical control will be presented.  Perfect for
mid-range machine tools, the Sinumerik 828D is designed to address the needs of complex milling and turning machines in the job shop segment.  It combines CNC, PLC, operator panel and axis control for six CNC measurement circuits in a single, robust operator panel.

The Sinumerik 828D is capable of full graphical, high-level language command and supports ISO programming that is customary in the United States.  Programming time can be further reduced for small-batch production with the use of the ShopMill and ShopTurn graphical workstep programming system, while high-level language programming can be used in conjunction with programGuide to significantly reduce programming times for large-scale serial production.

With the introduction of the Sinumerik 828D, modern PC and mobile phone technology is now available to the mid-range machine tool.  Extensive online help animations and a new type of input prompting system with moving picture sequences provide the basis for exceptional user convenience. USB, Compact Flash (CF) card and Ethernet ports enable high-speed data transfers onto storage media or integration of the control system into corporate networks.  Through the use of its Easy Message functionality, the Sinumerik 828D offers production status monitoring by text messaging (SMS). Depending on the recipient’s profile setting, the machine will transmit information about workpiece machining status, report on the tool condition currently in use and send machine maintenance bulletins to a mobile phone, anytime and anywhere.  These combined functions are designed to help keep machine downtime to a minimum.

SOLUTIONS FOR CNC TRAINING

Newly introduced to the American machine tool industry, and based upon the new Sinumerik Operate user interface, SinuTrain is the ideal solution for control-identical CNC training.

With SinuTrain, actual NC programs are developed and simulated, to speed the program generation protocol.  In this way, machine tool operators not only learn the control language commands, but they also visualize part programs on a PC screen that are identical to the machine tool’s screen.  As a further benefit, programs generated through SinuTrain can then be used on actual machines.

SinuTrain is available for different needs and budgets including a trial version, a study version, a single-user license and an educational license.  It is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Simplified Chinese, and requires Windows® XP (32-bit). Support for Windows 7 (32- / 64-bit) coming in 2011.

For more information about CNC solutions and services from Siemens, point your web browser to www.usa.siemens.com/cnc

For specific product information and inquiries:

SIEMENS INDUSTRY, INC.
DRIVE TECHNOLOGIES
MOTION CONTROL
MACHINE TOOL BUSINESS
390 Kent Avenue
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
Phone: 847-640-1595
Fax: 847-437-0784
Web:  www.usa.siemens.com/cnc
Email:  SiemensMTBUMarCom.sea@siemens.com
Attention:  John Meyer, Manager, Marketing Communication

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SiemensCNC or Twitter:  www.twitter.com/siemens_cnc_us.

Siemens Industry Sector is the world’s leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly products, solutions and services for industrial customers. With end-to-end automation technology and industrial software, solid vertical-market expertise, and technology-based services, the sector enhances its customers’ productivity, efficiency and flexibility. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services Divisions as well as the Metals Technologies Business Unit. For more information, visit http://www.usa.siemens.com/industry.

The Siemens Drive Technologies Division is the world’s leading supplier of products, systems, applications, solutions and services for the entire drive train, with electrical and mechanical components. Drive Technologies serves all vertical markets in the production and process industries as well as the infrastructure/energy segment. With its products and solutions, the division enables its customers to achieve productivity, energy efficiency and reliability. For more information, visit http://www.usa.siemens.com/drivetechnologies.

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EXCEL GEAR SUPPLIES GEARBOXES FOR GIANT APE QUADKONG PILE DRIVER

Sixteen precision 112.5º gearboxes fully manufactured, tested, assembled and shipped in ten weeks; run at 1800 RPM on 100 HP

Excel Gear, Inc. of Roscoe, Illinois announces the completion of a sixteen gearbox order in only ten weeks.  Seems rather normal, until you see the application, namely, one of the world’s largest ever vibratory pile drivers, the APE Octokong, to be used for erection of an over/underwater structure, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in China.  The machine is being built by American Piledriving Equipment, Inc. (APE) of Kent, Washington.  In use, the sixteen gearboxes regulate timing on the vibratory power transmission for the apparatus needed to secure the pilings in the riverbed or sea floor.  For a video of this amazing machine design, see www.apevibro.com.

Using its “design for manufacturability” approach, according to N.K. “Chinn” Chinnusamy, Excel Gear president and its chief engineer, the company manufactured the spiral bevel gears, machined the castings, engineered special Teflon seals, created special stainless steel breather caps and holes to accommodate the tremendous pressure build-ups and air dissipation requirements in the system, then heat treated and assembled the units, finally testing them in the Excel quality inspection lab.  Each component was hand-washed and inspected for chips, the alcohol-wiped, run with oil, inspected and re-cleaned.

