Product category:
Integrated systems
News Release from: Engis (UK) | Subject: Engis honing systems
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 08 January 2001
Flexible cell speeds up honing
throughput
A robotised Engis finishing cell, installed at E2A, replaces manually operated honing practice to finish Landrover Discovery centre housings.
A high profile contract for the new Landrover Discovery in 1997, saw tier 1 automotive supplier Tallent Engineering contact leading Gateshead subcontract engineering company Express Engineering, although the company had all the technical capabilities to support the contract, the Express Engineering directors knew that they did not possess the automotive culture For that singular reason, Express 2 Automotive (E2A) was set up as a sub-division and Managing Director Dave Ward was recruited to head up the organisation
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 28 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Today E2A is an independent company with a ?6 million turnover and has recently installed a bespoke Engis automated bore finishing cell.
The vision to seize the opportunities that the automotive manufacturers in the North East offered in particular, high precision volume component supply, was that of the then Express Engineering Director, Roy Stanley.
In January 1998, E2A won a new to provide the turbocharger centre housing for Garrett Engine Boosting Systems, Skelmersdale, who having decided that the machining element of their work was no longer a complement, transferred the finishing equipment over to E2A's Stanley based plant.
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Recognising E2A's value as a specialist automotive subcontract operation, Garrett has continued to automate the finishing process, as E2A Production Director, Mark Hutchinson, explained.
"We are the supplier of the centre housing, which is essentially at the heart of the Garrett automotive turbocharger.
All other component parts are assembled around it.
Within the centre housing is a central bore.
The main rotational components - supplied by other Garrett OEM suppliers - rotate within the center housing itself, so the geometry and tolerence of the main bore is critical.
Having successfully bid for a new range of Garrett turbochargers, we needed to demonstrate SPC against a specified tolerance range less than 10 microns in relation to finished bore size.
We had previously inherited a slower, labour intensive honing operation that although automated in terms of an integral gauging process that would make automatic compensations, was difficult to prove out to achieve statistical process capability.
For the new generation turbochargers we recognised that a key element of securing a successful future was by investment in new technology.
Before installing the new Engis finishing cell we looked at the three main criteria; cycle time-increased productivity; capability-repeatability to required tolerances; and a strategic partner - technical support.
The latter of vital importance when producing 1000's of components a day.
We cannot afford down time and work extremely hard with "Key" suppliers of new equipment to ensure their solutions are totally robust and achieve expected levels of performance " There are a number of stages to produce the bore " stated Hutchinson.
We have the responsibility for the management of the supply chain, so the grey cast iron housings arrive to a known quality specification." The first operation is to machine the bore on either the Mazak Multiplex or Mazak Dualturn turning centres to a precise bore specification.
Following discussions with Engis, we are investing material removal rates to optimise machine performance, given that it is a different process to the original honing method " The pre-turned housings are then transferred to three Chiron machining centres where drilling, tapping and milling operations are carried out to drawing tolerances in one hit finishing the interface points for oil/water jackets, etc.
All machined tolerances are checked by manual gauging or CMM inspection within the set process control band.
The housings are then transferred to the finishing cell, where an automated elector-chemical (ECM) deburring process removes burrs from critical areas, such as oil feeder holes, as stated by Garrett.
From ECM, the components are manually loaded onto a track that feeds the robot loading Engis bore finishing system.
The finishing cell accommodates 1500 units per day, equating to a 60 Second cycle time although the cell has the capacity to produce greater quantities.
The Engis designed turn key bore finishing cell consists of a motorised conveyer, Fanuc pick and place robot, and an Engis four spindle bore finishing machine with integral Marposs bore gauging, comprising a multi-spindle head with plc programmable speeds and feeds and a mullet-station heavy duty indexing table.
At the heart of the bore finishing system is a range of Engis diamond and CBN bore finishing tools, designed to produce highly accurate, predictable and consistent bore geometry for zero reject rates.
Finished parts are typically achieving bore geometry tolerances of less than 1 micron.
"The beauty of the Engis Bore Finishing system is that we can put different sized components up with just an adaptation of tooling" added Hutchinson "whilst honing remains an integral part of the old generation T2 and T3 process, the performance achieved by the Engis system is far superior in our experience and application.
Honing is yesterdays technology".
A second Engis four spindle finishing system has recently been purchased to assist in some of the issues that E2A were having on the older honing technology.
Operational reliability of the current T2 and T3 honing operations are currently being discussed with Garrett.
In support, Engis are looking at quick change tooling to effect transfer of production between Engis machines to give E2A maximum flexibility to cover every eventuality.
"Investment in people, high quality / hi-tech equipment, and strategic partnerships to continually develop the process are essential to our growth.
The market for automotive turbochargers is expected to grow extensively in the future, and if we continue to demonstrate the high levels of reliability and capability of the Engis process, we would expect to secure additional business" concluded Mark Hutchinson.
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