High-End Manufacturers Demand Reduced Costs To reduce manufacturing costs and improve overall workpiece quality for the aerospace and related industries, Mitsui Seiki USA Inc. (Franklin Lakes, NJ), has developed and added a full line of fi ve-axis machining centers with turning capability to its three-axis and four-axis machine lines using similar technology. “To reduce manufacturing costs, the biggest saving is related to workpiece setup times. When parts have to go to separate machines for milling and turning, they generate handling, setup, and increased work in process,” said Tom Dolan, vice president sales and marketing.


“Mitsui Seiki customers typically occupy the high-end


aerospace market where workpieces are rather expensive and are often made in signifi cantly lower quantities than other industries like automotive.” Typical parts include aero engine related components, such as gear cases, fan frames, compressor housings, as well as critical rotating parts i.e. blisks, impellers, and turbine disks. “Workpiece tolerances are very tight. Our customers’ parts usually have some relatively straightforward turning requirements, but very accurate and challenging milling requirements. It’s to their and our advantage to be able to perform these processes on a dual-purpose machine,” said Dolan. “However, when you rotate a workpiece, work fi xture, pallet, and a rotary table at a relatively high speed, heat is generated that can adversely affect the machine tool’s geometry and accuracy.


“Keep in mind the types of applications that we’re talk- ing about, particularly in the gearbox application. Milling tolerances are measured often in the micron range; 10 µm or less isn’t uncommon on many high-precision aero gear- boxes,” Dolan said. “The gearboxes we’re machining are predominantly aluminum and magnesium. Our custom- ers with blisk, turbine disc and impeller applications are machining titanium or Inconel nickel-based alloys. Cycle times can range from an hour-and-a-half to 30 hours per workpiece and volumes are relatively low but climbing rapidly as the aero industry increases production rates.” Another signifi cant challenge on turning and milling ma- chines is that the milling spindle has to be able to operate correctly in a nonrotating mode to manage precision turning effectively. The effects of fi xed tool (i.e. single point turning) must not cause premature spindle wear, damage, or failure. “We have designed a whole new system for locking up that spindle properly and isolating it from the bearing system to


allow precision turning on a milling machine without damag- ing the spindle. Isolating and clamping our unusually stiff spindles properly allows us to avoid inducing undue stress to the spindle bearings during fi xed tool turning applica- tions,” Dolan said. As with the turn mill, Mitsui Seiki is high on key hybrid manufacturing processes including additive/subtractive technology, mill/jig grind, superabrasive, and GE’s Blue Arc technology. For example, at IMTS, Mitsui Seiki introduced their new hybrid additive/subtractive, and hybrid G mill/ grind centers and explained their work with GE on the Blue Arc technology for high-speed low-cost roughing of tough materials such as nickel-based alloys and titanium and oth- ers. The expectation is that with all these very productive processes, combined with the same machine an d setup, precision fi ve-axis machining will have a signifi cant impact on manufacturing going forward.


Strategic Product Evolution to Holistic Solution At DMG Mori (Hoffman Estates, IL), the Ecoline product line is gradually becoming a holistic solution with more tech- nology options for global manufacturing. The series compris- es the CLX series of basic universal lathes, the CMX V series of basic vertical machining centers, and the basic universal milling machines of the CMX U generation. The CMX V series will be manufactured in DMG Mori’s state-of-the art manufac- turing facility in Davis, CA. Today, DMG Mori points to the global market where the overall performance of a machining solution is most im- portant for the users of today. This applies worldwide and independently of the performance class of a machine or the industry segment of the customer. The new basic machine program will feature a new portfolio of technology, software solutions, and applications that will be expanded into a comprehensive modular building block system offering a multitude of possibilities. As a result DMG Mori’s entire range of technologies will be opened up for the users of CLX and CMX machines. This includes the extensive options in the fi eld of spindle technol- ogy, for example. The evolution of the new basic machines will be seen in a number of developments: the optional Y axis with its 60-mm travel path for milling operations on the CLX 450 lathes, the optional NC rotary table for effi cient four- sided machining in the case of the CMX V, or the accelerated rapid traverse and the tool magazine that virtually doubles the capacity of the new design of the CMX U.


January 2017 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 75


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