Manufacturing cell with a SPECHT 600 CNC-machine
Integrated automation and peripheral stations as a demonstrator of Digital Factory Planning by FFG "Digital Friends"
At FFG, the activities of "Industry 4.0" and "Digitalization" are combined in the new "Digital Friends" brand. For the first time at EMO exhibition, visitors can experience the planning, engineering, commissioning and service of a real world exemplary plant step-by-step and see the results in a tangible and functional way. MAG thus demonstrates the "digital factory" from components available today which were created in the virtual world with different specific digital twins of real products.
On the basis of the presented manufacturing cell, the connection is established between MAG performance, product portfolio and the production functionalities, which will be shown on today’s available plant components, but will be integrated in the next product generation in an optimized form. Modularization and integration will continue to be the backbone of “digital factory”, the state-of-the-art methods and tools will make the modular system. MAG invites visitors to a journey to experience future production at EMO 2019 and presents the seamless connection between virtual and real planning as well as working methods with products from the present.
The demonstrated system shows the machining of components from e-mobility sector on a SPECHT 600 CNC machine. The SPECHT product family is a result of the consistent development of technology integration for volume production in the machine tool under the premises:
- Product flexibility (adaptation to workpiece modifications)
- Process flexibility (change of production technology)
- Volume flexibility (market adjustment of production) and
- Productivity optimization (increase of plant availability)
In recent years, MAG has resumed its products in automation and peripherals such as cleaning, measuring and mounting under the brand name "Factory Automation". The advantages are obvious: faster and more cost-effective handling by MAG as a system provider. A robot that can be moved on rails FANUC R-2000 loads and unloads the workpieces from the front and tools from the side of the machine. Tool loading with the robot offers more:
- The magazine size no longer defines the tool capacity of the machine, thus increasing its flexibility
- Heavy tools, in particular special tools, always required loading aids from an ergonomic point of view, which are not needed on the machine.
Workpiece and tools are provided and transported by automated guided vehicle (AGV). In the loading area of the robot cell, a MAG cleaning station is integrated, which frees the workpieces from chips and coolant deposits after processing (dry cleaning) and prevents carry-over within the system.
The automated guided vehicle (AGV) shuttles between the manufacturing cell and a multifunctional workpiece and tool handling area. A stationary FANUC robot takes over the workpiece removal from the raw part pallet and the loading of the finished part pallet from and to the supply vehicle. An Equator 500 tester from Renishaw, another robot station in the work area, measures the workpieces after machining and transmits the results to the cutting machine for compensation. In this way, trends due to thermal influences or wear on the tool can be recorded and made available to the machine for corrections. If the machine requires replacement tools, these can also be transported from the supply vehicle to the cell. The tools provided for this purpose are loaded onto the AGV from a tool storage positioned in the handling area of the stationary robot, and the used tools are brought back into the storage from there.
In the exhibition area "Digital Friends" all the steps:
- Planning (process planning, material flow planning and simulation),
- Design (process optimization with the process twin, NC program creation, the virtual commissioning of the software with the product twin and material flow simulation and program creation),
- Commissioning (virtual commissioning and mixed reality) as well as
- Service after delivery (augmented reality, AR service glasses for training and maintenance)
are presented using the example of this manufacturing cell. This new approach and the tools are already being used for customer projects and some MAG customers are already conducting preliminary acceptance tests on the Digital Twin prior to the building of the real machine.
The flexible production systems of tomorrow are not only fixed on product variants or product families, but offer a much higher level of product and process flexibility (example: algorithmic production). Reconfiguration of a system will be replaced by an intelligent automation and peripheral strategy using the tools of the Digital Factory by “Digital Friends”.
