Midwest Machining Company Implements Real-Time Process
Control
High Tech's Micronite
Gormac Products, located in
Racine, Wisconsin, is a typical job shop with a mix of short
run and high-volume jobs. Gormac operates more than 90 machines--including
Swiss CNC lathes, Swiss automatics, centerless grinders,
multiple-spindle diamond bore finishing equipment and machining
centers--and manufactures high-precision turned parts for
automotive, aerospace, fluid power, medical and other applications.
Due to competitive demand for zero-defect product quality
and improved productivity, Gormac began a search for a computerized
process control system suitable for a diversified job shop.
Gormac selected the Micronite system, developed and marketed
by High Tech Research Inc. in Deerfield, Illinois. Micronite's
system provides protection against ordinary errors in tool
adjustments and changes, and helps uncover and eliminate
assignable causes of variation.
At Gormac, attaining top performance of precision turning
operation for a complex close tolerance job requires unique
control designs. The Micronite system, based on iPACT--intelligent
process adaptive control technology--allows flexible product
quality planning for each job, operation and characteristic,
and adheres to three key rules for real-time process control:
The real-time machining model should recognize nonlinear,
multistep mechanisms of tool wear. It should be able to
predict the onset of excessive tool wear, probability of
tool breakdown, edge build-up and tearing.
A makeover of every machining operation should be recognized
by tool-grouped processes or a group of associated characteristics.
If a finishing tool is cutting multiple characteristics,
Micronite decisions are based on relative location, variation
and tool wear rates of dependent characteristics. The system
enforces inspection discipline by demanding inspection of
all dependent characteristics after tool changes.
Micronite math models and expert rules generate separate
messages for adjustments, compensations and tool changes.
This enables users to avoid errors caused by adjustments
or offsets that cannot bring all related characteristics
under control.
The iPACT strategy is designed to control process quality
by predictive modeling and arranging groups of software
processing elements customized for individual characteristics,
tools, operations, jobs and production plants. It provides
real-time process control decisions and process optimization
using dimensional and tooling data.
"Right now, I'm running a part with a pair of dimensions
with a total tolerance of 0.0006 in.," says Val Gray,
one of the first CNC operators to work with Micronite. "Before
Micronite, we wouldn't see the interrelation of dimensions
on parts of such tight tolerances. Micronite now tells me
and the other operators exactly when I need to inspect my
parts, stop the machine, make an adjustment or a tool change,
and even how much to offset my tools. Micronite has never
let me get too close to a spec limit or stopped me when
everything was fine. We worked with SPC software before,
but now that Micronite's been implemented, I wouldn't trust
any other system."
The Micronite network has been utilized by Gormac Products
for more than three years. Throughout this time, the management
TOP/Station and operator workstations have been used extensively
and not a single station has been down. The system is responsible
for controlling of more than 1,000 jobs.
High Tech's Micronite
- Prevents scrap
- Reduces unproductive labor
- Reduces tooling costs
- Reduces downtime and machine slow-downs
www.htrmicronite.com
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