Machine tool automation articles

Renishaw's latest machine tool product news, case stories and technical articles, allowing manufacturing industry to automate machining processes and achieve substantial cost savings.

New system dramatically reduces lead times on sliding head lathes

At MACH 2008, Renishaw (stand 5140) and Citizen Machinery (stand 5260) are showcasing a revolutionary new approach to setting and controlling complex machining processes on sliding head lathes. Currently, on trial in its own machine shop, a new approach to on-machine probing is helping Renishaw benefit from dramatically reduced set times and the confidence to run ‘lights out’ on even the most sophisticated parts.

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“Manual setting and NC programming is needless torture for machine operators…”

Flexible, efficient, and “totally trustworthy” part set-up taken to a new level with probing routines programmed in a CAM environment - Sikorsky supplier Alp Aviation shows how to do it.  One of the most important developments recently is the introduction of Renishaw’s Productivity+™ software, enabling Alp to create and test routines in a CAM environment, for the Renishaw part-setting probes fitted to all 50 of their machining centres.

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Renishaw launches the world’s first strain gauge based inspection probe for grinding machines

The Renishaw MP250 is an ultra compact touch probe for grinding machines that sets new standards for the precision measurement of 3D part geometries, whilst offering all the standard probing benefits of reduced set-up times, reduced scrap and improved process control. With robust construction and proven solid-state electronics, the MP250 touch probe is also suited to the harshest of machine environments.

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JCB go wireless to take full control of chassis production “…scrapping an assembly is simply not an option.”

In a corner of its sprawling factory, just outside the town of Cheadle in Staffordshire, UK, world-famous earthmoving, construction and agricultural vehicle manufacturer JCB has invested £2 million in a machining cell that brings together the best of the UK’s precision engineering innovation, including CNC machine tools from Asquith Butler and wireless machine probing from Renishaw. The latter has shortened ‘make-ready’ time dramatically and brought guaranteed precision and quality control to the chassis production process, all but eliminating the possibility of costly errors.

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Ducati relies on tool breakage detection to produce unique camshafts

Preventing damage caused by tool breakage during the machining process

Ducati has realised that the machining of valuable components for its Desmodromic engines must be carefully controlled.  Different tools are used hundreds of thousands of times during the course of a year, with the constant risk of a chipped or broken tool being picked up from the magazine, which would result in serious problems.  This has been solved using a Renishaw tool breakage detection system based on innovative non-contact laser technology.

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