Flexible Transfer Machines… …Hybrids Combining the Flexibility of Machining Centers with the Economy of Transfer Technology by James R
Flexible transfer machines… …hybrids combining the flexibility of machining centers with the economy of transfer technology By James R. Koelsch Contributing Editor ppealing to the individual tastes of con- the parts from station to station, and a com- machines to turn the inside of a case, as well sumers without sacrificing economies mon controller coordinates all of the action. as drill holes and mill features in the case, Aof scale is certainly not an easy task. For E s s e n t i a l l y, these machines are complete linkages, and other components. The pallet one OEM, however, producing 750,000 units a manufacturing cells wrapped in a box. apparatus is sturdy enough for heavier year economically in roughly 100 variations is In Hydromat’s case, the new Advanced milling and turning, making pistons for small- becoming much simpler since its engineers Technology (AT) rotary transfer machine is a displacement internal combustion engines collaborated with their counterparts at cluster of nine machining centers and a load- good candidates for processing on the Hydromat Inc (St Louis) to consolidate the 50 ing station connected by a rotary transport machine. “The parts are sophisticated or so special machines making the various table. Each three to five-axis module is a sin- enough to justify the investment in the machine,” says Bruno Schmitter, president. “They need turning into an ellipse and receive wrist pin bores and recessing grooves for the wrist pins and oil grooves.” Mark Sokniewicz, president, Globtec International (Carol Stream, Ill) adds that hybrid machines, such as those in his compa- ny’s IMAS Flex line, suit production volumes of 500,000 to a million pieces per year when produced in batches as low as 5000 to 10,000 parts.
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