TREND #2: Green Machining
“There is an increased support for green engineering at IMTS this year,” says Tim Shinbara, AMT’s director of manufacturing technology. “From the controls perspective, they’re installing intelligence that allows you to really manage the energy you’re using. It’s all happening simultaneously, all behind the curtain on the controls.”
Rajas Sukthankar, business manager of machine tool segment at Siemens (IW 1000/34) Motion Control, is tracking this phenomenon, too.
“Energy efficiency is figuring more and more in the activities on the manufacturing floor,” he said. “Everybody is after consuming less energy and producing parts with less energy.” Successfully doing so provides manufacturers with a real competitive advantage because it reduces their overall manufacturing and energy costs and, more significantly, the overall cost of production per part.
Siemens will be on hand at IMTS, showcasing CNC controls designed to help companies tap into their hidden potential energy savings and take hold of these costs.
“There are certain key combinations that are defined in the new software generation of CNC that really help us conserve energy directly on the machine, behind the scenes,” he says.
 | |
| Mazak's Hyper Quadres 250MSY multitasking turning center and bar feeder communicates as a united system using MTConnect's open communication protocol. |
One particular feature Siemens will showcase is an innovative energy feedback or energy regeneration system incorporated into drives for larger machines. These CNC drives are able to feed energy back into the line in a large part like a spindle.
“In the past, all of this energy was burned, generating heat either outside or inside the panel. No more,” he says. “We directly feed back all of this energy to the lines, making the machines more energy efficient.”
On the machine tool side, MAG’s cryogenic technology, while providing a strong answer to the composite issue, also contributes handsomely to this green initiative.
Specifically, it eliminates the problematic water-soluble coolant mechanisms running though traditional machines.
MAG’s Mike Judge explains that the majority of users of machining composites are still using that system, which floods composite parts with water-soluble coolants, creating a “nightmare” for machine tools in terms of maintainability, reliability and sustainability.
“Very simply, what cryogenics does is allow us to eliminate all water-soluble coolants,” Judge says. “It allows us to eliminate the energy consumption that comes with moving chips and filtration systems, and it allows us to eliminate the costs associated with raw materials for replenishment of water-soluble coolants.”
The technology represents the next phase of the development of an alternative system called MQL, or Minimum Quantity Lubrication, which uses an oil-mixed lubricating process as opposed to water-soluble coolants.
“All around the initiative of becoming more green, MAG has more MQL machines in the field than anybody else in the world,” claims Judge.
The next evolution of the MQL process is cryogenics, he says, which is where the term MQC derives.
“The liquid nitrogen totally eliminates the coolant system and the energy to run it,” Judge explains. It also cuts coolant disposal costs and potentially eliminates the need for in-process part washing after exposure to water-soluble or oil-based coolants during machining.
As a bonus, the system also radically reduces the cost and labor involved with chip reclamation and recycling.
“A lot of investment is made by our customers to reclaim and recycle their chips, and there are a lot of standards that are placed on them for a percentage of clean chips before it can be recycled and reclaimed,” he explains.
With cryogenic technology, the chips can move directly from the machine to reclamation and recycling without any end-process washing.
