software and controls


Part designs are run through Voith’s CAM system and simulated offl ine to preserve machine uptime.


mum machining cycle. Our long cycles can frequently result in heat distortion on material surfaces and so we take great care in looking for problems before they occur.” Voith Hydro maintains an impressive array of machine tools and multiaxis machining centers in York. Despite a variety of builder brands, the majority of the machines have one common component on board, namely, the Siemens Sinumerik 840D CNC.


A Need for Flexibility “Our operators are quite comfortable with the CNC from Siemens and they use it for all motion control,” Ward noted. “Plus, the operator interface has the ability to afford us great troubleshooting capability as well as something else we value greatly—the commonality of the HMI on the control. That fact allows us to do a great deal of cross-training and that’s very important to us. We need to be highly fl exible, given the one- off nature of our work here.” Most of the operators at Voith Hydro are capable of run- ning multiple machines, Ward said, thanks in no small part to their familiarity with the Siemens Sinumerik 840D CNC. In addition, the CNC allows the maintenance personnel on his team to service the machining equipment in the facility more easily, he said. He credits his machine builders and the


Siemens team led by Howard Weinstein, business develop- ment manager for the power industry manufacturing sector at Siemens, and Robert Stiefel, a business development specialist, for this ongoing fl exibility. Voith typically takes a customer design, runs it through its CAM system and simulates the cycle offl ine in order to preserve valuable machine uptime. Since the work here involves highly complex geometries on the turbine sections, the simulation must be equally complex and account for all machine motions and collision avoidance. Once the program is fi nally determined for a part, it is fed over the Voith Hydro network to the appropriate machine tool or machining center for scheduling and production startup. During production, a system of real-time remote condition monitoring is available through the CNC for troubleshooting by both the Voith Hydro maintenance personnel and, when required, machine builder personnel, working off site.


Complete Retrofi t Ward cited one example where an Ingersoll milling machine was completely retrofi tted both mechanically and electrically by a Siemens Solution Partner with a new CNC, motors, drives, encoders, other hardware and software. “Working with the builder and Siemens support personnel,


58 — Energy Manufacturing 2015


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