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www.ADandP.media AD&P; ∕ APRIL 2017 MACHINING Machining center productivity is at the heart of economic growth. Without a doubt, connectivity across the shop floor (MTConnect), to and from mobile devices (Industry 4.0), and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is affecting how manu- facturing gets done and requires increasing digital savvy from those doing it. As smart as machines are getting, at the end of the day the goal remains meeting delivery dates (machine and process throughput) and customer satisfaction (final part accuracies and finishes) that separate the quick from the dead. Machine tool builders continue to unveil and integrate a number of interesting motion-control components in both the hardware and software realms that take critical machine tool properties such as spindle speeds, axis travel and tool life and make them faster, more accurateand more effective. Makino ( makino.com ) recently announced new advances in its Inertia Active Control (IAC) to continue cutting non-pro- ductive time on its equipment. Originally introduced in 2012, the foundation of IAC is in Makino's direct-drive rotary table design. Sensors take inertia feedback from the B-axis motor and continually provide data to the control system. Acceleration and deceleration rates for rotary tables are typi- cally set at maximum inertia and weight for accuracy reasons. Makino machining centers can use IAC to adjust rotary table acceleration and deceleration to optimize speeds for specific pallet loads. Now IAC technology is able to improve acceleration and deceleration rates along the Z-axis—the most frequently moved axis during cutting, the company says. IAC has also been added to the rotation of the ring-type tool magazine. Each time tools are loaded into the magazine, IAC sensors quickly evaluate total ring weight and adjust motor acceleration to match the total load for reducing the time the tool magazine seeks tools. These may be percentage-point productivity increases, but they add up to advantages. SPEED OF SOUND DMG Mori ( us.dmgmori.com ) is touting ultrasonic generators and actuators on its aptly named ULTRASONIC second-gener- ation line of machining centers as efficiency improves. Tool holders with adapted actuators are changed into the milling spindle simply and automatically. Each of these holders contains piezoelectric elements, (materials that can produce electricity when pressurized and also produce and detect sound) that are activated by a program-controlled inductive system with a high frequency of between 20 and 50 kHz. The ultrasonic tool holders superimpose actual tool rotation with an additional tool movement in the longitudinal direction so that a defined amplitude of up to more than 10 μ is generated on the cutting edge of the tool. During drilling, milling or grinding, this ultrasonic superimposition of vibrations has a direct, positive impact on process forces, metal-removal perfor- mance, and tool life. The payoff, the company says, is a higher metal-removal rate, along with more accurate edge machining and up to 40 percent reduced process forces. Deflections are minimized while workpiece accuracy and process reliability are increased. In addition, this oscillating contact interruption works to better lubricate and cool the cutting edge as well as optimize particle removal from the active zone. Interestingly, the ultrasonics also make chips break shorter, reducing tool wear and enabling longer tool service life as well as excellent surface qualities of up to Ra < 0.1 μ for hard-brittle high-performance materials such as glass, ceramics, corundum and other difficult-to-ma- chine materials such as nickel-based alloys or carbon-fiber composites. Subsequently, DMG Mori produced the ULTRASONIC 20 linear 2nd Generation machine, combining high-speed cutting and highly efficient grinding of conventional and advanced materials on one machine. Productivity gain is always positive, but often involves a tradeoff. DMG Mori's new ULTRASONIC linear 2nd Generation multitasker. 25