Mazak Hybrid Multitasking

MIKE FINN: Hello and welcome to the Mazak Hybrid Multitasking session. I'm Mike Finn, Mazak's senior applications engineer. And I'm joined by--

JOE WILKER: Joe Wilker, Mazak's advanced multitasking manager.

MIKE FINN: First off, we'd like to thank all of you for your time and attention. We have a lot to cover during this session, so let's get started. This session will cover a quick review of multitasking, followed by hybrid multitasking. We're going to list and define hybrid multitasking processes, hybrid machine tool configuration, and finally we're going to see hybrid multitasking processing in action.

So what is multitasking? Multitasking is a well established technology with over 30 years servicing a wide range of industry applications. It's a consolidation of multiple part processing, such as turning, threading, milling, drilling, and tapping operations all on a single machine platform.

So why do we multitask? To reduce part handling, less human error, and reduces fixturing in bended tooling. It also reduces work in process, increasing part accuracy by machining multiple part features all within the same workload.

In the previous Autodesk University industry talk, Mazak covered levels one through four of multitasking. Today we're covering level five, hybrid multitasking. Hybrid multitask combines subtractive machining processes with advanced technologies to perform new tasks, like additive processing, joining materials, as well as done in one gear and cutting solutions. Today's industry talk will dive into these three advanced technologies, friction stir welding, additive manufacturing, and gear machining. Now I'm going to turn it over to Joe.

JOE WILKER: Thanks Mike. Let's first talk about what is friction stir welding. Friction stir welding, or FSW, is a solid state joining process, also commonly known as a forging process that uses a non consumable tool to join two plates without melting the work piece material.

Heat is generated by friction between the rotating tool and the work piece material, which leads to a softened region around the FSW tool. While the tool is transversed along the joint line, it mechanically intermixes the two work pieces of material, and forges the hot and softened metals by mechanical thrust. FSW process creates a refined grain structure throughout the weld joint, making the material stronger while retaining its original thermal and chemical properties.

So what's great about friction stir welding? Well the appearance is seamless after machining, for cosmetic purposes, and also high strength welds for cooling and heating retractions of applications. It's a lower setup cost, and easy to train operators for self-guided software. The friction stir welding tool can operate in all positions and orientations. The FSW joints have the same joint strength as the base material without expensive machine modifications.

This process utilizes a standard CNC machine. Join dissimilar alloys can be achieved, like copper, steel, nickel, and aluminum, to name a few. Friction stir welding is also a green joining alternative that produces no fumes, no flames, no flash, no waste, no additive filler materials required. Here are a few FSW applications, computer components, like high level hard drives, battery cooling jackets, automotive components, like superchargers, aerospace components, oil and gas related components in marine applications.

So what's all involved in a hybrid friction stir welding machine? In this slide we can see the standard vertical CNC machine with additional components to enable friction stir welding process. The machine tool is capable of all the standard machining center processes.

And some machining models are equipped with center partitions for machining components on the left, and friction stir welding on the right, for maximum throughput. The intelligent tool holder in perishable tools enables the friction stir welding process. Like any cutting tool, the FSW tool is tool changeable for seamless operations.

The friction stir welding tool can perform three times faster than current industry standards. Why is this? With Mazak magister patent diamond tool tips, tools can be used in production applications for 500 kilometers and more, before replacement is required. This is 150 times the performance improvements over current industry standards. The patent tool holder is balanced for joining parts up to 10,000 RPMS, which translates to faster production rates.

The PCD type tooling now available provides extremely high tool life and high speed applications. Mazak's HMI help screens walk the operator through simple programming for plunging transfers and extracting processes of the FSW tool. With Bluetooth technology, Mazak's smooth CNC control allows for a closed loop process and monitoring of the FSW tool, while constantly controlling the target thrust and temperature of the application at hand. The closed loop software records and charts the data weld collections and traceability for future needs.

Let's look at a typical friction stir welding process. Here we see a typical friction stir welding process, the left showing the work piece being machined using conventional milling processes. The right side of the machine components, machines the components, are assembled onto a machine fixture followed by an FSW process sealing a vacuum chamber for a high performance turbocharger.

These friction stir welding machines are targeted towards the semiconductor industry for chamber component processing. However there are many other applications. For instance, it is also well suitable for flat plate joining, cooling channels, heat exchangers, vacuum chambers, cylindrical components, and even part of irregular thicknesses.

Here in this short video, we are machining components for a bicycle crank arm assembly. Mazak is the only provider of this friction stir welding solution that can be supplied from the factory fully integrated on a machine tool platform. The FSW package can also be field-retrofitable to some legacy machines. Both components are machine complete, then assembled for the friction stir welding process.

The FSW tool is rotating at 2,000 RPMS, where enough heat is generated to soften the material without melting the material. These parts consist of 7075 aluminum base material to 4040C stainless steel. This solid state process allows for bi-metal joining. Back to you, Mike.