The sixteen gearboxes, filled with environmentally-friendly biodegradable canola (vegetable) oil and protected with special Teflon bearing seals, are used in pairs at each of eight stations to provide the sequential vibration to the massive assembly that holds the piling above the insertion tube.  As the piling vibrates, it literally shakes its way into position.  (This is shown in the video.)

“The toughest part of this job…and there were many tough parts,” comments Chinn, “was to get the shaft keyways aligned properly in orientation to the surfaces of the spiral bevel gears.  The math involved here was staggering.”  In addition, Chinn notes that special fixturing had to be built to facilitate the machining of the very large surface areas involved on this job.  He proudly reports that the very first test runouts saw keyway alignments within 0.0005” of parallel. 

Another aspect of this immense job was the need to minimize backlash for noise and distortion.  The offset bearing calculations needed the highest accuracy possible and, owing to the very nature of spiral bevel gearing, this was an immense math and machining challenge.  Excel maintains a battery of the largest gearmaking machines in the industry, as its customer base comprises heavy materials handling equipment, naval vessel gun turret builders, barge off-loading crane and other manufacturers where huge gears and precision motion are both required.

Despite the timing of the job, Excel Gear shipped the order ahead of schedule by several days, satisfying the customer completely.  Chinn acknowledges several suppliers who greatly assisted Excel in the completion of this job.  Youngberg Industries of Belvidere, Illinois performed some of the heavy fabrications needed, while Reliance Gear of Addison, Illinois did spiral bevel gearwork, a highly specialized service, and General Surface Hardening in Chicago handled the carburizing and hardening in the heat treat processes on the 4320 alloy steels used.  Finally, Chuck Schultz of Beyta Gear Surface in Winfield, Illinois did some consulting and spec writing on the job.

For more information on this success, please contact: EXCEL GEAR, INC. 11865 Main Street Roscoe, IL 61073 Phone:  815-623-3414 Fax:  815-623-3314 Web:  www.excelgear.com Email:  sales@excelgear.com N.K. Chinnusamy, President  

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250°F Belt Conveyor Oven

grieve829No. 829 is an electrically-heated 250°F(~121.11°C) belt conveyor oven from Grieve, currently used for curing epoxy on metal and nylon filter assemblies. 40 K are installed in Incoloy sheathed tubular heating elements. Workspace dimensions are 30” wide x 10’ deep x 15” high.

The oven has 4” insulated walls and an aluminized steel interior and exterior. A 4200 CFM, 3-HP recirculating blower provides vertical upward and downward airflow to the unit. The oven has three zones: a 2’ long open belt loading zone, 10’ long insulated heat zone with recirculated airflow and a 2’ long open unloading zone. The product is moved through the oven on a 24” wide, 1” x 1” Type 304 stainless steel flatwire conveyor belt with a 1/4 HP motor drive, with variable speed from 0.3 to 6 feet per minute.

Controls onboard No. 829 include a digital indicating temperature controller, manual reset excess temperature controller with separate contactors, SCR power controller, fused disconnect switch and a recirculating blower airflow safety switch.

For more information, please contact: THE GRIEVE CORPORATION, 500 Hart Road, Round Lake, Illinois 60073-2835 USA.  Phone: (847) 546-8225.  Fax: (847) 546-9210.  Web: www.grievecorp.com. Email: sales@grievecorp.com. Attention: Frank Calabrese.

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WOMEN IN MANUFACTURING…A YOUNG GIRL’S JOURNEY

13-year-old student visits Forest City Gear to explore career options; meets many women already succeeding in “a man’s world”

Accompanied by her grandfather, Brian Cluff, vice president of Star-SU, a major gearmaking machinery and tooling supplier, Alexi Cluff toured Forest City Gear to see the manufacturing world and discuss the options there for young women. Alexi, though only 13, is currently enrolled in an advanced engineering class at Northern Illinois University, designed to encourage more young women to explore engineering and science as a career.

Roscoe, IL-Forest City Gear frequently opens its doors to visitors, usually from customer and prospect companies, as well as international trade associations, the media, vendors and occasionally competitors.  Company owners Fred and Wendy Young have always believed this policy was beneficial to the visitors, who see some of the industry’s finest gearwork, produced and validated for quality on absolute state-of-the-technology, world-class equipment.

On March 30, 2011, however, another visitor came to tour Forest City Gear with a slightly different agenda.  13-year-old Alexi Cluff, accompanied by her grandfather Brian Cluff, vice president of Star-SU, a leading supplier of gearmaking machinery and tools, visited Forest City Gear to learn about manufacturing and especially to explore the options for women in manufacturing, an environment traditionally thought to be “a man’s world.”

