Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
AIT uses Siemens highly integrated solutions platform, with SIMATIC Safety PLC, Sinamics drives and Simotion motion control over the PROFINET network, to go above & beyond to improve performance & productivity for Boeing’s Dreamliner fuselage assembly process
Advanced Integration Technology (AIT) is a 20-year-old supplier of turnkey industrial automation systems for the aerospace industry. The company’s strength centers on the design and build of complex, fully integrated manufacturing, tooling and assembly systems for commercial and military aircraft, produced by the world’s leading suppliers, including Boeing, Bombardier, EADS, British Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Spirit AeroSystems, Vought and others. Its reputation as an established partner to these companies is well known, despite its relative corporate youth. AIT operates six locations in the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Spain to serve its growing customer base.
All actions in each section are controlled and monitored by Siemens SIMOTION motion controllers, SINAMICS drives, failsafe CPU, safety devices and distributed I/O, working either independently or in concert, as the production requires
On a recent project involving production of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, AIT designed and built all final body assembly systems needed to join the major fuselage components, plus a moving production line. Key elements in this design included the motion control system, servo drive platforms, failsafe CPUs and all distributed I/O, with the entire system communicating over a Profinet network. In addition, the integration of comprehensive safety technology was incorporated into the standard automation on these systems.
As a prime contractor on the 787, AIT had responsibility for the final assembly and body join functions, charged with delivering a fully automated positioning and joining system. In the end, two complete assembly systems and one positioning system were provided. The three main sections of the fuselage are joined, with 14 positioners mounted to transport structures that move either independently or interlocked and indexed to the factory floor for stability. Real-time positioning measurement data are logged with an integrated indoor GPS. AIT designed the alignment and positioning systems to allow rolling them under the aircraft dollies after the sections were brought into the Boeing factory, radically reducing auxiliary equipment needs, materials handling requirements and additional positioning steps in the overall process.
Onsite at Boeing, the 14 positioning system components were moved into their respective locations near the cradle dollies and engaged to lift and move the aircraft sections. Once the system was rigidly joined, a measurement system onboard located the airplane sections. This information was fed to the AIT system’s software application. From those data points, the system could then calculate how much each section (nose, tail, left and right wings) needed to move to ensure an exact fit to the adjoining section. This precise alignment ensured a smooth and more rapid build of each aircraft’s fuselage.
In commenting on the particulars of this system’s requirements for his company, Ed Chalupa, president of AIT, explains, “We looked for a supplier with an off-the-shelf selection of automation and motion control solutions, who could offer us global support. Our goal here was to align ourselves with a leading automation technology supplier and to utilize all current software, integrated safety and control technology advancements. Both Boeing and AIT were keenly sensitive to lifecycle security issues in this critical area of the project.” He further noted that it was vital the chosen supplier be able to provide comprehensive application engineering support, training on both the products and software, plus prototype and demo equipment for AIT’s use with its customer and internally, with ongoing technical support agreements, covering both the products and software updates.
After an extensive review of several global contenders, the selection was made for Siemens control system components.
Click to view -> schematic shows the independent but interconnected nature of the control platforms for each section. The Siemens SCALANCE wireless technology is used for system switching.
Section 47 (aft fuselage) of 787 in AITs FBJ
The basic scheme of the motion control system implemented here comprises a Simotion D motion controller, Siemens HMI on a Windows-based PC, a SIMATIC S7 Safety PLC and fail-safe/standard I/O modules, all running on a Profinet network. This basic architecture was then multiplied by the number of control nodes for each specific operational system in the overall production line being designed by AIT. Each unit is capable of working independently of the others in the line. Or, with the addition of relatively few Profinet cables and mode selctions on each unit, the final body join assembly tool is able to run as a single entity. When running together in this latter configuration, the safety devices are likewise working coherently, providing proper response levels to all E-stop events on the line. Each unit motion controller receives commands to perform uniform group movements with the tool as a whole via network communications from the HMI.
Specifically, the Siemens Simotion D motion controller used here controls all axis movements to accurately position and align parts. Because AIT delivers a turnkey and dedicated system, customers have no need for further internal customization of the controller hardware or HMI panels.
Position 2 full FBJ tool
AIT designed the overall layout of the control architecture, programmed the Simotion system with the Simatic S7 PLC, distributed I/O and integrated safety, plus provided support on the Boeing internal structure and lifecycle support requirements.
The integrated safety concept on this overall system was based upon three core principles: increasingly layered safety architectures, greater degrees of integration between the control and safety systems, plus more use of networking, especially Industrial Ethernet and currently available motion technologies.
In operational sequence, these safety principles manifest themselves in the form of physical barriers and mechanical means such as walls, gates, door interlocks and light curtains, all designed to separate personnel from danger. Meanwhile, the control systems, including programmable safety relays and safety PLCs, monitor operating conditions within established parameters. Finally, safety shutdown systems such as automatic shutdown via safety PLC or manual shutdown via E-stops, offer the final protections.
