Last week I was at the International Manufacturing Technology Show in
Chicago. This is the bi-annual show primarily focused on
metal-working and related shows, that fills up the entire McCormick
center (all 200,000 square meters of it).
Some interesting notes:
(1) I saw only one major booth that was not running their machines in
metric. I would guess 80% to 85% of all the booths that involved
measurement were selling/running/displaying metric products. The few
that were not were (with that one exception) small companies.
(2) The accuracy of even entry-level machining centers (fancy name
for 3-axis computerized mills) just astounds me. I have a brochure
for a Fanuc (very large Japanese manufacturer) RoboDrill Mate,
costing $38.500, with a table capacity of 250 kg, a 14-station tool
changer that can swap tools in 2.7 seconds, with an accuracy of 10
micrometers (!) and repeatability of 2 micrometers!!! Even the
smallest machine shops can lease a piece of equipment in this price range.
(3) The larger, more expensive machines claim accuracies of 5 um and
repeatability below 2 um. I don't know about the rest of the USMA
list members, but I remain astounded at these numbers.
(4) I spoke at length with a representative at a lead screw
manufacturer. Their demo was running a 1 m screw, pushing a 500 kg
block of iron back and forth, accelerating it and decelerating it
from one end to the other in about 0.8 seconds. They claimed a
positioning accuracy of about 20 um. I asked him how they can claim
that, as a minor change in temperature would make the screw expand
and contract by far more than that.
He agreed, and said they machine the screws to about 5 um accuracy,
in a temperature-controlled environment, controlled to +/-0.5C. He
says they let the completed screws temperature acclimate for 12 hours
before they make the final quality control check. Of course, in a
non-temperature controlled environment (i.e., the trade show), he
noted you could not achieve that accuracy without compensation.
(5) At a metrology booth I talked to a field engineer about their 3D
measuring device, on which they claim 1 - 2 um accuracy in 3D
envelope of about 500x500x500 mm. The tip of the device that touches
the item being measured is a precision round sapphire (perhaps 3 mm
diameter). He showed me video clip showing how they compensate for
the sapphire being flattened (!) where it touches the item being measured.
(6) Anyone who has an old Bridgeport-style knee mill (numerous
brands): if the "iron" is in good shape (meaning the major large cast
iron components), I talked to a company who will retrofit it with new
screws, ways, etc., and add 2-axis or 3-axis servo computerized
controls. I apparently lost this brochure, but I believe the guy said
that with "good iron" they can achieve accuracies below 10 um.
(7) I picked up six different sample rulers. All had metric (3 in
millimeters and 3 in centimeters), but only one had metric as its
primary scale. Sadly, their ruler says "mm" but the numbered scale is
actually centimeters (I've sent them an email pointing this out).
Finally, I distributed about 30 of QSI's metric only rulers.
(8) As always, this show has several huge, multi-million dollar
pieces of equipment: gantry mills that can handle 20 m long items,
punch presses putting holes in 20 mm thick steel like it is butter,
and so on. This year there ware a large number of robots -- they are
becoming quite common and quite versatile.
(9) Finally, water jet cutting seems to be overtaking laser cutting,
at least in volume of vendors and products. No doubt lasers will
always have some areas they excel (and, actually, there were probably
20 booths selling laser marking equipment), but for cutting, water
jets seem to be much more popular. One company had samples of 150 mm
thick steel that was cut with a water jet!
On a personal note, I found lots of companies that OUGHT to be using
my company's products (the real purpose of the trip). Ironically, the
two places I saw our products in use were both one of our oldest
models (introduced in 1991). Guess my sales team has some work to do.
Jim
Jim Elwell, CAMS
Electrical Engineer
Industrial manufacturing manager
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
www.qsicorp.com