Alexi is not your typical 13-year-old.  She is currently enrolled in a program sponsored by a grant from the Motorola Foundation and conducted at the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Northern Illinois University.  The program is a workshop in partnership with NIU-Enhanced Engineering Pathways, the Society of Women Engineers and the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois.  The stated objective of the program is to challenge and sharpen the skills of accelerated learning for 12- and 13-year-old girls selected by their local middle school science and math teachers.  Currently, 48 girls work in small groups, assisted and taught by NIU women engineering professors and women engineers from various industries.  These instructors mentor the girls on various engineering projects, from the building of simple electrical circuits to create sound, motion and light, to bridge building, chemical engineering and lean manufacturing simulation.  The groups meet on Saturday mornings on the NIU Napervillie (IL) campus and also attend a summer camp, held each June.

Forest City Gear President Wendy Young conducts the tour through the plant, showing Alexi Cluff the many types of machines used to produce and validate quality on the company’s high-precision gearwork.

Often, the groups or individual students have tours arranged for them at local area manufacturing locations such as electronics and communications giant Motorola, where they can absorb “real world” experiences and especially meet women of all ages who have succeeded in the various disciplines required in a manufacturing environment.  Since Alexi’s grandfather had a long working relationship with Forest City Gear, he reached out to Fred and Wendy Young to arrange a tour.  The Young’s obliged, giving the young lady a complete tour of their factory and quality lab, plus arranging a roundtable discussion with a number of the women at the company, who perform all categories of activity for Forest City Gear.  A world leader in precision gear manufacturing, Forest City Gear has an international reputation for “excellence without exception,” which happens to be the motto of the company.

Women from all departments of the company, including application engineering, human resources, gear grinding, gear deburring, gear hobbing, order processing, estimating, expediting, procurement, materials inspection, quality validation, machine set-up and company management were at the table.  Alexi’s eyes and ears were wide open, as she listened attentively to every word.

Seated at the table for Forest City Gear, in addition to Wendy Young, president, were Kika Young, Geneva Parr, Mary McClellan, Krista King, Sharyl Stewart, Lori Lovett and Ingrid West.  These women are involved in literally every aspect of the company.  As Mary McClellan mentioned, “We touch the products at every step of the process, especially me (in gear deburring), because of my little fingers!”  These women were unanimous in their advice to Alexi Cluff.  “Always be willing to learn more, never be afraid to speak up with your ideas, bring all your skills to the job, every day, and don’t hesitate for ask for directions…something men never do!”  They all had a good laugh.

Alexi said, “I’ve always been interested in making things and finding out how they work,” a sentiment her grandfather echoed.  “I started making gears when I was 14 and it’s fascinated me, ever since.”  If there’s anything to that old adage about the genes skipping a generation, perhaps the gear industry will have another Cluff in its future!

Forest City Gear CEO Fred Young explains some of the company’s gear successes to Alexi Cluff at the company’s display showcase.

At the end of the roundtable, Forest City Gear CEO Fred Young had some comments.  He detailed the difference in the European education model, where there’s considerably more encouragement given to young women to explore any and every working option.  In America, he noted, “Our greatest strength came from manufacturing, the basic ability to make things better and faster than anybody else.  The value-added service of making something from raw materials is what builds a nation’s wealth and makes us more self-reliant.  Letting go of manufacturing would be a big mistake.  By learning and using the technology we develop, as well as what we can gather from other countries, we’ll make America a stronger nation and more successful, in the long run.”

Following the visit, her grandfather remarked to Forest City Gear President Wendy Young, “Alexi was excited and, on the way home, quite animated. The sharing time with your ladies impressed her immensely.  She has been journaling her observations.  She told us in the car on the way back home that the very first class she had at the NIU workshop for girls was a hands-on exercise in lean simulation and that what she saw at Forest City Gear, from the way the routing sheets, bar codes and processing were set up, that you obviously have implemented lean manufacturing practices!  As she downloads, processes and articulates what she saw and observed, she has already started to ask me questions about gear geometry.  Such sweet candy to this old grandpa!”

At this roundtable discussion, Alexi Cluff listened as women from every department of Forest City Gear spoke of their roles at the company and the many opportunities for women in the traditional “man’s world” of manufacturing. Many of these women are the lead or key individual in their respective departments at the company.

In reviewing the NIU program and the comments above, perhaps it’s possible Alexi Cluff actually IS your typical 13-year-old girl.  They just need to be shown their options.

Forest City Gear was founded in 1955 by Stetler and Evelyn Young, parents of the current CEO, Fred Young, who runs the company with his wife, President Wendy Young.  Forest City Gear is considered among the premier gearmakers in the worl

d, with successes ranging from the Mars Rover to the BMW/Oracle, winner of the America’s Cup.

