Form drill systems are available in various carbide grades and offer additional savings as only the insert is coated, not an entire solid carbide drill.
The insertable form drill system offers cost savings as only the insertable carbide tool is ground. Setup times are reduced through quick changeovers; the retaining screw is easily accessible for insert replacement; the holder is not removed, so re-centering is not necessary.
Grooving with insertable form tools, instead of single-point turning, can lower costs up to 40%. However, solid carbide drills are often necessary for larger bore sizes and deeper holes, despite long changeover time concerns – increased costs and longer machine downtime.
With its PWP and PWP-D insertable form drill system, Schwanog addresses the problem of long setup times by keeping the insert holder in the machine during insert changeover. The center height stays unchanged.
The insertable carbide tool is ground individually, according to customer specifications, and can hold a minimum tolerance of ±0.02mm and 0.02mm repeatability.
Form drill systems are available in various carbide grades and offer additional savings as only the insert is coated, not an entire solid carbide drill.
Does your company use manufacturing technology to improve operations?
If the answer is yes, it’s on the right path for success as an early adopter of advanced manufacturing technologies.
If the answer is no, then according to results from Plex Systems’ 4th Annual State of Manufacturing Technology report, it will be “extremely difficult for manufactures to thrive in the future without doing so to improve operations.”
The annual survey measures current and future technology plans, with this years’ results showing that automation, integration, and connectivity goals rank highest for priorities in the next five years, specifically:
60% plan to use technology to enhance plant floor integration, automation
48% intend to increase business process automation
33% working to increase plant/enterprise integration, supply chain connectivity
Also indicating optimism for manufacturing’s future, when asked about projected company revenue growth for the next 12 months, respondents were:
55% somewhat confident
30% very confident
This confidence is echoed by others in the industry, Plex’s report notes, with 93% of manufacturers responding to the December 2018 National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) survey reporting a “positive outlook for their companies and the economy… a near-record level of optimism.”
But there is caution. Manufacturers also admit to what their companies are lacking that could hamper their ability to remain competitive – skilled workers, strategy, and technology. And topping both the list of growth challenges and what companies lack in response to competition was technology; under-pinning the critical role technology plays in how much companies grow and manage business challenges.
Those challenges – especially prevalent in small businesses with fewer than 500 employees – is scalability to respond to meet economic demand and balancing for natural upturns and downturns in industry, which is where automation, integration, and connectivity will help.
Much of this relies on the cloud as a foundation. On-premise technology use has dropped 21% in the past three years of the survey, with 87% of manufacturers using a cloud-based system, indicating confidence in future revenue growth. As manufacturers build their Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) foundation on a system that provides connectivity from databases, sensors, and equipment – and as the use of analytics grows – companies will expand into more data analysis, supplying deeper decision support for areas such as predictive maintenance, machine performance, and shop floor operations.
The report notes that as manufacturers connect all parts of the business – processes, systems, people, machine, suppliers, and customers – more are seeing IIoT as a pragmatic solution to solving connectivity challenges, not an aspirational tool with limited return on investment (ROI).
With 78.6% of respondents agreeing that next-generation manufacturing technology will be what separates leaders from followers, which will you be?
Plasma treatment offers cleaning and decontamination, surface conditioning, and adhesion promotion, but specifying and integrating equipment to automate the process can be daunting. With so many applications and part sizes to be processed, standard off-the-shelf vacuum chamber solutions rarely suffice. With plasma treatment increasingly integrated into existing production systems, replacing manual operations with automated production becomes more important.
Though automated plasma treatment can be challenging, manufacturers typically don’t need custom tools because plasma equipment providers can semi-customize existing tools and technology to accommodate new or non-standard parts. This includes providing the necessary robotics for high throughput and automated loading and processing.
“At least once a week we talk with customers about some sort of customization of our existing standardized systems,” says Walt Roloson, R&D engineering manager at PVA TePla, a designer and manufacturer of plasma systems. “I would estimate 60% of the equipment we deliver has gone through some degree of customization.”
