Automation

Where Is Your Wiggle Room?

"Lights out" doesn’t require an intense commitment. This job shop achieves flexible unattended machining when it needs it using palletized HMCs.

Conveyors For Virtually Any Application

Double-Sided Productivity

Having a bar feeder on one side and a parts carrousel on the other side ensures that a turn-mill machine will achieve maximum productivity, whether the workpieces are mostly milled or mostly turned. In general, smaller parts are machined from bar stock, even if only milling operations are involved. Larger parts are loaded an unloaded by a transfer device fed by the carrousel.

Bar Feeds For Fast Spindle Speeds

Robot Unloader For CNC Machines

ABB Robotics Teams Up with Okuma, Becomes a Partner in THINC

ABB Robotics, a leading supplier of industrial robots, has joined Partners in THINC, creating a strategic alliance with Okuma, a world leader in the development and production of machine tools. Okuma is unique in the world of machine tools in that the company also develops and manufactures the control, drives a

Compact, Maintenance-Free Conveyors

InnerDrive belt conveyors from QC Industries feature a 24vdc motor placed inside a low-profile conveyor frame to save space.

Multitasking Turning Center With Programmable Tailstock

Oil Drill Coupling Production Gets Automated

Sponsored by Okuma. A manufacturing cell combines lathes, gantry robot and conveyor system to enable automated production of oil drill couplings.

Cells To The Max

Brad Hart, president of Roberts Tool Company, in Chatsworth, California, believes that automated cells are the key to survival for companies likes his that machine complex, high-precision parts for aerospace and defense. Cellular manufacturing makes it possible to reduce lead times dramatically and minimize labor input while increasing throughput and improving quality, he says. In his shop, a cell consisting of two Toyoda HMCs and a dozen pallet stations epitomizes the lean manufacturing concepts that Mr. Hart finds so compelling. However, he says that shop owners have to get out of the business of making parts and into the business of building processes--processes such as those embodied in a lean manufacturing cell.