SHOP SOLUTIONS s Problem Solving on the ShoP Floor · Toolmaker Produces Drills ... knew that their internal processes and ... Smiths Machine’s CNC platform be-cause it supports

April 2016 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 39

Shop Rode Automotive, Transitions to Aerospace

Smiths Machine (Cottondale, AL) is a second-generation

family-owned business that has transitioned from being a

highly successful supplier of automotive parts (See Manufactur-

ing Engineering, http://www.sme.org/smithsmachine2010) to

Read more, P40

Toolmaker Produces Drills with Additive Manufacturing

M APAL Inc. (Aalen, Germany; Port Huron, MI) is a manu-

facturer of precision tools for applications in metalwork-

ing, including precision drilling, reaming, milling, and turning

for the automotive, mechanical, tool and plant industries.

Read more, P46

Buys First CNC Lathe In 1983, Rest Is History

A xly Tool (Bad Axe, MI) is on a roll. In 1983, the company

purchased its first Okuma CNC lathe.

At the time, Al Rochefort ran an old Warner & Swasey

turret lathe for Axly Tool, a small contract machining company.

Read more, P90

sSHOP SOLUTIONSProblem Solving on the ShoP Floor

Smiths Machine has achieved consistency, quality, and precision

required for machining complex parts for the aerospace and

defense industry with DMG Mori machines with Siemens NX.

One of the many Okuma machining cells that Gemini Group

companies, CKS and Axly Tool, use to produce high-precision

contract machined parts.

MAPAL is using Concept Laser’s LaserCusing to additively manufacture

small diameter QTD insert drills with new cooling duct profiles.

40 AdvancedManufacturing.org | April 2016

becoming a go-to supplier for defense and aero-

space manufacturing. The change in direction for

the company was not without its challenges. “De-

fense and aerospace part manufacturing requires

a different business approach altogether,” said Tim

Smith, vice president. “It is specialized work that

requires special approvals, log-down processes,

and complicated procedures. The complexity is

challenging. And it all starts with a different way of

thinking, more of an engineering approach than a

production approach,” said Smith.

The company needed to build a new business

model and the operations to support it for the

defense and aerospace machining market which is

characterized by small lot counts, generally lower

margins, and a very low tolerance for errors. Scrap

rates thought to be nominal in the past would now

be out of the question. “You can’t make a $6000

part and have a 30% scrap rate or even a 10%

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SHOP SOLUTIONS

Cycle 800 function within Siemens NX supports the programming of

2 ½ axis and 3D milling throughout the rotation of all X, Y, Z planes

while maintaining a zero offset. All machining cycles can be used, and

functions include automatic shifting of zero offset, tool length, and radius

compensation in rotated planes and compensation of machining geometry.


scrap rate,” said Smith. “The emphasis is not on throughput,

but on the high-quality, highly precise manufacturing of very

complex parts.”

Based on those three inseparable machining require-

ments—quality, precision, and

complexity—Smiths Machine set out

to reach its greater potential in the

machine tool market, not as a produc-

tion machine shop, but as a company

focused on complex part manufac-

turing. Having achieved some early

success in this new direction, the way

forward for the company soon could

be summed up more simply: “The

more complex the part, the more com-

petitive we are,” said Smith.

To protect and grow this competitive

advantage, the company’s leadership

knew that their internal processes and

technology needed to match up with the

unique requirements of the defense and

aerospace industries. Major investments

in large, complex five-axis machines

would have to be enhanced by equally

complex control capabilities. Smith said

a decision made previously by the com-

pany came into play in the transition to

defense and aerospace machining.

Traditionally a milling and turning

company, Smiths Machine first teamed

up with DMG Mori and Siemens in

2000 to establish their singular machine

tool platform. This brought about a

synergistic approach to complex milling

and turning; an advantage that took on

greater significance when the company

decided to focus on the defense and

aerospace markets later in the decade.