Recently, IMA Automation Medtech, a Swiss company that designs turnkey automated assembly lines for medical devices, requested a system that would automate an existing manually-loaded plasma treatment system.
The small vacuum plasma chamber would treat several pallets of 4cm to 5cm items in an automated batch process, a critical surface activation step prior to a coating application. Each 12" x 12" aluminum pallet held 300 items, and the system’s users needed a processing time of less than 8 minutes from loading to unloading.
The system was part of a larger IMA Automation Medtech manufacturing cell that included a flex-feed device for loading packaged parts into the pallets, plasma treatment, coating, curing, and final coating/curing step.
IMA Automation Medtech also wanted a plasma equipment provider that was willing to pre-test the tool to validate performance prior to delivery.
“We wanted the equipment supplier to test parts to give us confidence purchasing the system,” says Ruben De Araujo, a process engineer for IMA Automation Medtech. “We were also looking for a company that was established enough to support the customer in Europe, because the line will be installed there.”
The initial specifications sent by IMA Automation Medtech to PVA TePla were several pages long, complete with CAD drawings. The one-off unit had many custom elements such as a conveyorized track that transported the pallets in and out of the vacuum chamber.
“We had never built anything like it, so it would have been a completely custom solution if we had to match it,” Roloson says. “However, the general concept of automatically loading and unloading pallets with pick-and-place robots and treating parts in batches, we have done many times.”
PVA TePla proposed a semi-customized version of one of its smaller production-level vacuum chamber tools, Roloson explains, because, “it could process pallets in batches, and we already had a kit to add robotics to it.”
Customizing a standard tool saves time and money, whereas a fully customized system could require as much as 400 to 450 hours of engineering.
Photo courtesy of PVA TePla America
Software customization
Roloson says the most significant change from IMA Automation Medtech’s request was altering communication and control software.
As a company supplying automated systems to the medical, pharmaceutical, and food industries, IMA Automation Medtech must comply with Title 21 CFR Part 11 regulations established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for electronic records. This requires companies to implement controls, including audits, system validations, audit trails, electronic signatures, and documentation for software and systems involved in processing electronic data.
With this in mind, IMA Automation Medtech decided not to send information through standard RS-232 or Ethernet connections and instead opted to use a programmable logic controller (PLC)-based communications and control system, both for security and to work with the other component parts of the automated line.
“Regarding the software interface to the rest of our machine, we decided the PVA TePla system should communicate with our PLCs in a way that we were sure that the data that is collected is secure,” De Araujo says.
Although PVA TePla’s standard systems are designed to facilitate Part 11 compliance, standard models are PC-based. To meet IMA Automation Medtech’s requirement, the company’s in-house computer software and control engineer altered the system to communicate via PLC with digital output signals designed to read as binary code.
The PLCs send treatment recipes and process the answer values as well as control the automated loading and chamber door opening elements. Internet communication is only used for sending batch processing data to a SQL server.
Hardware modifications
Some hardware modifications were required as well. PVA TePla’s vacuum ports are typically located at the back of each unit. However, to match the existing system, IMA Automation Medtech wanted the vacuum ports at the bottom of the chamber.
The port placement affected the flow of ionized gas over the parts, and in this case the customer was concerned about the treatment on the inner side of each part, something occasionally difficult with the original equipment. Relocating the vacuum port to the bottom of the chamber improved surface conditioning in angle goniometry tests.
“We did tests on the [processed part] samples they provided, and the contact angle was excellent,” De Araujo says. “It was better than what the customer was getting before.”
Because the system is in a cleanroom, IMA Automation Medtech required a special air-cooled dry vacuum pump to eliminate the need for water pipes to cool it down. A slow vent design prevents heat in the chamber from damaging sensitive parts. Slowing the venting process ensures the insertion of air into the system at atmospheric pressure is slowed to reduce the heating effect.
