Ceratizit Machining Inserts Improve Productivity

Ceratizit has revealed how its machining inserts and cutting tools are being put to use in the renewable energy sector. The company said it is working with many wind-turbine manufacturers and delivering improvements in productivity through the performance of its range of cutting tools. For example, a manufacturer of drive shafts for wind turbines, which are manufactured from steel forgings with high chrome and nickel contents, has seen cycle times reduce by 20 per cent and tool life increase by 15 per cent.

Ceratizit said these figures have been achieved through a combination of its experience and the development of carbide grades such as CTC1125, which have the properties required to satisfy these arduous applications. Using an SNMM 250724 square insert, this particular customer was able to run at 55m.min surface speed (up from 45m/min) at a feed rate of up to 1.5mm/rev and depth of cut to 18mm.

In another application, the customer was experiencing poor swarf control when machining large flanges for use in wind turbines. By switching to Ceratizit's CTC1135 grade and a CNMG 190624 insert with its RWX chipbreaker, the swarf problem has been overcome and tool life has doubled. In addition to turning, Ceratizit has a range of milling cutters that are proving productive when machining some of the larger components found in wind turbines. A recent example is the manufacture of yaw plates from flame-cut St52-3 tool steel.

These parts are produced in relatively large volumes (>10,000 per year) by the customer, which was reporting poor tool life from the existing milling cutter. After reviewing the application Ceratizit proposed its close-pitched A251 series milling cutter along with the free-cutting M31 geometry on some CTC5235 grade inserts. The result was an increase in tool life of 50 per cent and an overall improvement in productivity of 33 per cent.

Ansys Software Helps Ferrari Improve Comfort

Italian car manufacturer Ferrari is using software from Ansys to optimise automobile design and performance. Ferrari is using software from Ansys to predict thermal comfort in a vehicle's interior. In order to assess comfort qualitatively and quantitatively, the car manufacturer worked with Pisa University in Italy to define thermal comfort indices and to evaluate the general aspects of thermal comfort.

Since an experimental approach was not practical, the investigating engineering team used fluid dynamics software from Ansys to perform the calculations. According to Giovanni Lombardi, professor of aeroplane aerodynamics and vehicle aerodynamics at Pisa University, the Ansys engineering simulation software rendered accurate and reliable results.

The research team based its resulting 'global thermal comfort index' on several local indices: the thermal equilibrium of the human body, discomfort caused by drafts and horizontal and vertical temperature gradients. Various factors were studied, including the car's velocity and materials (leather, glass and aluminium) as well as sensitivity to warming or cooling on various body sites (leg, arm and face, covered with clothing or not), solar irradiance, vehicle interior size and air flow.

'The advantage of simulation-driven product development is that no complex physical models or testing configurations are required and the design can be tested, optimised and, if necessary, modified virtually at an early stage in the development process,' said Jim Cashman, president and chief executive of Ansys.

Install, Connect – Done! "Solutionising": Complete Solutions Improve Efficiency

Individually designed, complete packages of solutions comprising products, services and tested, ready-installed subsystems (modules) – with its "solutionising" concept, Lenze is helping to create more efficient processes for its customers. As a result, it is also reducing the costs of plant and machinery throughout the value-added chain. Lenze's "solutionising" idea is one of the three columns that it uses, in its capacity as a trusted partner specialising in drive and automation technology, to make a positive contribution to improving its customers' competitiveness.

The other columns are skilled drive optimisation, or "optimising", and a scalable product portfolio that means all tasks, whether simple or demanding, can be solved perfectly and that costs can be optimised by applying the "rightsizing" principle. Ready-installed, tested subsystems simplify logistics, data maintenance and resource management and provide effective support when implementing systems and complex machinery concepts. This frees up capacity for strategically important tasks.

Electronic modules combine frequency inverters, small control systems, contactors, relays, control software and the required wiring, for example, to give a control cabinet solution that is ready to be connected - and of course they come with the necessary certifications such as CE, UL or cUL. The specialist in drive and automation technology also offers appropriate customised, tested system cables to run from the control cabinet all the way to the drive axis.

As for electromechanics, Lenze Group's Geared Motors are efficiently combined at the factory with spring-applied brakes, manual releases, customer-specific mechanisms, flanges or sprockets, for example. As all the components are already fully wired in the terminal box, these solutions can be connected to a frequency inverter straightaway.

Example applications from the field include drives used in revolving doors and paternoster lifts, as well as control cabinets used to control actuating drives in solar engineering. "With our "solutionising" concept we are making a valuable contribution to the value-added chains of our customers," says Thomas Jaufmann, Head of Lenze Component Manufacturing at Waiblingen.