FBJ showing wing trivet for wing join
Siemens engineered a safety protocol that simplified the complexity often encountered in the integration of control and safety systems. This was achieved by reducing the issues related to different programming languages and procedures, installation and configuration requirements, maintenance procedures and human error factors. The result for AIT and its customer Boeing was lower total cost of ownership (TCO), owing to the substantial reduction in engineering, hardware, training and spare parts needed.
With integrated safety and control, the project has a single system for standard and safe automation, with one bus and one engineering system for both standard and safety technology, which further reduces cost. As a collateral benefit, the software solutions allow easier replication of series machines. Likewise, faster troubleshooting and extensive diagnostics onboard reduce downtimes on the floor, with faster restart after issue resolution. Functionally, too, this safety integration in the control system allows uniform user interfaces and data libraries, plus a reduction in the variety of control cabinets needed for the various applications.
PROFIsafe®, the first communication safety-profile meeting the IEC 61508 safety requirements, is the backbone of all fail-safe communication. PROFIsafe® facilitates the transmission of both standard and safety-related data on a single bus cable, using either Ethernet or fieldbus protocol. With advanced PLC and Industrial Ethernet networking technologies combined, the system safety for AIT and its customer became a production asset that protects the workers from harm and also ensures maximum availability and uptime. Reductions in initial capital expense and field operating expense were also realized.
Final assembly of first 787
According to AIT engineering, SIMATIC Safety PLC brought the highest possible integration of safety and ease of designing a complex system into the automation scenario for this project.
In the field, the final assembly and body join automated assembly systems, plus positioning system provided to Boeing, are utilized to join Section 41 (forward fuselage), Sections 47/48 (aft fuselage) and Section 12 (left and right side wings) to the mid-fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Two major sub-assemblies, namely the forward/aft body positioners and left/right wing positioners, are further split for transport into left- and right-hand minor sub-assemblies.
Motion Control, advanced PLC systems and industrial Ethernet networking technologies have enabled machine safety to become a production asset that not only protects workers from harm but also ensures maximum availability and uptime.
Machine Safety gives a competitive edge that goes to producers with highly integrated operations that are faster, more flexible and more responsive to changing market demands and opportunities, as AIT has shown in Boeing’s Dreamliner fuselage assembly process.
AIT designs and manufactures custom tooling and assembly equipment used to fabricate and assemble major commercial and military aircraft. As part of its total value proposition, AIT houses over 600,000 square feet for engineering, precision metal fabrication, machining and assembly of its production systems. The company’s equipment is typically used for assembly as well as machining of all the current aircraft structure materials, including aluminum, aluminum alloys, titanium, carbon fiber, Invar and many specialty alloys and composite substrates.
For further information on this story, please contact:
ADVANCED INTEGRATION TECHNOLOGY (AIT)
2805 E. Plano Pkwy.
Suite 100
Plano, TX 75074
Phone: 972-423-8354
Fax: 972-423-8469
Web: www.aint.com
Email: ait@aint.com
Attention: Ed Chalupa, President or Susan Hardaway, Marketing Mgr.
OR
SIEMENS INDUSTRY, INC.
MOTION CONTROL
PRODUCTION MACHINE BUSINESS
390 Kent Avenue
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
Phone: 847-640-1595
Fax: 847-437-0784
Web: www.usa.siemens.com/simotion
Email: SiemensMTBUMarCom.sea@siemens.com
Attention: John Meyer, Manager, Marketing Communications
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/siemens.dt.us or Twitter: www.twitter.com/siemens_dt_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.
Energy production specialist MCE uses a simultaneous five-axis mill-turn center with Sinumerik 840D sl for producing model running wheels in one setting and thereby reducing throughput time.
MCE Maschinen- und Apparatebau GmbH CEO Gottfried Langthaler (right) and Buz Bozner, head of the Alzmetall Technology Center, agree: The efficiency of the Sinumerik 840D sl makes an important contribution to enabling simultaneous milling and turning in every position with the GS 1000/5-FTD.
MCE Maschinen- und Apparatebau GmbH in Linz, Austria, produces various components for large gas, steam, and water turbines, as well as for wind power stations and other segments of energy production. But before the company receives any orders for these products, realistic models must prove their efficiency, underlines MCE CEO Gottfried Langthaler: “It is therefore very important for us to be able to manufacture the turbine models in high quality and, at the same time, productively with a short throughput time.”
In mid-2010, the running wheels were still being milled individually on a five-axis machining center and then bolted or welded together. The average throughput time was six weeks. Thanks to a few technical tricks and the Sinumerik-controlled GS 1000/5-FTD from Alzmetall, which has been used in model production since the end of 2010, the machining expert Langthaler was able to reduce throughput time by up to one-third — to about four weeks, depending on the product. As a qualified master of mechanical engineering and design, he already knew before purchasing the Alzmetall machine that it would be ideal for his model production if a Francis turbine could be produced from solid brass: “I was merely skeptical that a machining center could do that. After all, we have to achieve a high roughing cut and smooth with maximum precision and surface quality.” Initial tests with the GS 1000/5-FTD revealed that the technical conditions were right. Langthaler adds: “Alzmetall also flexibly adapted the machining center to our needs so that we can meet all the requirements regarding accuracy and surface quality — in one setting if necessary.”