“Siemens controls were available on

DMG Mori milling and turning ma-

chines and that was a natural fit for us,”

said Smith. The DMG Mori/Siemens

platform has enabled Smiths Machine

to establish and maintain a high level

of operational proficiency. The central

advantage here has been the ability to

invest, train and keep his people moving forward based on a

stable technology platform.

“The technology and the people using it are the backbone

of our organization,” said Smith. “Even with 25 machines,


we can share knowledge between the milling and the turn-

ing machines. The common control is a Siemens Sinumerik

840D sl. Our technology purchases are based on where we

want to be in 10 years, not on a workforce that is fractionally

trained and a platform that can rapidly deteriorate due to a

change in market or employment conditions.”

An example of this singular platform advantage is the

control’s similarity across milling and turning operations. “All

controls are customized to a certain extent,” said Smith. “But

unlike Siemens, many other control series are individually

customized so that the keyboard layout will be different from

machine to machine. The Sinumerik 840D sl CNC is consis-

tent. So when you train your operators, you can say, here’s the

job button, here’s the axes button, here’s your alarm button

and your offset button. And this level of consistency extends

to a graphical interface that really complements how we teach

and learn.”

Smiths employs a breadth of visual techniques to foster

education, efficient information sharing, and quality control.

“We are a very visual company,” Smith said. “We use a lot of

colors and we buy a lot of printer toner. Our parts inventory

uses color-coded tags and the same is true across our pro-

duction. We use yellows and blues and reds for consistent

instruction. And the Siemens 840D sl control uses the same

approach. You are guided visually for such things as axis

direction, approach point, final depth, and other variables

inside a cycle. And this is true from control to control for mill-

ing and turning.”

According to Smith, visually guided information flow is

characteristic of today’s complex range of next-generation

electronic communications, because this speeds under-

standing and information sharing. Whether for a smart phone

or a CNC, graphically guided interfaces enable rapid learning

and proficiency, a fact that has been well leveraged by the

Siemens 840D sl control interface design.

Gerhard Hetzler, engineering manager at Smiths Machine,

has experienced first-hand how the company’s singular plat-

form approach has brought continuity to such manufacturing

www.8020.net

SHOP SOLUTIONS


functions as postprocessors, machine simulation, NC code,

and control functionality.

While the Siemens 840D sl control has evolved in signifi-

cant ways over the years, Hetzler said these changes have

served only to accelerate the perfor-

mance of the programmers and opera-

tors, rather than impede them with new

and different procedures. The control

platform has also given Smiths the

freedom to create custom cycles that

can be copied and shared from control

to control and machine to machine.

“I’ll give you an example,” said

Hetzler. “To catch occasional entry er-

rors on the tool management side, we

created a cycle that checks the length of

the tool and within a specific tolerance.

So within a matter of milliseconds, the

control compares that value to what was

entered in the tool management side. If

the tolerance is exceeded by 2 mm, the

control immediately stops the machine.”

Another advantage resulting out of

the DMG Mori and Siemens relationship

is the continued simplification of com-

plex cutting operations, especially in the

area of angular milling heads. “Siemens

has come a very long way to improve

the cycles and support related to milling

heads,” Hetzler said. “Aerospace requires

a lot more use of angular milling. Even a

five-axis approach can’t do it. You need

an angular milling head. I would put this

on the top of my list of the advantages

DMG Mori and Siemens have developed.

And this relates to another important

development, Siemens NX.”

Siemens NX software integrates

CAD, CAE, and CAM for faster part

manufacturing, encompassing all

areas of tooling, machining, and quality

inspection. NX has become integral to

Smiths Machine’s CNC platform be-

cause it supports part planning through

manufacturing, with prevention of errors

and related costs.

“Our ability to develop all of our own postprocessors in

house is supported by Siemens NX,” Hetzler said. “We set

up our angular milling heads in NX, so we can post the G-

code before we even send it out to the machine.”