Brian Cluff and his longtime colleague and partner, David Goodfellow, manage and operate Star SU LLC, located in Hoffman Estates, IL.  The company sells various leading brands of gearmaking machinery, other machine tools and a proprietary line of cutting tools.

Here is a link to the news release about the program on the NIU-EEP website (www.niu.edu/eep): http://www.niu.edu/PubAffairs/RELEASES/2008/nov/scouts.shtml

For more information on this story, please contact: FOREST CITY GEAR CO., INC. 11715 Main Street Roscoe, IL 61073-0080 Phone:  815-623-2168 Fax:  815-623-6620 Web:  www.forestcitygear.com Email:  wyoung@forestcitygear.com Attention:  Wendy Young, President

PR agency contact for Forest City Gear: Tim Daro Bernard & Company 847-934-4500 tdaro@bernardandcompany.com

 

 

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Core3D provides dental labs with new materials and new products through advanced manufacturing techniques

International firm uses robotic ultrasonics and conventional machine tools to supply product, usually with 24-hour turnaround; achieving near 24-7 unattended operation with over 15 percent reduction in scrap material on very expensive substrates.

OpenHealth, one of the world’s leading providers of business and technical solutions to the dental healthcare industries, was formed by the owners of five major international dental lab groups — Aurum, Cordent, DTS, Race and ZMC — who combined to harness the strategic synergies of their respective lab and milling center services.  The milling and technology business, under the brand name of Core3D Centres and operating six facilities, brings the OpenHealth group’s expertise and comprehensive service package to labs, dentists and educational institutions in 15 countries on three continents.

We interviewed Tim McKimson, Core3D’s Worldwide Director of Engineering, at OpenHealth’s Las Vegas-based Core3D facility, located near the prestigious Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies (LVI), where restorative and cosmetic dental techniques are taught to practicing dentists and lab technicians, Here, Core3D provides a full range of CAD/CAM/CNC machining and finishing services to LVI and dental labs across the United States.  Led by technical operators Mark Ferguson, Danny Palomares and Drew Hrubes, the Core3D team prepares CAD files developed from data typically gathered with an iTero oral scanning wand or from CAD files from scans of conventional dental impressions from the patient’s mouth, which are then digitally captured in a dental scanner from companies such as 3shape.  CADENT and other software are typically used to image the impression and begin the process of creating the crown, bridge, abutment, coping, implant or even full denture restoration, as required by the individual lab.  3D CADENT files are G-coded at a remote location of the parent company for transfer to the CNC machine tools at the various Core3D facilities worldwide. 

The next step is translation of the digital impression to a RenShape® mold, using conventional machine tools.  In most cases, the required structures are designed simultaneously, then the mold with coping is introduced to the DMG Sauer ultrasonic dental machine for preparation of the final structures.  This is where the most advanced substrates are processed, ranging from conventional, yet difficult to machine metals such as titanium and cobalt chrome, to the newest advanced materials, including glass ceramics, lithium disilicate and zirconia.  These substrates are quite expensive, therefore extreme care is taken in their handling and processing to reduce scrap and conserve operating costs.

As McKimson explained, the decision to cut with ultrasonic technology was relatively easy, given the inherent wear conditions and high cost of conventional tooling.  In the ultrasonic process, a combination of electrolysis and fluid lubrication act in concert to create an ionic attraction of particles, removing material in a highly predictable and accurate manner, without the mechanical stress implicit in conventional machining techniques.  As a result, the surface of even the hardest materials can be machined with the necessary tactile smoothness required for dental implants.

The DMG Sauer ultrasonic machines located at this Las Vegas facility, fully operated by Siemens Sinumerik 840D sl CNC technology, are loaded with blanks of material into a 66-position feeder station, then delivered into the cutting theater by a Motoman robotic arm with Schunk pressure grippers.  The Sinumerik 840D sl recognizes the code on each workpiece pallet and each job is identified by the patient’s name to minimize the risk of error in work product delivery.  As McKimson further notes, in detailing the accuracy of the ultrasonic machining technique, each tool used is obtained from the 25-position tool changer and its position is monitored by an integral Renishaw probe.  The technicians often load three sets of the tools needed for the 66-piece runs, ensuring virtually 24/7 unattended operation of the machines.  Through the capability of the Siemens CNC, a remote alarm can be sent when tool breakage or other off-normal condition occurs during production.

The extremely hard materials being machined are produced with accuracies in the 2-4 micron range, owing to the combination of ultrasonic technology and the high precision of the Sinumerik CNC, according to McKimson, who notes the reliability of this accuracy has been a significant advantage in reducing scrap at Core3D.

