Focus and Solid Rock
as the icing on the cake of a well-rounded program
Starrag Group: Transportation & Industrial Components Technology Days 2016
At the beginning of June, the Starrag Group’s Transportation & Industrial Components Technology Days 2016 took place in the industrial city of Chemnitz in Saxony, Germany. The Starrag Group was delighted to have attracted more than 200 visitors to its production halls over three days with two innovations, demonstrations at 13 stations and eight specialist lectures.
A successful event starts with a highlight: True to this rule of successful event management, Dr Marcus Otto, the new head of the Transportation & Industrial Components business unit, opened the T&I Technology Days with not one, but two innovations. First, he unveiled a new Focus horizontal machining centre, optimised for maximum customer benefit. The new horizontal, four-axis machining centres HEC 400F, HEC 500F and HEC 630F are all machines “Made in Germany”. During their development, particular emphasis was placed on increasing productivity and reducing unit costs. As a result, investment costs have decreased by 20 % and delivery times have got 60 % shorter. This means lower hourly rates and a faster start to production for the user. Furthermore, the Focus machines require around 10 % less space. “These new machining centres allow us to implement precisely what many customers need for their typical applications. In all of these new products, the focus is placed on total cost of ownership (TCO)”, emphasised Dr Otto in Chemnitz.
The second innovation, Solid Rock, consists of machine beds made of granite. At comparable static rigidity, the thermal transfer is halved when compared to conventional steel, cast or mineral cast constructions. The material-related high heat capacity makes the machine beds particularly resistant to short term temperature fluctuations without additional control measures. These characteristics lead to a thermal stability of the machine beds that has not previously been achieved.
But the solution was not just any old granite. Heckert found a supplier that uses granite with a very homogeneous structure, good damping characteristics and a very low tendency to absorb water. This natural stone is also used by leading manufacturers of measuring machinery. Dr Otto: “What’s more, these Solid Rock machines boast unrivalled temperature and vibration stability.”
“Delivery times have been reduced by 60%.”
In combination with the new highprecision kit, the customer can use the unique position accuracy of the Starrag Group machining centres without complex air conditioning in its production halls. One component of the high-precision kit is the temperature stabilization of the machine stand, which keeps all structural components at a constant temperature level. This prevents temperature-related displacement. The efficiency of this temperature stabilisation was doubled by the patented insulation. This shields the machine stands from ambient temperatures and internal heat sources. Development Manager Matthias Brand: “Because neither the bed nor the stand move, the accuracy is increased enormously.”
The visitors to the Technology Days were not only interested in the two world firsts, but also in the many demonstrations (complete machining, process integration, turn-key solutions) and the service and training ranges. The opening of the new precision measurement room, which is fitted with two large measuring machines in the high-precision range up to 0.7 μm, also attracted particular attention. This facility will allow optimal implementation of the Starrag Group quality standards for its customers.
The great success of this three-day event was not only due to these demonstrations, but also clever cooperation with the other event organisers in Chemnitz. For instance, there was a collaboration with the concurrent “S chsischen Industrie- und Technologiemesse SIT” trade fair, whereby its visitors were able to commute between the exhibition centre and the Starrag Group company using a shuttle service.
Links with the concurrent “4th International Chemnitz Manufacturing Colloquium ICMC 2016” were ensured by Professor Matthias Putz, a director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU) in Chemnitz. He reported on current machining trends (including deep-hole drilling with the support of ultrasound technology, cryogenic cooling, hybrid machines), which the Starrag Group is also working on. The well-known scientist from Chemnitz also appealed – in particular with respect to Industry 4.0 – for a change in thinking on the part of the users and manufacturers of machine tools. “Because production knowledge is the fuel of the future, we should use the machine tools to generate data.”
Condition monitoring with the aid of vibration sensors, a precondition for predictive maintenance, has been used as standard in the Starrag Group since 2011, as the participants at a presentation by Frank Weirauch, Test Field Team Leader, found out. Therefore, the company’s experts have already gained many years of experience.
They have an almost unique ability to transform a machining centre into a transparent machine tool, through the interaction of sensors with an evaluating microprocessor. Users can access the data via Ethernet and can even do so remotely. “They can immediately check the status of a machine connected to the company network without leaving their desks”, the presentation explained to the listeners. Interesting opportunities are opening up for the technologist, who can now assess the smooth running of a tool not just by listening to it, but based on measurements. The precisely recorded vibration loads enable him to adjust the processes and parameters.
“Thanks to the new Focus Horizontal machining centre investment costs have been reduced by 20 %.”
Thanks to condition monitoring, a component can be specifically replaced long before damage occurs, based on a trend analysis. Such measurements with subsequent analysis are part of a fingerprint that can be collected by the Starrag Group service department during maintenance of production systems. This enables the production systems to be operated in a more productive and reliable way.
However, this requires the storage of a lot of information over a prolonged period of time, which is known as “big data”. One person who is not afraid of the supposed “cold rule of data” associated with this is Karl-Heinz Welz, Director of Production at the international agricultural machinery manufacturer AGCO GmbH in Marktoberdorf, a regular customer of the Starrag Group, which already has numerous machines successfully in operation. In view of Industry 4.0, Mr Welz posed a number of questions in his fascinating lecture: “But who actually feeds artificial intelligence, should it really be the task of humans in future? Can everything be predicted with algorithms? What role will people play in the factory of tomorrow, will they all be replaced by robots?” In Chemnitz he advocated developing respect for the employees and trusting them. Another important recommendation that he made on the subject of communication was quite surprising: “Be meaningful! Say something interesting! Allow mistakes, because it’s only by making mistakes that we learn something from them!” And that points to the other important success factor of the Technology Days: It is not only machine manufacturers and scientists who get a chance to speak, but also the users of machine tools themselves. Therefore, every visitor was satisfied that the Starrag Group claim “Engineering precisely what you value” is more than just empty words.
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