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SHOP SOLUTIONS


An early introduction to the power of NX came when the

company found that it needed to write code to produce an

especially challenging aerospace landing gear. The code took

six weeks to manually program. This was before the company

learned that it could do the same task in nine days using NX.

“Siemens knows five-axis machining and NX is a Siemens

product that leverages five-axis,” Hetzler said. “As an example,

we can do three-plus-two axis work in NX. There is a cycle for

that called Cycle 800. So when NX outputs the NC code, the

machine then also understands it. Other control brands will have

a cycle that can be made to work, but they are a lot more prob-

lematic. We are talking about managing the change of plane, a

concept that has been around for a long time and was always

problematic to do. Now Cycle 800 in NX does it all for you.”

Cycle 800 makes programming the change of plane easi-

er, faster, and with higher accuracy than traditionally calcu-

lated methods. “We would normally round off after the third

or fourth decimal,” said Hetzler. “Now the control calculates

to nine decimals. When you start talking microns, especially

in the aerospace industry, it makes a huge difference. And

this difference has been fully implemented by DMG Mori.

They have invested a lot of time and money to make sure

from their side that Siemens NX and Cycle 800 work 100%

of the time.”

For more information from Siemens Industry Inc., go to

www.siemens.com/cnc, or phone 847-640-1595.

Continued from P39

Toolmaker Produces Drills with Additive Manufacturing

MAPAL Inc. (Aalen, Germany; Port Huron, MI) is a manu-

facturer of precision tools for applications in metalwork-

ing, including precision drilling, reaming, milling, and turning

for the automotive, mechanical, tool, and plant engineering

industries. At EMO 2015, MAPAL exhibited its QTD cutting

insert drill that was produced by additive manufacturing for

8–12-mm diameters. Previously QTD insert drills smaller

than 13-mm diameter were not available because they were

difficult to produce with the required smaller coolant channels

through the tool. Central coolant supply weakened the core

of the drill and as the cooling channels get smaller, the flow

of coolant to the insert is reduced.

The QTD series insert drills are additively manufactured

from metal powder using the LaserCusing system from

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SHOP SOLUTIONS


Concept Laser Inc. (Grapevine, TX; Lichten-

fels, Germany). The hybrid manufactured

tools include a tool shank that is machined

conventionally and the drill that is laser melted

with additive methods. The approach makes

the manufacturing process significantly more

economical. According to Dr. Dirk Sellmer,

head of research and development at MA-

PAL, “Hybrid strategies are the ideal methods

of choice. Simple component parts are ma-

chined and more complex areas are then built

up additively.” Using laser melting the smaller

diameter QTD insert drills are able to be ad-

ditively manufactured with 100% increased

coolant flow rate, increased core stability due

to coolant channels running parallel to the

flute. Sizes come in 1.5×D, 3×D, 8×D, and

12×D lengths with inserts type 1-4 for steel,

stainless steel, cast iron, and aluminum.

“We manufacture the QTD insert drill on

the hull/core principle. First the core of an

insert drill is built with the cooling system,

which is added to the conventional shaft. In

a second additive run, the outer hull is built

up with higher densities, which is close to

the ideal for a good drill bit—hard outside

and soft inside,” said Sellmer.

The greatest advantage of transitioning

from a conventional manufacturing strategy

to additive manufacturing is that it facilitated

design of entirely new geometry, increasing

the performance of the tools. “The additively

manufactured insert drill has a cooling con-

cept with spiral ducts, which improves the

cooling performance. Compared with the

previous central coolant supply with the Y

diversion, a spiral coolant routing increases

the coolant flow by 100%,” said Sellmer.

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QTD insert drills feature new

slightly triangular cooling duct

profiles that increase flow rate

by 30% in tools that can’t be

produced conventionally.


“It also increases the core stability with coolant ducts which

run parallel to the flute. The cooling is also improved by the new

coolant duct profiles which deviate from the usual circular form

with a slightly triangular shape that optimizes the geometrical

moment of inertia and the flow rate. Tests found that choosing

a cross section of this type increases the flow quantity by 30%.

