Automação de tecnologia CNC para aumentar a eficiência dos funcionários

CNC technology automation to increase employee efficiency

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One of the problems that successful CNC engineering shops face is growth. Yes, it seems strange that growing your business would be a problem, but it still is. Body shop owners' main consideration when expanding their business is staff. It will take the manager much longer to find a qualified machinist than if additional workers were needed due to the growth in CNC production volume.

The labor problem in CNC workshops

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CNC machining is not an easy task. Requires qualified personnel with specific skills. The market simply does not have enough qualified machinists to meet all demand. Therefore, most machine shops hire people with more or less knowledge about machining and teach them specific things. This leads to a long preparation time for employees. However, developing a successful auto repair shop may require a faster response.

Furthermore, people can only work 8 hours a day, while a CNC machine is in the workshop all the time. By utilizing the possibilities of CNC technology, it is possible to increase the efficiency of employees and machine tools.

Let's take a look at the problems workshop owners face and see how they can overcome limitations with a fixed number of employees.

Problem 1. Too many equipment, too few workers

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This first problem is one of the most common in the manufacturing industry. An auto repair shop in Tennessee had this problem during the Great Depression. It needed to increase its production volume, but did not have the resources to hire additional employees. She decided to invest in automated CNC machines and teach her workers how to operate two machines at the same time.

Today they have maintained this tradition. The Tennessee shop recently purchased three automated CNC machining cells. This includes a 5-axis machining center, a chip conveyor, coolant pumps and a parts collector. The entire system essentially works as a single block. The owners trained their machinists to monitor two cells at the same time. They plan to buy more without increasing the number of train drivers.

Problem 2. Machine tools do not run for the entire expected time

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The manager of a rapid production facility realized that his machines could work both at night and during the day. He saw that a full-time person's week is only 40 hours, but machine tools can work 120 or even 168 hours a week. With CNC production at night, he could increase his production many times over without having to hire and train new employees to operate the tools at night, because CNC technology is so advanced that complete automation of all processes is possible.

The director first equipped all of his machine tools with longer chip conveyors and diverted all of the shop's chips into a larger tank that only needed to be emptied every two days. He then installed large cutting tool change mechanisms with 64 or more tools. This allowed him to install duplicate tools into the system and ensure that the machine tool used new cutting tools when the old ones wore out. He then purchased automatic feed mechanisms for his lathes and robotic hands for his milling machines. When configured correctly, they could install tool voids without human intervention. And finally, the director acquired special systems for collecting parts for unloading.

His idea brought good results. At the end of the work day, the machinists spent the last day configuring the automated manufacturing system. During the night it worked and notified the chief engineer via an app if something was wrong. So in the morning, the workshop would complete two full days of work in one night. This made it possible to transfer larger and simpler batches to automated production and entrust machinists with individual orders for more complex and interesting prototypes.

Problem 3. People are prejudiced against CNC technology automation

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It is a common misconception that the development of CNC technology, the use of robots and automation are causing people to lose their jobs. However, this is fundamentally wrong. Robots only increase work efficiency. For example, the use of robotic arms for loading and unloading operations will not result in the worker being fired. This just saves time and effort in carrying out daily tasks. Instead, it can monitor the work of not just one, but several machine tools.

Possible problems with automation of CNC technology

Automation is a complex process that requires careful planning and validation. An automated system is unique in terms of algorithms, volumes and tools. To efficiently automate CNC manufacturing systems, you must consider a number of possible issues. First, chip removal. Most CNC machine tools have a chip conveyor. However, the chip container is usually changed at least once per shift. To carry out long automated jobs, the machine shop must have a customized centralized chip removal system. Typically this is a larger, purpose-built conveyor that collects chips from all the other machine tools and moves them to a large space that needs to be emptied much less frequently.

Another problem is the constant supply of the necessary refrigerants to the machine. Coolants ensure that the cutters operate for as long as necessary and that the quality of the part is maintained. To ensure that coolant is always supplied, special sensors and additional pump systems must be installed on the machine tool. Once the liquid level in the coolant tank is too low, a special pump line opens and fills the tank to the required level.

Depending on the parts you are manufacturing, different end part containers are required. In general, you should always pay attention to container volume when automating systems. Automated systems are very efficient and require a lot of space. Otherwise, you will walk into the store in the morning and find parts scattered all over the floor and the system has crashed because it was unable to retrieve a new blank part from an overfilled valuable box.

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