colleagues worked to convince
company head Dr. Masahiko Mori
that it would be a good idea to
set up a research facility in Davis.
Clearly, one good idea led to
another, and there are more than
80 researchers in the DTL today.
But there must be something to
the infuence of the ecology and
the environment in the area,
because Hansel says that they
are keenly aware of sustainability
in both how they make things at
the plant and how the machines
they build can help contribute to
the sustainability of those who
use them.
At a base line, Hansel points out
that the MORI part of the company
is headquartered in Japan (the
DMG is European, with its roots in
Gildemeister Aktiengesellschaft;
the companies have been partners
since 2009), and "Japanese culture
is not wasteful." So there is a
cultural basis of the importance
of sustainability. What's more,
he points out that after the 2011
TÅhoku earthquake in Japan, there
was a mandatory 25% energy
reduction across the country, which
resulted in a rethinking of energy
use across DMG MORI as a whole,
even in its California facilities.
Hansel says that there tends to
be two sides of the sustainability
debate, with one side being as
green as the other is skeptical.
But he sees a coming together of
the two in the arena of manu-
facturing for the simple reason
that "being more productive,
making more parts per unit of
time, is a huge improvement for
sustainability practices, and it
also means more money in the
pockets of even those who don't
care about sustainability."
That's right: more productive
machines are more sustainable.
He explains that generally, the "vast
majority" of power use is not in
the actual machining of metal but
AD&P; > July 2014 > FEATURE > How to Make Machine Tools More Sustainable > Gary S. Vasilash
30
0714ADP FEATURE Machining Tools -- Digital Version.indd 30 6/17/2014 1:10:17 PM