User-friendly CNC for milling and turning jobs
Because this machine must also perform turning tasks, in addition to milling tasks, at MCE, this requirement is also in the specification and is met by the GS 1000/5-FTD. Buz Bozner, head of the Technology Center at Alzmetall, explains the technical basis: “We integrated torque motors in all round axes. We therefore achieve speeds of 300 rpm in the c-axis.” The mill-turn center offers an enormous machining space that not even standard lathes achieve. Parts with a diameter of up to 1,000 mm can therefore be machined. A highlight of the GS 1000/5-FTD is that it can be turned to any round axis position and level.
The energy professionals in model construction have been relying on Sinumerik controllers since the mid-1990s because, according to the mechanical engineering boss Langthaler, these were always convincing, especially in complex five-axis machining: “The handling of Sinumerik 840D is also clear and simple on the ShopMill and ShopTurn graphical user interfaces.” The operator can work particularly easily and clearly when a GS 1000/5-FTD with the new Sinumerik Operate user interface is used. Operation and programming always have the same structure, regardless of whether milling or turning processes are to be programmed and set-up. The operator is also supported by graphical displays and animations. Many intelligent functions are available, which are helpful, among other things, for tool and workpiece measurement. The operation and programming of 3+2 axis machining is also supported by the integrated Cycle800 functions. Animated Elements simplify the explanation of functions such as selection of the direction and free running, as well as swiveling.
Another highlight of the new GS 1000/5-FTD is the Sinumerik MDynamics technology package, which is especially important for complex five-axis machining. Maximum surface quality and exact contour accuracy can be achieved even more rapidly. The key is in the new Advanced Surface intelligent path control, which contains an optimized look-ahead function and an optimized online CNC data compressor, among other things. The integrated intelligent jolt limiter relieves stress on the machine mechanics because it enables gentle acceleration and deceleration despite extreme dynamic response.
Customers reap the benefits
As a specialist in single-part and small-series production for small to large workpieces, MCE is equipped to meet even extraordinary demands on-time and with top quality. By equipping its machines with state-of-the-art Siemens technology, the company is able to achieve high throughput times in model production and pass these advantages on to its -customers.
For more information on this story, please contact:
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.
Continue readingSmiths Machine answered the recession with a formula for major change
So what’s the secret to their success?
To begin with, the omission of the apostrophe from the company’s name was deliberate. Being different is in the DNA of Smiths Machine. This is a second-generation, family-owned business that found a way to grow its workforce by 70 people during the last five years That’s a 300% employment surge that mostly happened during the recession, a time when many machine shops (and for that matter, many businesses), were struggling just to hang on.
Ahead of the recession, Smiths Machine did what many machine shops were doing at the time. They were riding the wave of automotive parts production and doing seemingly fine, until the massive downturn came. The bankruptcies of the tier one automotive companies suddenly left many machine shops vulnerable to volume-based supply from overseas competition; and a once well-oiled machine tool business model now seemed unstable and uncertain. Equally uncertain was the idea of moving the business in an entirely different direction.
Manufacturing complex parts for the aerospace and defense industry, demands consistency, high-quality and precision — achieved only with Siemens CNC.
To be or not to be — different
Defense and aerospace part manufacturing require a different business approach altogether, says Tim Smith, vice president of Smiths Machine.
“It is specialized work that requires special approvals, log-down processes and complicated procedures,” Smith says. “The complexity is challenging. And it all starts with a different way of thinking, more of an engineering approach than a production approach.”
Smith says his company needed to build a new business model and the operations to support it. The defense and aerospace machining market is characterized by small lot counts, generally lower margins, and a very low tolerance for errors. Scrap rates thought to be nominal in the past would now be out of the question.
“You can’t make a $6,000 part and have a 30% scrap rate or even a 10% scrap rate,” explains Smith. “The emphasis is not on throughput, but on the high quality, highly precise manufacturing of very complex parts.”
Based on these three inseparable machining requirements — quality, precision and complexity — Smiths Machine set out to reach its greater potential in the machine tool market, not as a production machine shop, but as company focused on complex part manufacturing. Having achieved some early success in this new direction, the way forward for the company soon could be summed up more simply:
“The more complex the part, the more competitive we are,” says Smith.
To protect and grow this competitive advantage, the company’s leadership knew that their internal processes and technology needed to match up with the unique requirements of the defense and aerospace industries. Major investments in large, complex, five-axis machines would need to be enhanced by equally complex control capabilities. Smith recounts how a decision made previously by the company would now come into play in a profound way.
A backbone for change
Traditionally a milling and turning company, Smiths Machine first teamed up with DMG and Siemens in the year 2000 to establish their singular machine tool platform. This brought about a synergistic approach to complex milling and turning; an advantage that took on greater significance when the company decided to focus on the defense and aerospace markets later in the decade.
“Siemens controls were available on DMG milling and turning machines, and that was a natural fit for us,” Smith recalls. The DMG / Siemens platform has enabled Smiths Machine to establish and maintain a high level of operational proficiency. The central advantage here, Smith says, has been the ability to invest, train and keep his people moving forward based on a stable technology platform.
