Machine Tool Attachments & Accessories

Machine tool idling, unnecessary pump rotation and continuously running peripheral equipment drive up machining costs. These energy wasters are in the crosshairs of a new suite of power-cutting control applications from Japanese machine tool builder Okuma Corp.

To bring all kinds of useful information right to a machine and facilitate a company's implementation of Industry 4.0 processing tools, INDEX Corp. has begun supplying its machine tools with a new operating system. Called Xpanel, the OS integrates a machine into a corporate network, allowing machine operators to receive information from other parts of an enterprise. Operators can access drawings, setup sheets, user manuals, quality requirements, and circuit and hydraulic diagrams on a machine's control panel.

Setup reduction is a common goal of every machine shop. Setup does not add value because it does not provide any measureable productivity. In short, when you are not running a machine, you are not making chips, and, therefore, you are not making money. Setup involves numerous non-value-added activities, including tool measurement, fixture alignment and setting coordinate systems, or offsets. As the term suggests, value-adding activities make a workpiece more valuable by changing its shape or physical properties. Many years in and out of machine shops and manufacturing plants have given me ample opportunities to see and establish some unique and familiar methods for reducing setup times and generating savings.

Vertical machining centers are machine shop mainstays, owing in no small part to their versatility, small footprint and relatively low cost. However, in high-volume environments, they tend to lag behind their horizontal counterparts. Fortunately, a pallet system provides a fairly simple fix.

If you're shopping for a Swiss-style CNC lathe, the available options and machine configurations are truly staggering. Spindle speeds that compete with many machining centers, convertible spindles that turn a sliding-headstock machine into a chucker, thread whirling capabilities, laser cutting heads and enough axis letters to become the next Words With Friends champion.

Based in Mount Prospect, Ill., SNK America recently selected Associated Machine Tool Technologies (AmTTech) as its Texas distributor for NIIGATA horizontal machining centers, SNK Nissin horizontal boring mills and SNK double-column machining centers. AmTTech, which is based in Houston, has served the Texas market for 25 years.