In another area of the facility, conventional mills are used to make polyurethane models and Wieland Zeno 4820 and 4030 mini-milling machines are also utilized for the production of various crowns, wax/resin forms and models, veneers, inlays and implant abutments. 

As evidence of the decidedly international nature of this emerging dental giant, all the zirconia and lithium disilicate materials are provided in the IPS e.max System from Ivoclar Vivadent, a company based in Liechtenstein.  The company has branches in the United States and Canada, which supply the Core3D Centres in those countries.  The templates and cutting tools are closely controlled and validated by the manufacturer to ensure that the preparation of these materials in dental applications is properly executed.

In commenting on the use of the DMG Sauer ultrasonic machines, McKimson notes that it was the machine builder who recommended the Siemens control.  “They knew we were dental technicians and engineers, not machinists, by nature.  The Siemens control has been extremely easy-to-use and our training time from the builder was minimal.  Troubleshooting is mostly done by our operators, with only occasional assistance from Siemens.”  Danny Palomares, one of the technical operators, agrees.  “My training is in the dental lab world, not on machine tools.  It was a great relief to have such a sophisticated control operate with relatively simple language commands and cycle adjustments.”

Palomares is also responsible for the translation of the lab’s incoming data files, so he is involved from start-to-finish with most of the projects done at this Core3D facility.  In a single day, for example, he might use Delcam DentCAD, then hyperDENT CAM software, all translating the cutting paths from the dentist’s impression to the Siemens CNC on the DMG ultrasonic machines in this facility.  As McKimson adds, “The sub-routines on the Sinumerik CNC make our job much easier to accomplish and faster to complete.  Plus, when you add the upside of at least 15 percent reduction in the scrap that we’ve realized with the ultrasonics, it’s a real win-win situation for us.”

While there are substantial differences between the European and American dental labs in terms of the materials and assembly techniques used, and despite the fact that literally all projects are highly customized based on the individual needs of the patients and the preferences of the labs and those of the dentists performing the procedures, in the end, the typical project is being turned in 24 hours or less.

For Core 3d Centres, utilizing the best-in-class equipment is critical. In complement the quality machines here, a key part of the overall efficiency protocol in the Core3D network of companies, McKimson points out, is the “know-how” provided through their CAM-DO committee.  This global technical committee conducts regular online meetings to discuss what’s working and what’s not in their various worldwide operations and then optimizes and standardizes the processes.  He recalls one unanimous vote of approval was voiced on the performance of the DMG Sauer ultrasonic machines with Siemens controls.  Core3D currently has nine such machines in their network, all used to process the most advanced materials.

® RenShape is a registered trademark of Huntsman Corporation.

For more information on this story, please contact:

Core3D Centres
Tim McKimson
Engineering Technology Director
5955-2 Wigwam Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Toll-Free:  1-888-750-9204
Phone:  702-750-9204
http://www.core3dcenters.com/
tmckimson@core3dcenters.com

OR

Siemens Industry, Inc.
John Meyer
Manager, Marketing Communications
390 Kent Avenue
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
(800) 879-8079 ext. Marketing Communications
www.usa.siemens.com/cnc
SiemensMTBUMarCom.industry@siemens.com

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SiemensCNC or Twitter:  www.twitter.com/siemens_cnc_us.

Siemens Industry Sector is the world’s leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly products, solutions and services for industrial customers. With end-to-end automation technology and industrial software, solid vertical-market expertise, and technology-based services, the sector enhances its customers’ productivity, efficiency and flexibility. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services Divisions as well as the Metals Technologies Business Unit. For more information, visit http://www.usa.siemens.com/industry.

The Siemens Drive Technologies Division is the world’s leading supplier of products, systems, applications, solutions and services for the entire drive train, with electrical and mechanical components. Drive Technologies serves all vertical markets in the production and process industries as well as the infrastructure/energy segment. With its products and solutions, the division enables its customers to achieve productivity, energy efficiency and reliability. For more information, visit http://www.usa.siemens.com/drivetechnologies.

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FOREST CITY GEAR PURCHASES NEW TAKISAWA LATHE…SEEING DOUBLE!

Twin-spindle, twin-turret turning center with twin CNC control has 16-pallet capacity and boasts 27-second cycle time in continuous mode

Takisawa TT-200G, a twin-spindle, twin-turret turning center, purchased by Forest City Gear, has made dramatic improvement in this gearmaker’s blanking production.

Roscoe, IL-Forest City Gear has purchased a Takisawa TT-200G, a fully-automated turning center with twin-spindle, twin-turret and twin-CNC operation, for its in-house blanking department.  By the acquisition of this machine, according to a company spokesman, the production in the blanking department has radically improved, as the machine combines full automation with twin-sided, simultaneous machining.