Coolant profiles like this can’t be produced conventionally, and

the coolant flows at a pressure of 1.6–3 bar.

The new coolant concept produces better cooled drills

that are available for longer drilling tasks and an expanded

range of smaller drill diameters. Stainless steel is used. Ac-

cording to Dr. Sellmer, the powder requirement is calculated

from the effective construction weight plus 10% and the

scrap material is easy to recycle. Internal tension in parts

which must be removed from rotating tools that are con-

ventionally manufactured is removed from the part internally

during the additive build process.

At MAPAL, two Concept Laser M1 cusing systems with

a central material supply container are used. The medium

performance range system has a build envelope of 250 ×

250 × 250 mm. The QTD insert drills are created as 10 ×

10 or 11 × 11 unit solutions in this build envelope, pro-

ducing 100 to 121 drills in one setup. The build rates of

the 400-W lasers are between 6 and 18 cm3/h. In order

to avoid contamination, the M1 cusing operates under a

nitrogen protection gas atmosphere. During processing, the

laser heats the powder material to 60–70° C for fusing. The

thermal expansion in the build process has to be taken into

consideration in the design. However, after initial successes

with series production, the demand for internal capacities is

also growing and has been extended with 24 hours, 7 days

a week untended production.

According to Matthias Schneider, an employee in the R&D

department, reasons for choosing Concept Laser’s Laser-

Cusing process include ease of handling, accessibility, and

user friendliness. The process is cited for its variable param-

eters that facilitate testing of new product designs. “Topol-

ogy options for LaserCusing stand out due to the stochastic

SHOP SOLUTIONS


control of the slice segments which are processed succes-

sively. This exposure strategy induces the lowest tension in

the component,” said Schneider.

Changes in design are also apparent in MAPAL’s new

weight-optimized, additively-produced

external reamers. The lighter the

external reamers are, the better they

work, something that is particularly

true for machining small-diameter

shafts. Conventionally manufactured

8.5-mm steel external reamers weigh

400 grams. This weight and the

resulting mass inertia severely restrict

the maximum step speeds. Addi-

tive manufacturing allows lightweight

external reamers to be built with

integrated balancing potential.

According to Dr. Sellmer: “The

mass distribution of the honeycomb

structure of the external reamers

functions like balancing wheels. We

call the internal cavities balancing

profiles. The balancing profiles en-

able us to achieve virtually perfect

concentricity of the rotating tools.

A rib structure, specially designed

for the applications, which has been

registered for a patent, reduces

the new 8.5-mm external reamer’s

weight to 172 grams, resulting in a

better performance for this rotating

component, faster machining, and

increased precision. The Concept

Laser’s LaserCusing process is being

used to additively manufacture direct

components, tool inserts, prototypes,

and low-volume products for the

jewelry, medical, dental, automo-

tive, and aerospace industries. The

system processes powder materials

made from stainless steel, hot work

tool steels, cobalt-chromium alloy,

nickel-based alloy and reactive pow-

der materials such as aluminum and

titanium, as well as precious metals

like gold and silver alloys.

For more information from Concept Laser Inc., go to

www.conceptlaserinc.com, or phone 817-328-6500: for

information from MAPAL Inc., go to www.mapal.com, or

phone 810-364-8020. Continued on P90


Buys First CNC Lathe In 1983, Rest Is History

A xly Tool (Bad Axe, MI) is on a roll. In 1983, the company

purchased its first Okuma CNC lathe.

At the time, Al Rochefort ran an old Warner & Swasey tur-

ret lathe for Axly Tool, a small contract machining company

with 15 employees. Management recognized the simple fact

that if Axly Tool wanted to improve machining accuracy, in-

crease production, and be able to quote on closer tolerance

jobs, it would have to get into CNC machining.

Turret lathe operator Rochefort was told that it was his job

to find the best machine for them.

