VIDEO: Automated Manufacturing in CNC Machining Environments

Automation in manufacturing is now more important than ever. CNC machine shops must be flexible to cope with changing demands in product mix and volume. Processes must be intelligent to automatically adjust where skilled workers are not available. And factories must increase efficiency and reduce waste to provide a sustainable future. Manufacturers who achieve these goals can compete in a global market, even against low cost economies. These challenges are driving a digital manufacturing revolution and initiatives you may have heard of such as building the ‘Smart Factory’ and adopting ‘Industry 4.0’.

Mechanical automation in a factory is nothing new. Robots have been used for part handling applications in high-volume manufacturing environments for over 50 years. Current requirements for automation go beyond simply loading and unloading of parts from CNC machines and that’s what we’re going to talk about today. This is intelligent manufacturing. So let's take a typical working week. You have 7 days, 24 hours, that's 168 potential hours every week. How many hours are the machines in your factory actually running? In a traditional machining environment, this would require 1, 2, maybe 3 shifts and the associated labor costs. If you are manning your machines over the weekend that's an extra cost, making it more expensive to get the most out of your machines. So automation is the key to unlocking that capacity, without adding extra cost. But, you need to consider all aspects of your manufacturing process if you are to succeed. There are a lot of processes in a CNC factory that require skilled people The setting up of machining processes... making measurements and adjustments... keeping dimensions under control... monitoring processes throughout the day and reacting to things like tool wear, tool breakage, cutter deflection and process drift. If you automate all of these processes you could switch off the lights and leave the machines running overnight with confidence. Your factory could safely and intelligently cope with variation, trends and drift in your CNC processes and automatically adapt and ensure the quality of the output.

The immediate benefit here is your process capability is predictable. Manufacturers who have automated their work handling, machine set-up, adjustment and monitoring have higher confidence in the output of the CNC machining processes. Delivering high-quality machined parts throughout the week without excessive labor costs means manufacturers can get the maximum potential out of their high-value capital assets. As manufacturers ourselves, Renishaw faces many of the same challenges in our own factories. We have many years of experience in successfully automating our own CNC processes. We work as partners with our customers around the world to achieve the same goals. These customers span industries such as aerospace, automotive, consumer electronics and power generation. By automating manufacturing processes, we can build highly flexible intelligent systems and provide closed loop feedback, process control and provide data for improving process capability and efficiency. Only Renishaw can provide all the industrial metrology solutions that are required throughout a manufacturing process. The technologies we provide include systems for assessing the performance and calibration of CNC machines, on-machine probing and tool measurement systems for automated CNC set up, process control and part measurement. Shop floor gauging systems for process validation and CNC process control and a wide range of systems for part verification using the latest 5-axis multi-sensor technology on co-ordinate measuring machines. And now in the age of Industry 4.0, these systems provide all the data throughout a manufacturing process from start to end and this is invaluable for visibility of what's happening in the factory, for traceability and continuous improvement.

Of course there are different levels of automation that can be used in and around CNC machining from simply bar feeding raw material on a lathe, reducing operator intervention to allow machines to run for longer with less staff, through to fully automated intelligent manufacturing systems. Renishaw technology can deliver benefits at every stage of your automation journey and what's more the integration of Renishaw technology is made simple through a range of smart apps that can be used on CNC controls and mobile devices. Renishaw continuously innovates and develops technologies to meet the challenges of our customers and our solutions are supported around the world by our strong technical, sales and service teams with many years' experience working across multiple industries with our key customers. To find out more about how to integrate Renishaw's automated manufacturing solutions into your own machine shop, visit our Virtual-Expo where you can also request a demo.