From 12 to 15 October 2022, the exhibition complex of fieramilano Rho will host 33.BI-MU, the major and most important Italian exhibition dedicated to the industry of metal cutting, metal forming and additive machine tools, robots, digital manufacturing and automation systems, enabling technologies and subcontracting.
Andrei Petrilin, Technical Manager of ISCAR showcases its new developments for aircraft machining of tomorrow.
In machining aerospace components, the main challenges relate to component materials. Titanium, high-temperature superalloys (HTSA), and creep-resisting steel are difficult to cut and machining is a real bottleneck in the whole aircraft supply chain. Poor machinability of these materials results in low cutting speeds, which significantly reduces productivity and shortens tool life. Both these factors are directly connected with cutting tools.
In fact, when dealing with hard-to-machine typical aerospace materials, cutting tool functionality defines the existing level of productivity. The truth is, cutting tools in their development lag machine tools, and this development gap limits the capabilities of leading-edge machines in the manufacturing of aerospace components.
Modern aircraft, especially unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), feature a considerably increased share of composite materials. Effective machining composites demand specific cutting tools, which is the focus of a technological leap in the aerospace industry.
Aircraft-grade aluminum continues to be a widely used material for fuselage elements. It may seem that machining aluminum is simple, however, selecting the right cutting tool is a necessary key to success in high-efficiency machining of aluminum.
A complex part shape is a specific feature of the turbine engine technology. Most geometrically complicated parts of aero engines work in highly corrosive environments and are made from hard-to-cut materials, such as titanium and HTSA, to ensure the required life cycle. A combination of complex shape, low material machinability, and high accuracy requirements are the main difficulties in producing these parts. Leading multi-axis machining centers enable various chip removal strategies to provide complex profiles in a more effective way. But a cutting tool, which comes into direct contact with a part, has a strong impact on the success of machining. Intensive tool wear affects surface accuracy, while an unpredictable tool breakage may lead to the discarding of a whole part.
A cutting tool – the smallest element of a manufacturing system – turns into a key pillar for substantially improved performance. Therefore, aerospace part manufacturers and machine tool builders are waiting for innovative solutions for a new level of chip removal processes from their cutting tool producers. The solution targets are evident: more productivity and more tool life. Machining complex shapes of specific aerospace parts and large-sized fuselage components demand a predictable tool life period for reliable process planning and a well-timed replacement of worn tools or their exchangeable cutting components.
In machining titanium, HTSA and creep-resisting steel, high pressure cooling (HPC) is an efficient tool for improving performance and increasing productivity. Pinpointed HPC significantly reduces the temperature at the cutting edge, ensures better chip formation and provides small, segmented chips. This contributes to higher cutting data and better tool life when compared with conventional cooling methods. More and more intensive applying HPC to machining difficult-to-cut materials is a clear trend in manufacturing aerospace components. Understandably, cutting tool manufacturers consider HPC tooling an important direction of development.
ISCAR, one of leaders in cutting tool manufacturing, has a vast product range for machining with HPC. In the last year, ISCAR has expanded its range by introducing new milling cutters carrying “classical” HELI200 and HELIMILL indexable inserts with 2 cutting edges (Fig. 1). This step brings an entire page of history to ISCAR’s product line.
The HELIMILL was modified and underwent changes which led to additional milling families and inserts with more cutting edges. The excellent performance and its close derivatives of the original tools ensured their phenomenal popularity in metalworking. Therefore, by adding a modern HPC tool design to the proven HELIMILL family was a direct response to customer demand and the next logical tool line to develop.
In Turning, ISCAR considerably expanded its line of assembled modular tools comprising of bars and exchangeable heads with indexable inserts. The bars have both traditional and anti-vibration designs and differ by their adaptation: cylindrical or polygonal taper shank. A common feature for the nodular tools is the delivery of internal coolant to be supplied directly to the required insert cutting edge (Fig. 2). The efficient distribution of coolant increases the insert’s tool life by reducing the temperature and improving chip control and chip evacuation; substantially increasing this application line in the aerospace industry.
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The emergence of lithium-ion batteries has been phenomenal. With the rising awareness about environmental conservation around the world, many individuals switched toward buying products or items that have a lower negative impact on the environment. As lithium-ion battery packs are used extensively in such products, the market will expand at a healthy CAGR of 11 percent across the forecast period of 2021-2031, to surpass a valuation of US$ 120.3 bn by 2031 according to a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR).
Lithium-ion battery packs are rechargeable batteries mainly used for electric vehicles and portable electronic items. These battery packs are eco-friendly alternatives to store energy and do not contain high levels of heavy metals that are harmful to the environment. All these aspects act as prominent growth generators for the lithium-ion battery packs market.
The demand for hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles has increased exponentially across various regions. The growing demand for these vehicles has led to an increase in the demand for lithium-ion battery packs, which will positively influence the growth of the global market for lithium-ion battery packs market.
Furthermore, government bodies of numerous countries are increasing their efforts to reduce carbon emissions across their regions. Various agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement have been signed to speed up the process of decarbonisation. Densely populated countries like India are encouraging the production of electric vehicles through initiatives like Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) and others. Thus, these factors are helping in increasing the growth opportunities across the lithium-ion battery packs market.