With a 16-pallet capacity, this Takisawa 8” chuck type machine boasts a feed rate of 8m/min and features a standard spindle and turret plus a second C-axis spindle and turret with milling function.  In addition, a bar loader, workpiece stacker, turnover unit, chip conveyor, air blower, tabulating counter and other equipment are onboard for fully automatic mode operation of the machine.

As a strictly custom gearmaker, Forest City Gear made the decision recently to develop an in-house blanking department, thereby improving its turnaround time on most jobs, according to company president, Wendy Young.  “We were reliant on a number of outside suppliers and, while our volume overall is quite substantial, we were often slow to receive some small, project-specific blanks for production.  Many of our jobs are short-run, highly specialized precision gears and that means we place a premium on being very efficient in our time-to-first-part protocols.  The Takisawa is already making a big impact on our blanking operation here.”

Tommy Kalt, who runs the blanking department at Forest City Gear, concurs.  “We’re achieving a 27-second cycle of continuous turning and the fully automatic mode means a big boost in production for our department. Because we do so many jobs that require relatively few blanks, our speed was hampered, due to excessive downtimes for set-up.  That situation is diminished to a great degree with the Takisawa machine.”

This sale was made for Takisawa by Brad Fischbach of Yamazen.

Forest City Gear is a world-class supplier of high-precision gears for demanding applications in the aircraft, aerospace, defense, instrument, medical, racing (boat and auto), high-end sporting goods and other markets.  The company sells its products worldwide, including to China.

Forest City Gear was founded in 1955 by Stetler and Evelyn Young, parents of the current CEO, Fred Young, and is considered among the premier gearmakers in the world.

For more information, please contact:

FOREST CITY GEAR CO., INC.
11715 Main Street
Roscoe, IL 61073-0080
Phone:  815-623-2168
Fax:  815-623-6620
Web:  www.forestcitygear.com
Email:  wyoung@forestcitygear.com
Attention:  Wendy Young, President

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FOREST CITY GEAR OFFERS NEW CAPABILITIES BROCHURE

Forest City Gear Capabilities Brochure - Click Image To Download

Forest City Gear proudly announces the availability of its new capabilities brochure.  This new literature details the many markets for which the company produces highly-specialized, custom gears to suit the most demanding applications for accuracy, stability and wear.  A world-class gearmaker, Forest City Gear has a reputation in the international market for “excellent without exception,” the mantra of company CEO, Fred Young.

Forest City Gear produces precision gears for a variety of markets, most notably aircraft, aerospace, defense, instruments, medical, racing (boat and auto), high-end sporting goods and more.  The company’s products are found on the Space Shuttle, every car in the starting field at the Indy 500, the world’s longest distance casting reel, highly sophisticated measuring instruments and Siemens magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, as well as Howitzer’s, surface-to-air missiles and other military ordnance.  The company proudly boasts it will have every wheel and actuator gear on Curiosity, the next generation Mars Rover vehicle.  That achievement was based on its outstanding performance on Spirit and Opportunity, the current vehicles occupying the Red Planet.

Long recognized internationally as a leading gear manufacturer, the company continues its philosophy of reinvestment and ongoing purchase of the latest, most advanced gearmaking technology in the world.  As Fred Young explains, “We don’t wait for the order to buy the machine, we acquire the best technology available to push our capabilities into new arenas, every day.  That policy, coupled with arguably the most sophisticated gear quality lab in the world, has kept us in the forefront of the industry for decades.  We’re very proud of that fact.  As evidence of same, Forest City Gear counts dozens of other gear companies among our customers, as they bring work to us which they cannot perform themselves.”

The full brochure is available online at www.forestcitygear.com, which also details the company in a virtual tour of the facility, plus videos and a full personnel directory of key contacts.

For more information or a copy of this new capabilities brochure, please contact:

FOREST CITY GEAR CO., INC.
11715 Main Street
Roscoe, IL 61073-0080
Phone:  815-623-2168
Fax:  815-623-6620
Web:  www.forestcitygear.com
Email:  wyoung@forestcitygear.com
Attention:  Wendy Young, President

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500°F Cleanroom Cabinet Oven

No. 796 is an electrically-heated 500°F(~260°C) Class 100 cleanroom cabinet oven from Grieve, currently used for drying water from stainless steel and Teflon filter assemblies. 10 KW are installed in Incoloy sheathed tubular heating elements. Workspace dimensions are 24” wide x 36” deep x 27” high.

The unit has 4” insulated walls and a Type 304, 2B finish stainless steel interior with continuously welded seams. The exterior is finished in white epoxy paint and has a #4 brushed finish stainless steel door cover and control panel face.

