… two out of every five machines that Okuma delivers are multitasking (or multifunction) machines and one in every four multitaskers has a robot of some description attached to it.” Phil Hayes, managing director Australia and New Zealand www.engineeringnews.co.nz 17 on his desk from an LB6 machine and advised that LCC and LCS machines with OGL robotics would go on to produce well in excess of three million pistons per annum. Okuma gantry loaders come in capacities from 3kg up payloads and Ken Horner’s KH Engineering Company has installed LB3000 Lathes with OGL 10kg units attached in his advanced engineering shop. “Basically the integrated OGL units allow us to reach higher levels of productivity without the usual expansion of overheads that were always necessary when you wanted to get more out of the day,” says Mr Horner, company director. “They are a good piece of well supported technology that is simply built yet so sturdy that they are extremely reliable – just good engineering,” he says. “Today we have medium sized production runs and once the operators are familiar with the set-up, changeovers are completed quickly and efficiently. Like all advances in manufacturing, it is necessary to help yourself and take ownership of the future. “No longer is this technology ‘unreliable black art’ it is seriously efficient from two of the most important viewpoints – productivity and financial,” he says. “It has changed the dynamics of the work flow with the machine cutting out three operations and it is virtually handling the work of five people. The machine is consistently accurate to within 1/1000-inch which we have complete confidence as this is proven with regular concentricity batch tests.” The stand-alone floor robots are even more flexible physically but in reality are more likely to be dedicated to a wider range of throughput, handling parts of more than half a tonne in weight. These require safety cells and compliance with strict safety standards and the cell itself may also be somewhat complex as the part may have to be washed, deburred, measured, inspected,
1-64 NZEN May16
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