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Ford is teaming up with HP to innovatively reuse spent 3D printed powders and parts, closing the loop and turning them into injection molded vehicle parts – an industry first.
Sustainability is a priority for both iconic companies, which through joint exploration led to this unlikely, earth-friendly solution. The resulting injection molded parts are better for the environment with no compromise in the durability and quality standards Ford and its customers demand.
The recycled materials are being used to manufacture injection-molded fuel-line clips installed first on Super Duty F-250 trucks. The parts have better chemical and moisture resistance than conventional versions, are seven percent lighter and cost 10 percent less. The Ford research team has identified 10 other fuel-line clips on existing vehicles that could benefit from this innovative use of material and are migrating it to future models.
“Finding new ways to work with sustainable materials, reducing waste and leading the development of the circular economy are passions at Ford,” said Debbie Mielewski, Ford technical fellow, Sustainability. “Many companies are finding great uses for 3D printing technologies, but, together with HP, we’re the first to find a high-value application for waste powder that likely would have gone to landfill, transforming it into functional and durable auto parts.”
HP 3D printers are already designed for high efficiency, with systems and structures to minimise the excess material they generate and reuse a greater percentage of the materials put into them. Working with Ford, which uses HP’s 3D printing technology at the company’s Advanced Manufacturing Center, the team created this solution that produces zero waste.
“You get more sustainable manufacturing processes with 3D, but we are always striving to do more, driving our industry forward to find new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle powders and parts,” said Ellen Jackowski, chief sustainability and social impact officer, HP. “Our collaboration with Ford extends the environmental benefits of 3D printing even further, showcasing how we are bringing entirely different industries together to make better use of spent manufacturing materials, enabling a new circular economy.”
For its part, Ford is developing new applications and utilising a multitude of different processes and materials for 3D printing, including filaments, sand, powders and liquid vat polymerisation. The company already employs 3D printing for a variety of low-volume commercial vehicle parts, as well as fixtures used by assembly line workers use, saving production time and enhancing quality.
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The high-tech company TRUMPF acquires the software house Lantek and thus focuses on software in sheet metal processing that runs independently of the machine manufacturer.
“TRUMPF is opening up to customers’ production ecosystems with this acquisition,” says Thomas Schneider, Managing Director of Machine Tool Development at TRUMPF. “Our customers’ process is our focus – with Lantek, we comprehensively cover the sheet metal process chain, even with machines from different manufacturers. In this way, we are taking another big step toward efficient and connected sheet metal production and enriching the Smart Factory solution portfolio.”
After participating in the development of umati, the open machine data interface, the development of omlox, the open positioning standard, and the cooperation with intralogistics expert Jungheinrich on automated guided vehicles, the cooperation with Lantek is a consistent step towards process optimisation and connectivity for the sheet metal production of the future.
“We are looking forward to cooperating closely with TRUMPF. Lantek has been leading the sheet metal software for 35 years thanks to its ability to bring the best manufacturing solutions to any cutting machine, and this will continue to be our goal, assuring interconnectivity and independency between machine tool builders. Our customers benefit from a close exchange in the key technologies of the future AI, data models and holistic process control. This enables us to bundle our competencies and develop software for the future of sheet metal production in an even more open and customer-oriented way in the future,“ says Alberto López de Biñaspre, CEO of Lantek.
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TRUMPF Enables Automated Removal, Stacking of Parts
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Special Tools For Difficult Recesses
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Taiwan companies have long been supplying machineries to manufacturers in the ASEAN region. The government’s thrust toward developing a much deeper cooperation with the industry in Southeast Asia through its digital media campaign for Taiwan machine tools, and a potentially new global supply chain pattern emerging post-pandemic, are expected to open up more opportunities for manufacturing cooperation between the ASEAN region and Taiwan.
Join us in this one-hour webinar that will highlight next-generation machining and advanced automation solutions from Taiwan, for your smart manufacturing future.
Date: 12 November 2020
Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm (GMT+08:00)
We continue our additive manufacturing (AM) webinar series with the future developments and outlook for 3D printing in Southeast Asia.
In Part 1, we featured different case studies regarding AM deployments in ASEAN. Click here to view its recap as well as watch the videos of the webinar.
On 15 December, we will explore the possibilities and look into what the future holds for AM in part 2 of our webinar series!
Register for the free webinar below!
Be part of the panel discussion with SLM Solutions, Markforged, Universal Robots and National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC), who will discuss the unique opportunities of AM; what it can do to your design, manufacturing operations, and innovations; the latest technologies for AM; and future developments and outlook for the 3D printing industry in Southeast Asia.
Keysight Technologies’ MX0100A micro probe head is the smallest and highest performance solder-in probe head on the market, optimized for probing modern high-speed devices. The micro probe head is a micro solder-in head for use with Keysight InfiniiMax I and II probe amplifiers designed to access small geometry target devices. The probe head is made out of flex printed circuit making it light, flexible, small, and yet highly usable and reusable. The solderable lead wires of the MX0100A ensure a secure connection to the DUT. The 4-mil diameter lead wires can be adjusted to accommodate targets from 0 mm to 7 mm apart.
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