A 600 CFM, 3/4-HP recirculating blower provides horizontal airflow to the oven and a 24” x 24” x 6” thick stainless steel high temperature HEPA recirculating filter helps to purify the air to the Class 100 standard. The oven is also equipped with a 12” x 12” x 6” thick HEPA fresh air filter with 2” prefilter. Safety equipment is included for handling flammable solvents, including explosion venting door hardware.

Controls onboard this Grieve cleanroom oven include a digital programming temperature controller and SCR power controller.

For more information, please contact: THE GRIEVE CORPORATION, 500 Hart Road, Round Lake, Illinois 60073-2835 USA.  Phone: (847) 546-8225.  Fax: (847) 546-9210.  Web: www.grievecorp.com. Email: sales@grievecorp.com. Attention: Frank Calabrese.

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THE CASE FOR REGENERATIVE AC DRIVE MOTORS

A practical alternative to mechanical braking and non-regen drives systems in the converting, packaging, wireforming and printing industries

by William Gilbert, Industry Business Development Manager, Converting and Cranes, Motion Control Solutions

During the operation of any converting machine, whether for film, foil, wire, paper or board, plus most large printing presses, rolls of materials are handled by unwinds, often still driven by pneumatically operated braking systems.  The traditional tension control system for an unwind stand is a simple mechanical brake.  In principal, the unwind brake mechanically operates much like the braking system on your car, with a disk, caliper and pads, but is controlled by a tension sensor linked to a setpoint controller.  As the roll unwinds, the tension is maintained by the brake for smooth passage of the material through the dies or rollers, resulting in better package alignment, less wrinkling, better print registration, even more consistent wire dimensioning and other production positives.  These mechanical brake unwinds are effective in controlling the tension, but have inherent problems of heat and power loss, plus mechanical wear and constant maintenance needs, substantially impacting machine uptime.

The typical mechanical brake is pneumatically controlled and may utilize several sets of friction pads to control the web tension as the roll dimension decreases.  Plus, a reasonable pressure range in many applications might be from 15-90psi or a 6:1 drop, a range significantly less than the core to full roll ratio for most jobs, an obvious inefficiency in operation.

To affect good tension control on the brake, these friction pad sets need to be manually changed in an out of the brake assembly, depending on the desired operating tension and the roll diameter changes involved.  Often, the adjustments are several per roll during this manual changeover.  Because the mechanical brake creates the unwind tension through friction, it generates substantial heat and often requires a separately powered fan for cooling to operate effectively.  This friction also means the pads are subject to rapid wear, requiring frequent and time-consuming changes or maintenance checks.

For almost a decade now, this old technology has been gradually replaced, though usually in the lower power ranges, by newer precision technology, involving AC motors, drives and electronic loadcells.  On converting lines today, a further leap forward is being made with the onset of active front end technology.

With such technology, the operating principle is as follows.

Since the unwind application is regenerative (regen) in nature, a driven unwind needs to return the energy that the mechanical the brake produced as heat back to the AC line.  In the past, regen DC drives have been successfully applied as driven unwinds, but DC drive systems are no longer common and even during their prime were very costly.  Early in the AC drive technology for these applications, the drives did not have the capability to regenerate the power back to the AC line and, when applied as unwind brakes, required regen resistors to dissipate the tension energy.  This was wasteful and costly.

Today’s AC drive systems now have the technology to regenerate the energy back to the AC line just as the DC drive did, but with added benefits to the user and machine designer alike.  Sending the tension energy back to the line means power that once was wasted can now be retained, instead of the system producing heat and worn parts.  When the drive is equipped with active front end technology, it will return the previously wasted energy with near unity power factors, something not possible for any DC drive system.

Even an open loop AC drive motor combination offers a tension control range far beyond the limits of a pneumatic braking system.  Synchronous AC motors can offer precision open loop torque control without a tension sensor, thereby saving further cost and inventory.  Today’s highly accurate tension control systems can be designed with high resolution (sin/cos) feedback encoders on both the unwind motor and dancer position feedback.  Additionally, in more advanced active front end designs, the regen capability of the drive can actually assist in the increase of stopping times and tension control regulation, owing to the four quadrant control, i.e., the motor can sink or supply current to the motor in both directions.

AC regen drive systems can also offer today’s machine designer software configurations with a wider range of control flexibility.  They can be configured to operate in the most basic mode with no motor encoder or with tension feedback to system configurations, utilizing either dancer position sensors or loadcells.  Alternatively, they can function as a programmable logic controller (PLC), controlling the machine functions on the unwind, while also connecting directly to a human-machine interface (HMI) panel.  In most converting, packaging and printing applications, the dancer position sensor can be used to calculate the starting diameter of a roll, eliminating additional diameter sensors and the possibility of operator error in the roll diameter input.  Further enhancements for unwind spindle motion such as jog for threading have also emerged for operator convenience through active front end technology.