“The technology and the people using it are the backbone of our organization,” Smith asserts. “Even with 25 machines, we can share knowledge between the milling and the turning machines. The common control is a Siemens Sinumerik 840D sl. Our technology purchases are based on where we want to be in ten years, not on a workforce that is fractionally trained and a platform that can rapidly deteriorate due to a change in market condition or a change in employment condition.”
Smith says an example of this singular platform advantage is the control’s similarity across milling and turning operations. “All controls are customized to a certain extent,” Smith acknowledges. “But unlike Siemens, many other control series are individually customized so that the keyboard layout will be different from machine to machine. The Sinumerik 840D sl CNC is consistent. So when you train your operators, you can say, here’s the jog button, here’s the axes button, here’s your alarm button and your offset button. And this level of consistency extends to a graphical interface that really complements how we teach and learn.”
Teaching and learning are closely held values within an organization that uses a breadth of visual techniques to foster education, efficient information sharing, and quality control.
“We are a very visual company,” Smith says. “We use a lot of colors and we buy a lot of printer toner. Our parts inventory uses color-coded tags and the same is true across our production. We use yellows and blues and reds for consistent instruction. And the Siemens 840D sl control uses the same approach. You are guided visually for such things as axis direction, approach point, final depth and other variables inside a cycle. And this is true from control to control, for milling and turning.”
Smith says visually guided information flow is characteristic of today’s complex range of next-generation electronic communications, because this speeds understanding and information sharing. Whether for a smart phone or a CNC, graphically guided interfaces enable rapid learning and proficiency, a fact that has been well leveraged by the 840D control interface design.
Smiths Machine’s plan for stable growth started with its investment in a stable CNC platform: The steady progression of a stable machine / control platform has enabled the company’s similarly growing workforce to build on existing knowledge, rather than learn new and different versions every few years.
New angles on programming
Gerhard Hetzler, engineering manager at Smiths Machine, has experienced firsthand how the company’s singular platform approach has brought continuity to such manufacturing functions as post, machine simulation, NC code, and control functionality.
While the Siemens 840D sl control has evolved in significant ways over the years, Hetzler says these changes have served only to accelerate the performance of the programmers and operators, rather than impede them with new and different procedures. The control platform has also given Smiths Machine the freedom to create custom cycles that can be copied and shared from control-to-control, and so machine-to-machine.
“I’ll give you an example,” says Hetzler. “To catch occasional entry errors on the tool management side, we created a cycle that checks the length of the tool and within a specific tolerance. So within in a matter of milliseconds, the control compares that value to what was entered in the tool management side, and if the tolerance is exceeded by 2mm, the control immediately stops the machine.”
Hetzler says another advantage resulting out of the DMG and Siemens relationship is the continued simplification of complex cutting operations, especially in the area of angular milling heads.
“Siemens has come a very long way to improve the cycles and support related to milling heads,” Hetzler says. “Aerospace requires a lot more use of angular milling. Even a five-axis approach can’t do it. You need an angular milling head. I would put this on the top of my list of the advantages DMG and Siemens have developed. And this relates to another important development, Siemens NX.”
NX as in next
Siemens NX software integrates CAD, CAE and CAM for faster part manufacturing, encompassing all areas of tooling, machining and quality inspection. NX has become integral to Smiths Machine’s CNC platform, because it supports part planning through manufacturing, with the prevention of errors and related costs.
“Our ability to develop all of our own post-processors in house is supported by Siemens NX,” Hetzler explains. “We setup our angular milling heads in NX, so we can post the G-code before we even send it out to the machine.”
An early introduction to the power of NX came when the company found that it needed to write code to produce an especially challenging aerospace landing gear. The code took six-weeks to manually program. This was before the company learned that it could do the same task in nine days using NX.
“Siemens knows five-axis machining and NX is a Siemens product that leverages five-axis,” Hetzler says. “As an example, we can do three-plus-two axes work in NX. There is a cycle for that called Cycle 800. So when NX outputs the NC code, the machine then also understands it. Other control brands will have a cycle that can be made to work, but they are a lot more problematic. We are talking about managing the change of plane, a concept that has been around for a long time and was always problematic to do. Now Cycle 800 in NX does it all for you.”
Hetzler says Cycle 800 makes programming the change of plane easier, faster, and with higher accuracy than traditionally calculated methods. “We would normally round off after the third or fourth decimal,” he recalls. “Now the control calculates to nine decimals. When you start talking microns, especially in the aerospace industry, it makes a huge difference. And this difference has been fully implemented by DMG. They have invested a lot of time and money to make sure from their side that Siemens NX and Cycle 800 work 100% of the time.”
The Cycle 800 function within Siemens NX supports the programming of 2-1/2 axis and 3D milling throughout the rotation of all X-Y-Z planes, while maintaining a zero offset. Functions include automatic shifting of zero offset, tool length and radius compensation in rotated planes, compensation of machine geometry, and all machining cycles can be used.
