More technology coming

" There is still a lot of technology to be developed. The future will be ever more disruptive," says Paul Warndorf, vice president-technology, AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology.

" I do believe machines in the future will know what they are doing relative to their capability and communicate that information out — to look at a program coming to it, analyze it, and communicate what it can and can' t do in the program and what it can do faster and better than called for to improve its efficiency," Warndorf tells me, adding:
" We' ll have machines that may still be three-axis but that are smart machines that can talk to you."

Paul Sheldon, the cinema- tographer-turned-machine designer, agrees these things can happen, but only if we change the way we think about the metal-removal process and how we design machines.

Greg Hyatt, vice president and chief technology officer for Mori Seiki, agrees: " Traditionally, the role of the machine tool builders has been limited to improving the technology found within the machine itself. We are working to develop tools that help manufacturers fully capitalize on the machine' s potential."

Dr. Masahiko Mori established a Machining Technology Laboratory in Chicago because he believes " innovation is the key to all future success." The lab has already developed an adaptive balancer that permits rebalancing of the chuck on a lathe as the balance of the workpiece changes without sacrificing speed for quality," Hyatt says.

Mazak' s Papke says all things that make up a machine are advancing — the drives, tools and software — adding up to productivity improvements for the customer. " We are getting smarter on how we manufacture these more sophisticated machines so the costs are not going up relative to the increased capability making it more practical to buy them," he adds.

Machine improvements won' t come easily nor rapidly. " Often ideas come along before the enabling technology catches up," Hyatt says. He points out the spinning tool Mori perfected in cooperation with Kennametal was originally introduced by DeVlieg 60 years ago.

" They didn' t have a machine tool to utilize it. That example is not an exception," Hyatt says.

Ed Kirkham, another K&T machine designer behind the Variax came up with a " Turn 12" concept three decades or more ago that was never built. It had milling and turning capability and could have been considered the forerunner of the multitasking machines of today. It was obviously before its time.

The next step

The " Smart Machine," an AMT initiative, will produce a perfect part the first time is on its way. It' ll certainly change the programmer' s job and may even replace the programmer' s function by simply feeding the machine what the task is. It then will analyze the task and develop its own program by relating the task to its own capability. We may see a simple version of that capability at IMTS 2008.

The search for a " Smart Machine" goes back several years. The original AMT initiative has exploded into a coalition of several associations, universities and federal agencies. John Kohls, with TechSolve in Cincinnati, OH, is heading up a research project in search of the Smart Machine.

Sensors are the key. The more sensitive they become, the better they can communicate, Kohls says. " If we can come up with a model of the process and have behind it all the data bases, material information, temperatures and all the changes the model will incorporate, it will be a huge breakthrough," he says.

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The 'Smart Machine,' an AMT initiative, will produce a perfect part the first time is on its way. It' ll certainly change the programmer' s job and may even replace the programmer' s function by simply feeding the machine what the task is. It then will analyze the task and develop its own program by relating the task to its own capability. We may see a simple version of that capability at IMTS 2008.

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" At first it will be a very simple and limited set of processes and materials but as it matures it will expand to include more processes and materials," Kohls adds. He claims feasibility will be proven within three years.

" At first it will be a very simple and limited set of processes and materials but as it matures it will expand to include more processes and materials," Kohls adds. He claims feasibility will be proven within three years.

" I would think in a decade we will be there," he tells me.

What the future holds

But that is only the beginning. AMT earlier this year launched a study, initially in cooperation with the University of California at Berkley, aimed beyond machine tools onto improving total production-floor efficiency. It approved a two-year, $1 million AMT initiative focused at developing an Inter-Operability standard to allow manufacturers to collect, transmit, and leverage data from different types of equipment. The goal is to demonstrate that standard at IMTS 2008.

What' s Ed Kirkham, the " Turn 12" and Variax dreamer doing in his retirement?
He' s got a basement shop — Innovative Engineering — where " at the moment I' m interested in nanotechnology and the fact that there are not economical machines doing tiny, tiny work." He' s toying with the idea of developing a parallel-kinematics-type machine that would be extremely accurate to handle the various tools used in developing parts via nanotechnology.

He is not alone in his interest in nanotechnology. No doubt someday it too will become a standard metalworking tool.