Beyond the obvious cost savings of pad replacements on mechanical braking systems, AC motors are virtually maintenance free by comparison to DC motors, as AC motors have no brushes, do not require controller contactors to reverse direction of motor rotation or have commutators.  Fewer moving parts invariably means less motor maintenance, for additional cost and time savings.

In the most advanced systems, common DC bus regulation, energy-monitoring devices for near unity power and, through the use of mechatronic services often provided by the manufacturers, “turn off” parameters in vector drives are possible.  Mechatronic services can also be utilized for the proper tuning of these drives onsite or during machine build.  For designers, such services further assist in the proper sizing of motors, based on the mechanical and electrical forces generated by machine operation or computerized simulation of it.

This combination of improved operation, reduced maintenance, motor power savings and conservation of nearly all energy within the system make AC regen drives with active front end technology a decided advantage for machine designers and end users of converting, packaging, printing, wireforming and other roll-fed machinery, where driven unwinds can be implemented.

For more information on regenerative drive motors and systems, please contact:

Siemens Industry, Inc. Drive Technologies — Motion Control
390 Kent Avenue Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 Phone: 847-640-1595 Fax: 847-437-0784 Web:  www.usa.siemens.com/motioncontrol Email:  SiemensMTBUMarCom.sea@siemens.com
Attention:  John Meyer, Manager, Marketing Communications

Editor Note:  Siemens will make the author as well as various other product and market specialists available to you for interviews on the many aspects of regenerative drive motors detailed in this article, as they apply to the particular nature of your audience.  Please contact the agency to arrange.  Thanks!

PR agency contact: Tim Daro Bernard & Company 847-934-4500 tdaro@bernardandcompany.com

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FOREST CITY GEAR HIRES AND PROMOTES SIX EMPLOYEES

Joe Luy

Gear manufacturer on the grow, says President Wendy Young

Paul Lindquist

Roscoe, IL-Forest City Gear (FCG), a precision gear manufacturer here, today announces the hiring of four new employees and the promotion of two longtime employees.  “We’ve been growing steadily in the last two years, despite the economic conditions, and this news reflects that situation,” comments company President Wendy Young, who runs the business alongside her husband, CEO Fred Young.

Effective immediately, the following new individuals have been retained in the roles indicated:

Joe Luy-Quality Manager
Bruce Haxton-Gear Processing Engineer
Paul Lindquist-Process Engineer
Jim Cagle-Cost Estimator

Andrea Bagwell

Also, these longtime employees have been promoted:

Krista King

Krista King-Order Processing
Andrea Bagwell-Estimating/Quoting Assistant

Briefly, Joe’s role will be the supervision of the company’s quality lab, acknowledged as one of the finest metrology centers in the gear industry.  Over a third of Forest City Gear’s current customers are other gear companies around the world, who bring FCG work they cannot do themselves, either on tolerance or consistency.  Joe will also manage the company’s ISO and ITAR registered programs, the latter having been secured this past March.

Bruce will be responsible for the transitions from design to manufacturing protocols at FCG.  He brings an impressive background in gearmaking to the task.

Paul oversees the utilization of the companies 80+ machine tools to streamline production workflow through the shop, again considered one of the world’s leading gearmaking facilities.

Jim Cagle

Jim will help keep pace with the hundreds of RFQ’s received each week at FCG, a daunting task, to say the least.

Bruce Haxton

Krista moves into an expanded role in purchasing, working with numerous vendors and the strict guidelines of the many government, aerospace and defense contractors served by FCG.  Her primary role will be processing purchase orders for the company.

Andrea will be responsible for the preparation of quotes, serving the now larger department of inside sales engineers and others, including Fred Young, who continues in his longtime role of reviewing and estimating particularly challenging gearmaking jobs at the company.

The company recently celebrated its 55th anniversary.  Forest City Gear was founded in 1955 by Fred Young’s parents, Stetler and Evelyn Young, in Rockford, Illinois, near the company’s current facility in Roscoe, approximately 90 miles northwest of Chicago.

For more information on the company, please contact:

FOREST CITY GEAR CO., INC. 11715 Main Street Roscoe, IL 61073-0080 Phone:  815-623-2168 Fax:  815-623-6620 Web:  www.forestcitygear.com Email:  sales@forestcitygear.com

Attention:  Wendy Young or Fred Young

PR agency contact for Forest City Gear:
Tim Daro
Bernard & Company
847-934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com

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