Please forward all inquiries to:
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/cnc4you
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.
Continue readingMajor Tool & Machine, Inc. retrofitted two of their machining centers in 2010 changing to a CNC technology platform that was completely new to the company. Ten more such large-scale retrofits have followed, bringing increased enthusiasm, momentum and productivity.
Major Tool & Machine has been on track to retrofit over a dozen of its giant milling and turning machines within just two years, all supported by a new Siemens CNC platform. MTM’s management says the process has been an empowering experience for the company.
CNC upgrade enhances performance and precision
Major Tool & Machine (MTM) is a large job shop, producing precision milled and turned hardware throughout the company’s 500,000 square foot Indiana facility. Performance is essential, because MTM contracts with aerospace, energy, nuclear and defense companies on many mission-critical, one-off projects. Owner and CEO Steve Weyreter will tell you openly, MTM is more competitive by way of a significant CNC technology change, starting with an aggressive retrofit strategy.
Günther Zimmermann, CNC Controls Engineer at MTM, says the company’s retrofit program and the decision to change to the Siemens SINUMERIK CNC platform have brought a new enthusiasm and momentum to the company. Over the last two years the change has also brought significant time and cost reductions, especially in the areas of programming, maintenance engineering, and machine operations.
“The initial goal in early 2010 was to retrofit two Cincinnati U5 Gantry machines,” Zimmermann recounts. “We evaluated two CNC technology platforms and after considerable analysis our CEO Steve Weyreter announced that Siemens would best support the company’s future.”
The decision to reduce costs by moving to a single CNC platform was the least difficult decision for the company to make, Zimmermann explains. The larger challenge for MTM was the integration of a new CNC technology platform that was new to the company.
Bill Henderson, MTM’s manager of large machining and maintenance, agrees that the decision to change to a Siemens CNC platform integrated with advanced part and tool probing was critical, because the shop manages constant changeovers from one complex job to the next, making setup times a critical time/cost constraint for the company. Another big advantage is the increased flexibility by only having to train machinists and maintenance personnel on one type of control.
Henderson went on to say “the decision to change to a new control has signaled higher expectations for the company, along with new challenges for those who program, operate and maintain the company’s big machines.
Naturally, there’s a resistance to change,” Henderson says. “People are comfortable with what they normally run, but after our discussions with the people on the plant floor, they understood the overall objective. Our retrofit program is not finished, yet it’s already showing tremendous benefits.”
An advantage MTM gained by its retrofit strategy has been the ability to interchange heads and rotary tables from machine to machine. Easy-to- use head storage and tool management programming provided by the Siemens CNC platform support the new interchange capability.
Retrofitter Doug Huber says having Siemens as a new CNC technology partner has made a difference for Major Tool & Machine, but it’s also been an evolutionary uplift for his own retrofitting company, Indiana Automation.
“Indiana Automation has increasingly retrofit using Siemens controls in recent years, Huber explains. “On a retrofit, we always try to exceed what the original machine could do, and that’s just kind of inherent when you put on a Siemens 840D. Major Tool’s first retrofits were the Cincinnati U5 machines, a bridge model and two gantry models. These are five-axis machines and five-axis is the 840D’s forte. The processing power of the control is so much better, that it just whips through the blocks faster. So right off, cycle time is a major performance enhancement.”
Huber says something else happened this time. As his firm finished retrofitting the first three giant machines with Siemens five-axis controls, drives and motors, the reaction within the company was not just that the machines were now predictably more efficient, but that they performed as very different machines. A new advantage is the ability to interchange machining heads from machine-to-machine, and all driven by the Siemens CNC platform.
Central to MTM’s retrofit program has been the Siemens SINUMERIK 840D sl control, which features the SINUMERIK Operate interface. The highly intuitive interface enables both programmers and operators to easily capitalize on the broad capabilities of the control.
“On many of the U5 machines, the axes come off with the heads,” Huber explains, “and we rebuilt these machines to accept any one of three different heads. That’s one of Major Tool’s key strategies. They insist on having flexible machine capabilities, so that they can run all kinds of different parts. They have straight heads for serious metal cutting, contour heads for five-axis work and finesse work. They have 90-degree heads for more flexibility than a straight head, but it’s also not as fragile as the contour head. And they wanted to interchange all of these heads to automatically go pick up a head out of the shuttle and, on the fly, reconfigure the axes and the zero positions. To do this, the compensation tables all had to be updated. Everything needed to be done with the macro program so that each head came on ready to run.”
The interchangeable head strategy was a challenge, Huber says, because the machines were not originally capable of sharing heads. But with support from Siemens, the strategy has worked, including the ability to interchange rotary tables as well as heads. “Each head or rotary table has a configuration file that has all the settings and compensations and travels with it from machine to machine. So now when you mount that head the control just runs the configuration file that goes with it and its all set up for you. We also incorporated Siemens Tool Management for each machine’s 60-pocket tool chain. We used the feature on these machines to manage all the different tooling MTM uses, both in the automatic tool changer as well as the ones manually loaded.”
