CNC machine tools manufacturer Okuma welcomed 200 international customers from the aerospace industry to their Aerospace Centre of Excellence (ACE) in Paris this February. The open house included live machining of aerospace components using the latest technologies, such as a newly developed swarf milling function for difficult-to-cut materials. In keeping with the company’s strong Industry 4.0-focus, all of the machines on display were network-connected to mimic production in a smart-factory. Okuma will demonstrate additional aerospace solutions during a dedicated Lunch & Learn event in the Paris ACE to complement their Paris Air Show presence (June 19 -June 25).

Okuma’s three Aerospace Centres of Excellence in Japan, the USA and Paris are dedicated to provide cutting-edge machining solutions for the industry as well as a proving and testing ground for aerospace manufacturers around the world. During the open house at Okuma’s Paris Aerospace Centre of Excellence, Okuma illustrated their approach to cutting aerospace components live on their extensive fleet of machines. To integrate Okuma products into an IIoT-based production environment, each machine status was trackable via a central monitor.

Comprehensive machining expertise

Workpieces included turbine discs and aluminium impellers as well as parts made from difficult-to-cut materials, such as titanium blisks machined on Okuma’s 5-axis machining centre MU-6300V. To meet even the highest machining demands, Okuma has partnered with other renowned industry experts. A new swarf milling technology was developed in cooperation with Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, whose line of barrel tools was especially designed for machining aerospace components. CAM solutions developer OPEN MIND presented their latest production solutions for the aerospace industry. The performance package hyperMILL MAXX Machining includes three modules for efficient roughing, finishing and drilling. The roughing module offers numerous cycles for milling in trochoidal tool paths, resulting in fast and reliable HPC machining. With the innovative CAM strategy “5axis tangent plane machining” time savings of up to 90 percent can be achieved.

By utilising Sandvik Coromant’s InvoMilling 1.0 software, Okuma’s intelligent multitasking machine MULTUS U3000 proved to be on par with dedicated gear cutting machines, machining spur gears and a variety of different gear profiles on-site.

While cutting an aluminium flat track on an Okuma horizontal machining centre MB-4000H, tool monitoring control TMAC by Blum Novotest was shown to monitor the machine’s spindle, ensuring process efficiency and security. Okuma also employed a roughness gauging touch probe by Blum in their machining demonstrations. ZOLLER displayed their state-of-the-art measuring devices for superior precision in aerospace machining.

Intelligent Technology for aerospace machining

Among the demonstrations of Okuma’s line of Intelligent Technology applications, the threading function Machining Navi T-g was used to machine threaded drive shafts on Okuma’s LB3000 EX II lathe. The manufacturer’s 5-Axis Auto Tuning System was shown to provide highly accurate on-site tuning even when cutting demanding materials such as titanium.

Over the course of three days, Okuma welcomed 200 guests from all over Europe to see their latest aerospace machining solutions in action. One-on-one discussions with the Okuma experts and their partners rounded off the event.

SourceOKUMA

More information

On the official OKUMA website.