MIKE FINN: Thank you, Joe. Now let's discuss additive manufacturing. The Mazak Hybrid Multitasking machine tool combines machine-centered capabilities with additive manufacturing.

There are two additive manufacturing processes used on hybrid machine tools, laser metal deposition and hot wire deposition. Both processes build geometry layer by layer, using either powder or wire material. The build geometry is strategically arranged to minimize material usage, optimizing component strength, and reduce machining time.

Let's look at some typical additive manufacturing parts. Component repair. High dollar, high value components are great candidates for additive manufacturing on a hybrid machine tool. Parts can be repaired, put back into service at a far less cost than producing a new component.

Cladding of dissimilar materials. Adding a more wear resistant material to less costly material, can lead to less overall material costs and machining costs. Some examples are manifolds, sealing surfaces, and valve bodies, wear pads on rotating and sliding components, cutting blades in roll dies, and die repair. This is an industry first, making parts from multiple materials in a single set up.

Rapid prototype. Rather than machining from solid blanks or costly castings, component features can be built using additive manufacturing, machined complete to quickly test component design performance. So what skill sets are required and tools required for additive manufacturing? CAD/CAM systems must possess both additive capability and subtractive, or machining capability. There are several of these CAD/CAM systems with this capability on the market today.

Process planning requires creativity. The engineer may need to create a build model to ensure enough material is deposited in the appropriate areas, and to design bead track patterns to ensure no voids. The understanding of 5-axis. Often the additive head needs to be tilted to deposit the material in the desired location. And the understanding of process parameters, which control the bead quality.

There are two additive manufacturing processes available on the hybrid machine tool. Here you can see the differences between the two. On the left, we see laser metal deposition using metal powder material. On the right, you see hot wire deposition using wire material.

Now let's discuss laser metal deposition. Here we see a graphical description of the laser metal deposition process. In this process, the metal powder is delivered by a carrier gas, and discharged from the nozzle, and melted by the fiber laser in the melt pool.

The fiber laser travels along the part surface, creating bead tracks. The nozzle gas prevents contamination of the optical components, while the shielding gas prevents deposited material from oxidation. The 5-axis position and contouring capability allows the nozzle to precisely add material to the desired location, as shown.

The hybrid laser metal deposition machine can interleave additive and machining processes to produce geometry otherwise impossible to manufacture. Here are some benefits of laser metal deposition. Similar materials can be machined in one part, low heat and low distortion, thin bead tracks for small geometry, and up to 75% of material utilization.

Now let's look at the components of a hybrid multitasking machine tool. Here we see the additional components added to the machine to enable the laser metal deposition. Starting from the top left, we have the machine tool. The fiber laser melts the powder material. The chiller unit maintains a safe operating temperature within the additive manufacturing system.

The powder feeder regulates the powder material during the additive manufacturing process. The carrier nozzle and shielding gases are supplied by external tanks. The dust collector extracts the fumes from the machining process. The additive head is positioned by the CNC program. And finally, the metal powder, which is a consumable product.

Now let's look at the laser metal deposition process flow. Here we see a typical repair operation. On the left, we see the deposited material on the damaged surfaces. The deposited material is overbuilt to a thickness to ensure 100% cleanup for repair machining.

On the right, we see the completed machining operation. Upon the completion of the additive process, the additive head is retracted, the milling cutter is loaded into the mill spindle, and to machine repaired features complete.

Here we see the laser metal deposition process in action on a Mazak VC-500 machine tool. The part is tilted to allow the nozzle to add material into the interior corners of the damaged diameters and flanges. Bead tracks are made around the diameters and shoulders as the machine table rotates. The parameters which control bead quality are laser power, metal power delivery rate, gas flow rate, and bead track stepover. Now I'd like to turn it over back to Joe.

JOE WILKER: Thanks, Mike. Let's discuss hot wire deposition, and how this process can speed up your additive solution. Here we see a graphical description of a hot wire process.

The fiber laser emits from the additive head, creates a melt pole where preheated wire is delivered to the melt pool. Like powder deposition, the additive hot wire head travels along the part surface, creating a layer by layer geometry. The shielding gas prevents the depositing material from oxidation. The parameters which control the bead quality are laser power, gas flow, pre-heat wire power, wire delivery rate, bead stepover, and additive feed rate.

The benefits of hot wire are the freedom to build 3D shape geometries on the fly, and surface reforming, quickly and cost effectively. Wire is easily available off the shelf and is a lower cost than powder. Up to 98% of the wire material is utilized in the build process by joining dissimilar materials within one part, often improves overall part quality and life expectancy of the part.

High deposition rates of three to six pounds an hour offers fast time to market, hours versus weeks. A wide variety of materials, including ferrous and some nonferrous, can be performed. Hybrid multitasking allows users to offer more capabilities to their customers without the need of a third party vendor. The hybrid machines offer you the flexibility of all five levels of hybrid multitasking, and the ability to quickly change from one level to another.

Let's look at the key components of a hot wire deposition machine, and how it is different from a powder machine. Here we can see the major components that make up a hot wire machine. From the top left, we start with a standard 5 axis machine tool.