Huber says, “MTM’s ability to smoothly transition to more advanced CNC is largely due to the HMI’s ease of use. The Operate interface is a huge help to us and to Major Tool. The HMI helps make better parts. And it didn’t take very long for the operators to fall in love with it.”
Programming as easy as 1-2-3: Using the SINUMERIK Operate interface, a machinist can turn on coolant flow by 1) pressing Cycle Stop to stop the machine, 2) Coolant On, and 3) Restart.
“I had never used a Siemens control before,” admits MTM machinist Mike Burthay. “I have extensive knowledge of G-code and CNC controls and I would say the Siemens 840D sl with the Operate interface is the easiest one I’ve ever run. It’s user friendly, that’s exactly the words for it.”
Burthay reports several ways in which the Siemens SINUMERIK Operate interface has made his life easier. “There’s not as much G-code,” he says. “The control does it all for you as long as you put in the parameters as to size, length, width. Then once you’re in Job Mode, there’s a screen where you can tool change or jog the machine around to certain positions, or turn the spindle on, turn the coolant on, anything that traditionally required G-code. So now you can push a cycle stop button to pause the machine, enter a change such as turning coolant on, then restart the program.
“Another function I love is Block Search, which allows me to start or restart right in the middle of a program. Say you’re finishing a pocket and you have to run the tool two or three times to get a tight tolerance, I can enter in a line number and hit Block Search, the control picks up every line before that, restarts the spindle and everything for you.”
Burthay says the Siemens control also enables him to program parts right on the machine whenever necessary, using a simple yet robust program called ShopMill. “I can go into ShopMill, type in some parameters and it will kick out that G-code program for me automatically. Say I want to drill a hole two inches deep. I open ShopMill, pick my tool, tell it the depth and these steps are all interactive on the screen. It even shows me 3D motion images of the tool path, confirms the drill going down as expected into the part. So I hit go and it puts a drill cycle into the program for me.”
Programmed for collaborative growth
Lead Programmer, Tim Hayden, has from the beginning conducted all processor setups for the newly retrofitted machines. Hayden says integrating the Siemens CNC platform has been an empowering experience he had not expected, given the fact that he had never before set up a post processor to run a Siemens control, nor had he ever before operated a Siemens control.
“Now, when I look at the Siemens control, I think man, it would have been so much better to have had it all along,” Hayden says, “because the other control I’ve been using is just a lot more cryptic. The Siemens control with the SINUMERIK Operate interface is more powerful for writing macros and the language seems modern, whereas the other control seems like it is still based on an old FORTRAN type language.”
Work offsets for compound angles can be scaled and rotated using the Frames function of the Siemens SINUMERIK Operate interface. Many advanced machining operations can be managed simply, without the use of time-intensive manual G-code programming.
Hayden points to the Frames coordinate and offset programming function of the Siemens interface as an example of improved programming convenience.
“We do a lot of work on compound angles,” Hayden explains, “and with the Siemens Frames function, you can scale and rotate your coordinate system on the control, just plug it in with your work offsets. Whereas, on the other control you will see a G54 request, you’ve got to enter G-code. You can’t just plug it into your work offsets like you can with the Siemens control.”
Hayden says the SINUMERIK Operate interface brings greater programming flexibility. The HMI enables him to enter G-code using a comparatively more advanced manual data entry (MDI) function; however the HMI has all but eliminated the need for G-code entry by way of its intuitive design and evolved capabilities.
Another example of such HMI evolution is in the area of data management.
“When we post a program, we no longer have to use a G-code based MDI,” Hayden explains. “We no longer need to type in T= and enter a nine digit number and then enter M6 to make a tool change. With the Operate HMI, you pick your tool off a screen and hit cycle start. It’s just as easy to program going to a position. Instead of doing things the old way by typing G0X0Y0Z0 into the MDI, you open the Operate interface, click position, then click how you want to wrap it and then you just type the numbers into those fields. So it’s a lot more user friendly.”
Hayden says the Siemens CNC platform has supported greater collaboration at MTM between him and the machinists, and this is helping the company find ways to increase performance and efficiency. He agrees with his coworkers’ assessments that shorter setup times and greater operator freedom are making a significant difference.
“One of our production bottlenecks has been programming,” Hayden says. “The machinists that run our machines are professionals, they’re not button pushers, and with the SINUMERIK Operate interface, we can now rely on them to control and program certain parts right on their machines, while we programmers work on the more complex projects.”
“Siemens was the best fit for all of us,” Hayden concludes. “Siemens CNC is set up as an open control, and with that kind of flexibility, it seems anything is possible.”
For more information on Siemens SINUMERIK CNC, visit www.usa.siemens.com/cnc.
For specific product information and inquiries, call (800) 879-8079 ext. Marketing Communications or send an e-mail to: SiemensMTBUMarCom.industry@siemens.com.
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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.
Now for iOS and Android!
You asked and we listened. Our popular Easy CNC app is now available for Android devices. Easy CNC contains all the current training manuals for Siemens Sinumerik CNCs and will ensure that you always have the latest updates.
