As the doors opened for IMTS 2010, opening day of the show also meant the first Industry Inspiration Day at IMTS 2010 – an invite-only luncheon – featuring opening remarks by Doug Wood, president, AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. Following Wood’s remarks was a panel presentation, which offered attendees snapshots on four key manufacturing industries.
Rene van de Zande, president/CEO, Emergo Group, speaking on the medical manufacturing sector and its changes said, “There is a definite trend away from approving medical devices solely based on performance, and now more of an emphasis is on achieving a proper balance between cost and outcomes. Value for the money – not to be confused with low cost – will be the mantra moving forward, and medical device engineers and management need to keep this in mind during the device development phase.”
Discussing the automotive industry, in regards to manufacturing and the future, Ford Motor Co.’s VP of North American Manufacturing, Jim Tetreault, told the audience, “We have modernized every one of our engine and transmission plants over the past several years so that our manufacturing processes are as state of the art as our new engines and transmissions are. We have also made steady, sizeable investments in our plants to create a manufacturing systems – worldwide – that is both lean and flexible.”
Denise Bode, president/CEO, American Wind Energy Association discussed the growth the U.S. has seen in wind power together with the vast opportunities for components manufacturing as each turbine consists of more than 8,000 parts.
Allan McArtor, chairman and CEO, Airbus Americas, awed the audience with his look at where aerospace is today, and Airbus’ vision of where aerospace can head. Discussing the growth of additive layer manufacturing (ALM) and the possibilities it offers in aerospace manfuacturing and design, McArtor explained how Airbus is currently starting small, with a blended approach to this technology for components, while envisioning a move to the higher value parts.
Following the opening day luncheon was the four-and-one-half-day conference series, featuring more than 50 sessions on a range of manufacturing and production topics. Tom Grasson, associate publisher/editor in chief of the Industrial Group at GIE Media, lined up the stunning list of speakers and their topics, helping achieve a record-breaking number of pre-registrations. More than 400 individuals pre-registered to attend the conference, participating in sessions that educated them about Materials Engineering, Machining Technology & Trends, Alternative Manufacturing Processes, and much more.
Booth Snapshots
Planning and preparing for an event the size of IMTS means exhibitors typically unveil their latest products for all to see. Grand announcements and cutting-edge technology graced all four halls of McCormick place during this six-day exposition.
Revealed during IMTS at the Tornos Technologies booth was the EvoDECO – a new turning center featuring fully synchronous drives with strong acceleration/deceleration, significantly reducing cycle times for parts that require a lot of stopping. Additionally demonstrated during IMTS were the expanded lines of Almac milling machines and Esco by Tornos coil-fed turning machines.
Zoller Inc. hosted its new »pom« – short for »process-oriented-measuring« – product series for the first time at IMTS 2010. With »pom«, a new type of inspection machine has been designed especially for use in the tool manufacturing industry as well as grinding and sharpening companies. »pom« machines are equipped with special functionalities required i.e. for the production of milling cutters or drills and used directly next to the CNC machine. Developed for sample inspection and quick tool checks, »pom« machines are deliberately built small and compact and can easily fit in any production environment.
Mike and Geoff Howe, from Howe and Howe Technologies, airing on the Discovery Channel, graced the Flow International Corp. booth – meeting fans, signing autographs, and describing how their Flow waterjet enables them to develop some of the most versatile and advanced rescue and military vehicles. As a highlight to Howe and Howe’s appearance, a personal all terrain vehicle, developed for the consumer while having the appearance of a one-man open military tank, was unveiled.
Toolmex Corp. promoted a new generation of high performance slant bed lathes – the FTM700 and FTM1000 – which are not only larger in size, but that offer greater capabilities to the user, including the ability to handle heavier parts and multiple machining operations in a larger work envelope. A unique feature of the FTM series is that there is no loss of machining diameters by cross slide. Unlike other lathes that lose up to 20% on their diameter swing over cross slide, the FTM700 and FTM1000 maintain their diameter swing, allowing users to turn, mill, drill, thread, tap, and bore on a single lathe.
Specializing in the development and manufacturing of ultra-precision turning machines, Hembrug Machine Tools demonstrated machining techniques on the Mikroturn 300 Baseline slant bed horizontal – the first time Hembrug displayed a machine at IMTS or at an U.S. trade show. Offering superior finish of components, dimensional and form accuracies are held to 2µm or less, with achievable surface finishes as low as 0.1µm. The 300 Baseline has a 12" swing and is offered with a Fanuc 0i control system that has axis resolutions of 0.1µm.
Ganesh Machinery Inc. unveiled the Cyclone-52 TTMY dual spindle, dual turret lathe, which combines both turning and milling operations for complete part processing. Both the main- and sub-spindles use dead-length collets for part transfer and machining efficiency, including all radial, end working, and Y-axis live tooling working on both the front and back of the part while a dual 16-station live tool turret accommodates a total of 32 tools.
An expanded range of multi-material tools – including the addition of numerous thread cutting and thread forming taps – were highlights at the Precision Dormer booth. Carrying the brand name Spectrum, product introductions targeted the growing requirement for versatile cutting tools that offer high performance across a range of engineering materials. The Spectrum line is designed to promote a continuous production process, with all spiral flute Spectrum taps featuring a three radii flute profile with a constant rake angle – facilitating the creation and subsequent evacuation of narrow, regular chips, resulting in negligible chip congestion.
Demonstrations of the thermal drilling process, at the Formdrill U.S.A. booth, acquainted visitors with this new-to-North America process. Considered new to North American manufacturing, thermal drilling is widely used by fabricators and small machine shops throughout Europe. Demonstrations on a small drill press, in the Formdrill booth, highlighted the ease of perforating metal using friction and how one main benefit of this process is that material that normally would be cut using the conventional drilling process, is now pushed through a bushing that triples the material thickness.
Marking metals, plastics, glass, or paper is easily achieved with the Lasit U.S.A. Inc. CompactMark 2010 Laser Marking System – with built-in automation. Demonstrated during IMTS 2010, the CompactMark 2010 features up to eight motors in one machine for marking cylindrical parts, measurement rings, tapered probes, endoscopic rods, plastic handles, trays of varying parts, and the inside and ends of objects. Up to 32 characters can be marked and read with vision on a screw as small as an eyeglass screw.
Offering numerous advantages over the design of tradition collet chucks, Quick-Grip CNC Collet Chucks from Royal Products showed advanced technology to attendees at IMTS. What intrigued attendees most was the demonstration of how the collet is installed. A special installation tool compresses the rear end of the collet so that it can be inserted. Upon expansion, the collet locks into place via a hook and groove arrangement.
MMK Matumoto Corp. introduced the DEAT70 rotary table that integrates MMK’s Ott worm gear with a direct drive table. Completely submersible for EDM work and a true A/B axis table, the DEAT70 features a small footprint, which allows it to be used on smaller EDM machines – typically with no modifications to the EDM tank required.
Model B380 Deep Hole Drilling machine from Unisig, drills a 2.6" (65mm) diameter hole form solid or a 3.9" (100mm) diameter hole using trepan or counter-boring tooling, up to 157.5" (4m) deep. Demonstrated to attendees, the latest in deep hole drilling tooling showed how the B380 uses counter-rotational drilling to achieve 0.001" to 0.003" variations from the centerline of the hole being drilled per 1ft of drilling depth.
Although this recap does not come close to encompassing all the technology that the nearly 1,200 exhibitors displayed during IMTS, we hope it provides a quick snapshot at the technological advancement the manufacturing world is offering – and the growth we all see in this always-important segment to the U.S. and the world.
