Aerospace accounts for about half of Fastems’ business now, Bell said, with aircraft customers including Boeing commercial aircraft, Spirit Aerosystems and Lockheed Martin, plus helicopter manufacturers Sikorsky, Bell and Robinson He- licopters. The FMS systems differ from traditional pallet pools by offering pallets in containers, a technology that requires less space.
“A pallet pool is essentially what its name implies, a pool of machines,” Bell said. “It generally has quite a large footprint. What the FMS brings to you is the ability to be completely flexible.” With the highly flexible system, an aerospace manufacturer might work on a wing spar program for 15 minutes, Bell said, then automatically cycle in the next part, such as a landing gear strut.
A Makino MMC2 automation cell tied to two Makino a61nx horizontal machining centers is used at JWD Machine in Fife, WA, for high-mix, low-volume production of aluminum aerospace parts.
“I find that the pallet automation can be much more flexible than robots,” Bell said. “They’re [robots] excellent at doing repetitive skills, but those things have to be predetermined.” With Fastems' software, the user can completely change the mode, with analysis of the ERP information its connected to and with the push of a button. The software also has an FMS Autopilot feature that automatically selects the optimal jobs for loading stations and machines.
Modular Automation for Job Shops Many pallet-based systems feature the high flexibility required by job-shop envi-
ronments, where jobs routinely change quickly. With its Makino Machining Complex (MMC2) system, Makino (Mason, OH) offers job-shop operators and other manufac- turers a highly modular automated material-handling system that achieves spindle utilization rates as high as 95%. The MMC2 links Makino’s horizontal machining cen- ters, pallet loaders and operators using a servo-controlled, rail-guided vehicle (RGV) to transport material to and from machines, with little if any operator intervention. “There’s quite a bit of market existing for what I call palletized part delivery,” said Jim Brown, Makino control software development manager. “The difference is that with palletized systems you can do a very wide variety of different-sized parts.”
August 2013 |
ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 69
Photo courtesy Makino Inc.
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