With no more heavy manuals to carry, you have access to over 4,000 pages of vital CNC instruction and content. In addition, a handy G-code compatibility tool lets you quickly find compatible codes for Siemens and ISO G-codes. The glossary feature is your reference guide to CNC terminology, and web-links to service, support and CNC social media feeds open the door to our online user community. Don’t wait – download the Easy CNC app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices for free.
To download Easy CNC to your mobile device, visit: http://www.usa.siemens.com/cnc-apps
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For specific product information and inquiries, call (800) 879-8079 ext. Marketing Communications or send an e-mail to: SiemensMTBUMarCom.industry@siemens.com.
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The Siemens Industry Sector is the world’s leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly automation and drive technology, industrial software and technology-based services. The Sector’s comprehensive portfolio covers the entire industrial value chain, from product design, engineering and production to services. Siemens enhances its customers’ productivity, efficiency, and flexibility in a wide variety of different industries. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies.
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Siemens has added new applications to its “Sinumerik Integrate for production” software
suite for networking machine tools with production-level IT systems.
Siemens has added new applications to its “Sinumerik Integrate for production” software suite for networking machine tools with production-level IT systems. The new release now includes Manage MyMaintenance (MMM), an effective maintenance-tasks management system, and Access MyData (AMD), a set of open interfaces that now allows direct access to machine and process data.
Access MyData offers an interface to access machine and process data of machine tools controlled by the Sinumerik 840D sl CNC. To allow data communication, the machine tool is directly connected to the Sinumerik Integrate server at the customer’s site.
AMD Basic is available free-of-charge and enables the direct reading and writing of NC and PLC data from the Integrate application server. Purchasing extensions to AMD Basic allows machine tool data to be processed and NC part programs transferred via a file transfer interface.
Manage MyMaintenance enables small and medium-sized companies to enter the world of maintenance management without any additional investment. MMM automatically instructs the user, as soon as a new maintenance date is scheduled for a machine. The time and tasks to be performed are presented in a clearly laid out list.
Self-explanatory color-coding indicates which measure is overdue and which has
not yet reached its deadline. A number of maintenance tasks can be defined and intervals specified. The software is easily installed via the Sinumerik Operate graphical user interface without any programming effort.
Background information:
The Sinumerik Integrate for production software suite includes applications for simple management of machine tools and part programs, transparent recording of machine states and production data, as well as the remote maintenance of machines installed
all over the world.
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For specific product information and inquiries, call (800) 879-8079 ext. Marketing Communications or send an e-mail to: SiemensMTBUMarCom.industry@siemens.com.
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The Siemens Industry Sector is the world’s leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly automation and drive technology, industrial software and technology-based services. The Sector’s comprehensive portfolio covers the entire industrial value chain, from product design, engineering and production to services. Siemens enhances its customers’ productivity, efficiency, and flexibility in a wide variety of different industries. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies.
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The Sinumerik blackline panels from the Siemens are a new generation of operator panels
for the Sinumerik 840D sl CNC system and offer new options for machine tool operation.
The Sinumerik blackline panels OP 015 black and OP 019 black are a new generation of operator panels for the Sinumerik 840D sl CNC system and offer new options for machine operation. The inductive sensor technology enables rapid interaction with the user interface even when the operator is wearing gloves. Similarly, it prevents incorrect entries, for example caused by the heel of the operator‘s hand.
The 19-inch display of the OP 019 black can show all the entries made in widescreen format at a glance. The OP 015 black also features an alphanumerical keypad on the right that can be operated via touch control. This feature means that the 15-inch display is not restricted by the superimposed keypad during data entry, which ensures clear and efficient operation. Both blackline panels also have an integrated glass panel on the front side and are designed with IP65 (OP 019 black) and IP66 (OP 015 black) degrees of protection. They are resistant to liquids and dust and can be operated even under harsh industrial conditions. An integrated key lock helps safeguard against operating errors. The operator panel can provide a basic machine display, with three or four channels showing up to 13 axes.
The blackline panels also feature durable LED background lighting, providing 40 percent energy-savings compared to conventional neon lamps.
In combination with the Sinumerik 840D sl control, for use on high-end milling, turning, grinding and laser cutting machine tools, the blackline panels can be used as an operating and programming station for aerospace composite machining, power generation and medical part manufacturing, in addition to tool- and mold-making, rotary indexing machines and in shopfloor manufacturing.
For specific product information and inquiries, call (800) 879-8079
ext. Marketing Communications or send an e-mail to: SiemensMTBUMarCom.industry@siemens.com
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The Siemens Industry Sector is the world’s leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly automation and drive technology, industrial software and technology-based services. The Sector’s comprehensive portfolio covers the entire industrial value chain, from product design, engineering and production to services. Siemens enhances its customers’ productivity, efficiency, and flexibility in a wide variety of different industries. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies.
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Siemens has put together a scalable package of coordinated automation and drive components specifically for tapping centers. It consists of the Sinumerik 828D compact CNC with new panel processing units PPU2xx.3 of various performance classes as control hardware and the new variant of the Sinamics S120 Combi drive with triple overload capability. The package is completed with the new Simotics M-1PH8 Premium Performance main motor, which can achieve high speeds.
