Reaping the benefits of lights-out machining
At the National Tooling and Machining Association Plant Managers Roundtable, held Feb. 8 in Phoenix, Jeff Estes, director of Partners in THINC at Okuma America Corp., Charlotte, N.C., discussed the advantages and challenges of shop-floor automation.
At the National Tooling and Machining Association Plant Managers Roundtable, held Feb. 8 in Phoenix, Jeff Estes, director of Partners in THINC at Okuma America Corp., Charlotte, N.C., discussed the advantages and challenges of shop-floor automation. Estes focused on technologies that support automation and make it effective, rather than on specific automation equipment, such as bar feeders, robots and flexible manufacturing systems (FMS).
One such technology that’s important for supporting automation is gaging, or measuring, the final product with a probe to ensure it meets specifications.
“Probing is a technology that’s been used for over 30 years to give us immediate feedback on the part we thought we made versus what we really made,” Estes said. “It helps us decide if the machine did what we told it to do, and, if not, tells us how we should go back and adjust it.”
A CNC machining automation feedback loop with gaging, statistical process control
and auto-compensation technology. Image courtesy of Okuma America.
For automated systems, he said, rather than stop the automation so a person can go in and make the adjustment, a method is needed to close the loop so the system itself will make the adjustment. One way is with a probe that’s used in an unconventional manner. When you add a new fixture or put a part in the machine, you can use the probe to identify your datum position on that part, determine the distance from the machine’s coordinate system and offset the machine by zeroing it to the tool for the current job, Estes said. “It’s the same probe, it’s the same software, you didn’t have to buy anything new, but you just used it in a different way.”
By using “smart” gages with digital outputs connected to statistical process control software, end users can plot trends, Estes said. If the software predicts that part quality is trending outside an acceptable range, it communicates this information to the machine, telling it to make an adjustment via auto-compensation software.
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