Fiat Powertrain is upgrading the CNC
systems of 20 key machine tools used on the crankshaft and cylinder
block production lines of its engine manufacturing plant in Campo Largo,
Brazil, in order to extend their life cycle and minimize future
maintenance downtime. Each machine requires a custom upgrade kit,
comprising a high performance CNC unit, servo drives and motors,
specifically designed by NUM to facilitate fast installation and to
provide improved diagnostics and simplified spares handling.
Part
of Fiat Chrysler group, Fiat Powertrain operates manufacturing plants
at strategic locations around the world, including four in South
America. Its Campo Largo plant on the outskirts of the Brazilian city of
Curitiba specializes in the manufacture of 1.6 litre and 1.8 litre
‘E.torQ’ flexfuel engines for medium size cars, which can run on petrol
or ethanol. Originally set up by Chrysler and purchased by Fiat in 2008,
the plant is one of the most modern in South America and plays an
important role in Fiat’s leadership of the Brazilian automotive market –
a position it has held for the past 12 years. The Campo Largo plant
currently produces about 230,000 engines a year.
The
Campo Largo plant make extensive use of multi-axis CNC transfer
machines, machining centers and specialist machine tools throughout its
manufacturing operations. These include a wide range of Cinetic-Landis
crankshaft grinding machines, Heller machines for the external milling
and grinding of crankshafts, and transfer machines produced by Comau – a
Fiat subsidiary – for engine block machining. In total, the plant’s
crankshaft and cylinder block production lines are equipped with 20 key
CNC machines, involving more than 120 feed axes. Each of these machines
was originally controlled by a NUM 1050 series CNC unit, with NUM MDLU1
servo drives and NUM BMH series servomotors.
As
the CNC systems aged, Fiat Powertrain became increasingly concerned with
the likelihood of increased downtime. Troubleshooting and sourcing
spare parts, as well as performing general machine maintenance, was
threatening to take too long and impact production throughput. Since
mechanically the machines were perfectly serviceable, in 2012 the
company took the strategic decision to extend the life cycle of the
production lines by upgrading all 20 machines with modern CNC
controllers, drives and motors.
After reviewing
various CNC manufacturers’ products and services, Fiat Powertrain
concluded that NUM offered the best upgrade solution for the specific
needs of the plant because it is the CNC OEM for the current machines
and was able to provide a faster-to-implement solution with the best
benefit/cost ratio. As Tarcisio Cruz Filho, Technical Support Manager at
the Campo Largo plant, explains: “The fact that we are upgrading
machines used for everyday production imposes some very demanding
conditions. We needed a CNC supplier with the expertise and resources to
collaborate on the design and installation of systems here in Brazil,
while the systems themselves had to provide exactly the same level of
functionality as our existing CNC equipment. We are impressed by the
commitment to the project shown by NUM’s management team in Switzerland
and by the quality of technical support – including several on-site
visits – provided by their USA office, especially given that the
Brazilian market for this CNC series is not huge.
A
key requirement of the replacement CNC systems was that they needed to
be engineered in such a manner that the upgrade could be accomplished as
quickly as possible to minimize manufacturing disruption. Using video
conferencing, technical teams from Fiat Powertrain and NUM quickly
established that NUM’s Axium CNC platform provided the least invasive
upgrade solution for the machines, by using the same robust architecture
as the earlier generation 1050 series CNC to keep wiring and software
modifications to a minimum.
As part of the CNC
upgrade process, the servo drives on each machine are being replaced by
models from NUM’s latest NUMDrive C range; these are some of the most
efficient and highest power density drives on the market, which further
simplifies installation by obviating the need for complex rack cooling
arrangements.
The upgrade program also calls for
the motors on all the feed axes of the machines to be replaced.
Originally, these were fitted with NUM BMH series brushless servomotors,
which are robust medium inertia designs that were popular with machine
tool designers for diverse positioning applications. However, they have
now been superseded by NUM’s BPH series motors, which provide enhanced
performance and environmental protection. The new BPH motors have
physically identical shaft ends, pilot diameters and flange squares as
their earlier-generation counterparts – again, making replacement a
simple task – and the orientation of their power and sensor connectors
can be altered during installation to suit the machine configuration.
NUM also provides short adapter cables so that the existing motor wiring
does not need to be changed, which saves a significant amount of time.
Tarcisio
Cruz Filho points out that speed of upgrade is vital to Fiat
Powertrain’s production schedules, “We allowed for a maximum of four
days out-of-service time for each CNC machine on our crankshaft and
cylinder block production lines. Most of the machines on these lines
have now been upgraded and in each case – even on complex machines with
seven controlled axes plus spindles – it has taken less time than we
allocated, which says much for the CNC design and planning. The
machines’ diagnostics are now much better, allowing us to perform more
efficient preventative maintenance, and our technicians are now familiar
with the CNC systems, all of which will help reduce production downtime
in the future. We are on-schedule to complete the upgrades by the end
of this year.”
In fact, collaboration in knowledge
transfer proved to be another valuable point of the partnership. As
Claudio Rocha, Manufacturing Engineering Director for Fiat Powertrain’s
Latin American operations states: “The exchange of information and the
training that NUM provided for our maintenance staff during the upgrade
were important. We appreciate this open approach and the commitment
demonstrated by the supplier in this program.”
According
to Steven Schilling, General Manager of NUM Corporation in Naperville,
Illinois, “Our engineers have considerable experience with highly
specialized CNC machines of this type used in the automotive industry –
we have a history of servicing the ‘Big Three’ in Detroit, Canada and
Mexico. In this case, Fiat was fully involved at each phase of the
upgrade, working under NUM’s guidance. This has enabled Fiat’s control
technicians at the Campo Largo plant to gain a high level of NUM system
know-how, to help achieve the project’s overall goal of maximizing the
production lines’ life cycle. This a prime example of NUM’s ability to
provide customers with end-to-end service options, allowing Fiat to keep
‘one step ahead’ of the competition.”
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