The productivity of tapping centers can be increased considerably due to the specially coordinated components, the powerful control system hardware, the converter with enhanced overload resilience and the high-speed main motor from Siemens. For example, the spindle can be started up from 0 to 24,000 revolutions per minute in less than one second. This saves considerable time, particularly with tapping center applications featuring frequent tool changes.
The Siemens range is also especially suitable for the increasing number of applications with freeform surfaces and high surface quality, for example cell phone components, which are manufactured with small high-speed cutting (HSC) tools and have short machining times. The tapping center’s maximum machine dynamics can be utilized to the fullest extent with the scalable performance spectrum, for example the different control hardware variants PPU 260.3 or 280.3 for the Sinumerik 828D compact CNC.
Background information
Tapping centers are designed as machine tools with small work spaces for milling, drilling and thread machining, and are frequently used to manufacture hard disk and mobile phone housings, for example. These are made out of lightweight materials using small tools and at high speeds.
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For specific product information and inquiries, call (800) 879-8079 ext. Marketing Communications or send an e-mail to: SiemensMTBUMarCom.industry@siemens.com.
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The Siemens Industry Sector is the world’s leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly automation and drive technology, industrial software and technology-based services. The Sector’s comprehensive portfolio covers the entire industrial value chain, from product design, engineering and production to services. Siemens enhances its customers’ productivity, efficiency, and flexibility in a wide variety of different industries. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies.
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Three new functions for the Sinumerik Operate operator interface simplify the operation of turning and milling machinesSiemens has added three new functions to the Sinumerik Operate graphical user interface making it easier to operate turning and milling machines. A new program management system, plain text reading in the high-speed setting cycle, and the new retraction function support operators during standardized turning and milling operations using the Sinumerik 828D compact CNC — or in high-end applications using the modular Sinumerik 840D sl CNC.
The Sinumerik Operate program manager has been supplemented with a new program management system providing direct access to all connected drives. Users can now work simultaneously on all connected drives and their file structures. In addition, a larger number of different file formats can be displayed than before.
In the powerful cycle package of Sinumerik Operate, the high-speed setting cycle has been simplified by plain text reading for a host of machining methods. This high-speed setting cycle supports machine tool operators in all tool- and mold-making applications by transferring the machining tolerance.
In the new version, machining methods such as roughing, pre-finishing or finishing can be output as plain text, and the orientation tolerance can also be entered. Users only have to specify a few parameters for this purpose.
The new retraction function in Sinumerik Operate now supports users when retracting a tool following an interruption caused, for example, by power failure or NC reset.
In JOG mode and in the swiveled machine state with Cycle800 or Traori five-axis transformation, machining can now be continued from the point of interruption following manual recovery.
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For specific product information and inquiries, call (800) 879-8079 ext. Marketing Communications or send an e-mail to: SiemensMTBUMarCom.industry@siemens.com.
Follow us on Social Media:
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The Siemens Industry Sector is the world’s leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly automation and drive technology, industrial software and technology-based services. The Sector’s comprehensive portfolio covers the entire industrial value chain, from product design, engineering and production to services. Siemens enhances its customers’ productivity, efficiency, and flexibility in a wide variety of different industries. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies.
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Siemens has developed new control hardware with greater computing power for its panel-based Sinumerik 828D and Sinumerik 828D Basic compact CNCs for turning and milling applications.
Siemens has developed new control hardware with greater computing power for its panel-based Sinumerik 828D and Sinumerik 828D Basic compact CNCs for turning and milling. The new PPU2xx.3 panel processing units replace the previous PPU2xx.2 generation and are available for all six versions of the Siemens compact CNC.
The greater computing power has significantly accelerated the operating speed of the Sinumerik Operate graphical user interface during commissioning, programming and operation. For example, when changing operating areas, the screen forms are loaded almost twice as fast as before.
The new PPU2xx.3 hardware for Sinumerik 828D and Sinumerik 828D Basic has a more rugged design than the previous version so that it can be used in harsh industrial environments, and it is also better protected against wiring errors during installation in a control cabinet. Additionally, the Sinumerik 828D Basic can now also be used for turning and milling on one piece of hardware. This reduces costs, especially in regards to spare parts.
PPU2xx.3 has the same dimensions and connectors and is fully compatible with version PPU2xx.2. This ensures trouble-free conversion to the new hardware, which requires Sinumerik 828D V4.5 SP3 software or higher.
For more information about Siemens CNC solutions for the machine tool industry, visit our website: www.usa.siemens.com/cnc.
For specific product information and inquiries, call (800) 879-8079 ext. Marketing Communications or send an e-mail to: SiemensMTBUMarCom.industry@siemens.com.
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The Siemens Industry Sector is the world’s leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly automation and drive technology, industrial software and technology-based services. The Sector’s comprehensive portfolio covers the entire industrial value chain, from product design, engineering and production to services. Siemens enhances its customers’ productivity, efficiency, and flexibility in a wide variety of different industries. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies.
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