“I was at a loss,” Rochefort recalled. “I had never pur-

chased any machine tool. I was a lathe operator. I thought

about it overnight and the next day I went to work and

found three machine tool trade publications at the plant and

went through them that night, page-by-page, looking at the

articles and the advertisements. I decided to call three major

machine tool companies to have a representative call on me

and talk about our needs.”

Of the three companies, Okuma was the only company

that showed up. Fast forward to today: 111 machines

later Axly Tool is still buying Okuma and has just installed

the latest, a CNC ID grinder, for its Briney Toolholder divi-

sion. “I remember we were doing about $20,000 month

in sales and the new machine cost $123,000. My boss

told me if I couldn’t make it run and take advantage of the

accuracy and productivity, I was personally going to own

it!” said Rochefort.

“Needless to say, we’re a much bigger company today,

and Okuma has been a big part of our success. We’re now

part of the Gemini Group and a leading contract machining

company, the second largest extrusion die manufacturer in

the world and a plastic injection molder,” said Rochefort. “We

operate Briney Tooling Systems, one of the only toolholder

companies that continue to produce 100% of their toolhold-

ers here in North America.”

Rochefort is now the technical director for the Gemini

Group, a far cry from being a turret lathe operator back in

1983.

John Bernardi from Gosiger, the Dayton, OH, machine

tool distributor for Okuma and the one who has sold

Gemini every one of their Okuma’s said: “It has been

awe-inspiring to watch this company grow. The loyalty

between customer and supplier has worked both ways.

But Gemini’s ability to see the big picture and make timely

investments to take advantage of advanced machining

technology to improve machining accuracy and productiv-

ity is the real key.

“When I sold the first LC-30 CNC lathe to them in

1983, it eliminated six Warner & Swasey turret lathes. They

immediately purchased a second LB-15 in 1984. In 1987

Gemini purchased the first four of five LB-25 CNC lathes

that came to America. As the type and level of machin-

ing work has evolved, Gemini added more lathes, more

machining centers, milling machines and OD and ID grind-

ers both single and multi-spindle machines, even double

column ones. LB-15s, LB-25s, LC-30s and 40s, GI-20s,”

said Bernardi.

“When you walk through our plants you can see the

evolution of the Okuma machines, too…mostly from the

changes in their logos,” said Rochefort. “We know the

Okuma’s are a lot of machine, sometimes with 100 options

SHOP SOLUTIONSContinued from P49


or more, when we’re actually only using 10, but it gives us

future options too. If you can believe it, we still have one of

the original LB-15 lathes. It’s been refurbished a couple of

times, but it’s still making toolholder components.

“Gosiger, our machine tool distributor, has a close

relationship with an exclusive Okuma rebuilder so that has

always been an option for us. We’ve always found that the

Okuma’s are very durable machines, easy to get 20 years of

service out of them and some of them 30 years.”

Axly Tool also takes advantage of Gosiger’s training

programs. “Gosiger has a great facility in Farmington Hills,

MI, where they have a full complement of Okuma machines.

Because we have Okuma machines scattered throughout all

our plants, our service people are interchangeable both for

mechanical and controls issues which simplifies our service

needs,” said Rochefort.

“It has been a wonderful relationship for over 32 years

now,” Rochefort said. “I’m confident it will carry on long

after John Bernardi and I are finally retired. But we can both

feel satisfied that we did our best to bring the right machin-

ing technology at the right time to meet the company’s

needs, and that appears to have already been proven over

and over again.”

For more information from Okuma America Corp, go to

www.okuma.com, or phone 704-588-7000; for information

from Gosiger, go to www.gosiger.com, or phone 877-288-

1538; for information from Axly Tool Gemini Group Metals

Segment, go to geminigroup.net, or phone 989-269-9558.

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SHOP SOLUTIONS s Problem Solving on the ShoP Floor · Toolmaker Produces Drills ... knew that their internal processes and ... Smiths Machine’s CNC platform be-cause it supports