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Machining centre uses two, not eight, set-ups
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Formula One racing car components that once required eight set-ups for machining are now completed in just two, with considerable costs and time savings, using a 5-axis machining centre With the 2007 Formula One season now in full swing, defending Drivers and Constructors Champion, ING Renault F1 Team, is preparing for a tough year of racing. To this end the development engineers at ING Renault F1 Team's Technical Centre in Enstone, Oxfordshire are working flat out on grip and aerodynamics. New components and component modifications are coming through thick and fast, providing even more work than usual for the team's busy machine shop where 18 high specification CNC machine tools supplied by DMG (UK), - the team's preferred machine tool partner for milling and turning technologies - are rising to the challenge. Three new machines have been installed in the past 12 months alone. 'Aerodynamics is where most gains can be made,' explained Machine Shop manager Jeff Fullerton. 'New aero packages are coming through all the time - in fact they vary slightly for each circuit, depending on how much down-force is required.' Aero packages can consist of a range of parts that include underbodies, top body sections, rear wings, front wings and associated parts - all of which are produced at Enstone. Of the 18 DMG machines presently on site, three are dedicated to the wind tunnel development area. Once fine tuning of each part is complete, these components progress to the busy production area, where along with the fact that the latest R27 car featured new chassis, suspension and gearbox (again all machined at Enstone) - the increased workload is very apparent. To meet demand the machine shop is currently running three shifts, six days a week. 'Towards the middle of last year it became clear we would require additional machining capacity,' said Fullerton. 'Since 2003 we have progressively built our fleet of machine tools from DMG UK and we are really pleased with their performance. The only problem we have when we need new machines is deciding which DMG models to pick.' With two DMC64V CNC vertical machining centres with linear drives already cutting at full tilt, ING Renault F1 Team opted to install two more of these compact, ergonomic and powerful machines recently, making a total of four on site, two of which feature fourth axes. All come with a 12,000 rev/min motor spindle, a tool magazine that can be equipped parallel to production time for 30 tools, a spiral chip conveyor, and a bed flushing mechanism. The linear drive in the X-axis, with accelerations of up to 0.5G and rapid traverse of 70m/min, guarantees high machining dynamics and ensures short idle times during pick-up toolchanges - chip-to-chip times are 5s. All of the DMC64V machines at the ING Renault F1 Team Technical Centre process components that don't require five axes, although this can often include 3D and surface profiling work for car components and tooling. On the five-axis side the team has also expanded its capacity recently in the form of a DMU80P duoBLOCK machining centre. The duoBLOCK concept consists of two sturdy cast iron blocks in conjunction with three guideways in the X-axis and the well established concept of three-point support. 'The very nature of motorsport components means that they evolve and by default become more complex,' said Fullerton. 'With this in mind we knew we would benefit from the arrival of another five-axis machine. The addition of duoBLOCK technology is providing additional rigidity to help ensure quality is optimised.' One component to already benefit from the arrival of the DMU80P duoBLOCK is the car's hydraulic gearbox manifold. Manufactured from L168 aluminium alloy, this highly complex component is machined from a solid round billet and took around two weeks to program off-line using CATIA V5. Such is the challenge presented by this component that extra material has to be grafted on so that special fixtures can be used to hold the part. Once the program has been sent via Ethernet to the machine, in a single set-up the DMU80P sets about producing the component's features, including angled bores, complex surfaces and thread-milled holes. One further set-up is required to remove the grafted material, making a total of two set-ups. This is a considerable improvement over the eight set-ups required using a non five-axis machine. To date 14 manifolds have been produced in a cycle time of around 19 hours each, again considerably reduced thanks to fewer set-ups. 'In the past we have tried to 'double-up' using three-axis machines but it's simply not as efficient as using a five-axis machine,' said Fullerton. This point emphasised by the fact that ING Renault F1 Team is about to take delivery its fourth machine in the past 12 months (its 19th since 2003) - a DMU50 eVo, which can deliver five-axis simultaneous machining with linear drive technology and the capability to machine angles up to -18 deg. The DMU50 eVo linear is best suited for highly efficient five-sided machining and five-axes simultaneous contouring. The NC swivel rotary table pivots the workpiece around its centre of gravity and allows undercuts of up to 18 deg. Thanks to the dynamic linear drive in the X-axis the DMU50 eVo linear reaches accelerations of up to 1G and rapid traverses up to 80m/min. 'We were attracted to the DMU eVo linear because it has the ability to machine angles over centre-line (-18 deg), which definitely gives us extra options when machining,' said Fullerton. 'There will be a little bit of training involved for our operators when this machine arrives, but not much. We have seven programmers here now, all of whom have progressed from the shop floor - they all enjoy working with new technology.' Fortunately things are less hectic with regard to turning, with the team's armoury of CTX and GMX models coping admirably with demand. 'Turning seems to come in peaks and troughs,' explained Fullerton, 'Which is why we haven't added any extra capacity in the past 12 months - instead we adjust batch sizes to get by. We are very pleased with our Gildemeister CNC lathes. The CTX is so well suited to the motorsport arena - it is rapid and versatile and very quick to set. If we have a new component, even one with milled features, we can be cutting metal inside 30 minutes.' By its own admission the team hasn't been as quick as it would like at the start of the 2007 Formula One season. However, with new DMG machines in place, ING Renault F1 Team is confident it can rise to the challenge. http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/dmg/dmg252.html |
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