Photo courtesy of PVA TePla America
Preparing for the future
For customers who may not be ready to automate, plasma equipment tools can be configured to keep options open for future upgrades as production increases.
“Some customers purchase a manual batch tool with the idea that at some point, they are going to have to automate,” Roloson says. “If they have a tool with our standard software, we can add a robotic interface and modify it so there is an automatic door and atmosphere switch, and it can become fully automated.”
If production levels increase to higher levels, a high-throughput system can be designed by creating a cluster of plasma tools served by a single universal robot in the center.
“The elegance of the automated plasma treatment solutions available lets a new customer leverage existing technology and know-how, as opposed to having to pay to create something that is entirely new,” Roloson concludes.
Currently, AM/3DP produces less than 1% of the world’s manufactured parts, but as the industry grows, it could triple its market value by 2021 to more than $26 billion.
Additive manufacturing / 3D printing (AM/3DP) is destined for continued growth. Products are more easily customized with less waste, using less material, and they can be brought to market faster with expanded options for materials and processes.
Currently, AM/3DP produces less than 1% of the world’s manufactured parts, but as the industry grows, it could triple its market value by 2021 to more than $26 billion.
Applications for AM/3DP include design, concept modeling, fit-and-function testing, patterns for casting, fixturing, tooling, prototyping, short-run production, series production, and custom and replacement part manufacturing.
The technology continues to advance on dual tracks – revolutionary applications that could change how products are designed and built in the future, and evolutionary systems that enhance and support traditional manufacturing.
Radical new design, such as 3D-printed lattice structures that lower part weights by eliminating massive amounts of material without sacrificing structural integrity, are enabling military equipment, space exploration, racecar designs, and medical devices with surfaces customized to promote bone growth. As these technologies mature and prove themselves to users, expect to see new markets develop for AM/3DP processing and materials.
Even in the markets not looking for such radical changes, AM/3DP technologies will play a major role. High-volume, low-mix manufacturers are poor candidates for AM/3DP use as a primary production technology, but they can use jigs and fixtures custom-printed for different workers, plastic injection-molding tooling AM/3DP printed with conformal cooling channels built in, or workholding devices that support oddly-shaped workpieces for machining.
With so many applications on the horizon, technology companies are investing heavily to address AM/3DP shortcomings and highlight benefits of digital systems. In this dynamic market, the Additive Manufacturing Target Guide 2019offers a look at applications, technologies, and the future of the technology that is reshaping the manufacturing world.
— Elizabeth, Robert, Eric, & Michelle
3D printing’s economic impact
Departments - Industry Infographic
AT Kearney’s “3D Printing and the Future of the US Economy” report looks at the number of manufacturing jobs that 3D printing (3DP) could help reshore for a wave of economic growth across industrial sectors.
Traditional manufacturing: $12.8 trillion, 16% 3DP: $8.8 billion, <1% $26 BILLION 3DP FORECAST FOR 2021
In the next 10 years, 3DP could affect up to 42% of production in five sectors, with total economic value of 3DP-based on-shoring from $600 to $900 billion.
3D relevant sector Value Industrials $300 to $470 Automotive $150 to $190 Consumer products $80 to $120 Healthcare & medical devices $60 to $90 Aerospace $10 billion to $30 billion
JOBS by 2027 3 million to 5 million
Potential for skilled job creation in the U.S. Applicable industry Jobs Industrials 6,557,000 Consumer products 988,000 Automotive 918,000 Healthcare, medical devices 593,000 Aerospace 350,000
Potential job creation by category Operations Engineering Logistics 2017 5.3 million 0.8 million 0.9 million ↑ 42% ↑ 64% ↑ 21% 2027 7.6 million 1.3 million 1.1 million
Needed to accelerate realization of 3DP Education – Federal, state, local support for digital technology programs at government-funded universities, vocational schools R&D – Research grants to R&D tax credits; public-private R&D partnerships
Elizabeth Engler Modic