In this example, a vertical 5 axis trunnian table design. The fiber laser is the heat source that melts the wire material. The chiller units maintain a safe operating temperature within the AM process. The Lincoln power source preheats the wire close to melting point, prior to the deposition zone.

The shielded gas are supplied to protect the deposition zone from oxidation, and the dust collector extracts fumes from the machining envelope. The omnidirectional additive head is key to delivering heat, gas, and wire into the deposit zone, directed by the CNC controller. And finally the wire material, which is a consumable product.

Next let's look at a hot wire deposition process flow. In this example of a hexagon shape, where a building completely used hot wire process, the additive processes are easy to program using a variety of CAD/CAM systems available today. This hexagon shape can be built 10 times faster than a powdered deposition process.

Upon completion of the additive process, the additive head is retracted, the milling cutters is loaded into the spindle to perform machining processes to print tolerances. Here we see a hot wire process in action on a VTC 500. The additive head deposits multiple beads side by side, creating a wall thickness as the material layer creates the build height.

The deposit material is overbuilt to a thickness to ensure 100% clean up after machining. Overall these hot wire systems are excellent in building rough near net shapes and coatings of large surface areas quickly, with overall system and material cost savings. Now I'd like to turn the mic over to Mike.

MIKE FINN: Thank you, Joe. Next let's talk about gear machining. The Mazak Hybrid Multitasking machine tool combines machining center and turning center capabilities with gear manufacturing. Your manufacturing on a hybrid multitasking machine is made possible by using three different methods. Each process uses a different method and a different tool to create the gear tooth form.

Let's look at these processes. There are three machining processes on a hybrid machine tool, power skiving, hobbing, and gear milling. Power skiving offers higher productivity for OD and ID gears and splines.

Hobbing offers median productivity on OD gears and splines. And finally, gear milling offers high flexibility of OD gears. Both hobbing and power skiving processes use cutters specifically designed for the gear tooth geometry, whereas the milling process uses common cutters.

Here are a few gear machining parts. OD spur, and helical and double helical gears with APEX grooves, ID spurs and helical gears, and straight and spiral bevel gears requiring a tooth model and a CAD/CAM system to produce the machining program. Both power skiving and the hobbing processes require accurate tool spindle, and part spindle, synchronization at high RPMS to deliver the proper cutting velocity and to ensure gear tooth quality.

Now let's look at the components of a hybrid gear cutting machine. Here are the additional components added to the machine tool to enable gear cutting. The onboard gear programming software, or HMI, enables the user to create a gear machining program right on the machine control.

The user simply enters the data into the HMI screen, such as tooling information, gear geometry, and cutting strategy. The software simply creates the reliable cutter path and scanning path for gear inspection. The direct-drive milling and part spindles with scale feedback deliver the accurate spindle synchronization.

Now let's look at the gear machining process. Here is a typical process flow for gear machining on the hybrid multitasking machine tool. The gear diameters are turned, bolt patterns are drilled and tapped, followed by the gear machining process. All the machining is done on the same machine, on the same setup. The benefit of combining turning and gear machining operations on a single machine is to maintain the relationship between the gear teeth and the datum features.

Here we see a gear skiving process in action on a Mazak i-630 AG machine. The machine is cutting an ID spur gear. Notice how the cutter and the work piece mesh together like a pinion gear in a ring gear.

Also notice the tool is tilted. The cutting velocity is directly related to the tool rotation speed and the tool tilt. With multiple cutting passes increasing in depth, all gear teeth are generated.

Here we see a gear milling process in action on a Mazak i-630 AG machine. The machine is cutting an OD helical gear. This is a surface milling technique. However no gear tooth model is needed, as the internal gear software calculates the tool path based upon the user defined gear geometry.

This process uses standard milling cutters, such as end mills and ball mills, to create the gear tooth complete. Unlike hobbing and power skiving tools, the gear milling cuts each tooth individually.

Here we see gear inspection process in action on the Mazak i-630 AG machine. The Renishaw scanning probe is tool changed into the milling spindle, and the milling head is positioned to allow the stylus to travel along the length of the gear tooth. First we scan the left flank lead, reposition, now we're going to scan the right flank lead.

Now we're going to reposition. Now we're going to scan the left flank profile.

Reposition again, and now we're going to scan the right flank profile. Upon completion of the inspection process, the profile and lead chart is displayed on the machine control, as shown in the right hand side. This chart can be exported for traceability.

In conclusion, Mazak's hybrid multitasking models are being used across a wide variety of industries, offering done in one productivity from additive to subtractive. In particular, we see a huge opportunity in repair and long lead time replacement component applications. Hybrid machines also offer manufacturers more solutions to be competitive in today's market.

Combining processes combines the manufacturing cycle, resulting in fewer work holdings, reduced part handling, and ultimately delivering goods to your customers faster than previous methods. This concludes Mazak's Hybrid Multitasking session. Again thank you for your time and attention.