Market trends and business prospects

David Edwards commented on March 19, 2021

Today's industrial robots must adapt to a smaller space, so as much "manufacturing real estate" as possible is used for production. This puts pressure on manufacturers to process smaller, tighter components for these machines. Here, machine tool expert Harish Maniyoor, Global Product Manager Sandvik Coromant Automotive, explained why strong scraping is the solution.

According to the 2020 World Robot Report of the International Federation of Robotics, the total number of industrial robots operating in factories worldwide increased to 2.7 million units in 2019. 

This is an increase of 12% over 2018, a record high. Robots are used in a range of industries, from automotive and aerospace to the food industry and pharmaceuticals-but all of these industries have common requirements.

These robots must not only be smaller, but also lighter, have less inertia, and be able to perform more precise movements at optimal speed and efficiency. The challenge for manufacturers is to use more flexible designs to machine smaller and more precise engineering components (such as internal gear reducers).

This must be achieved cost-effectively by maximizing machine uptime and the highest metal removal rate directly related to production speed. For all areas of manufacturing, cutting costs remains a top priority.

Until then, we have not even considered the additional challenges of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, such as unpredictable demand conditions and the need to maintain productivity with fewer workers in the workshop.

The solution lies in the adoption of better tools and methods. In particular, a processing technology that has existed for more than 30 years and originated in the automotive industry.

The machining challenges we see in robotics are no different from the challenges we see in electric vehicles (EV).​​​ As we have seen from the requirements for smaller and more agile robots, electric motors are becoming smaller and lighter, requiring strong transmission components to handle the higher RPM produced by EV engines. .

Whether it is electric vehicles, robotics, or other industries (such as wind power), manufacturers need to have greater flexibility in gear processing, which has historically been inflexible.

Traditionally, projects involving machining gears will rely on special machines and processes, which limit the production process-especially in mass production scenarios.

This is where Power Scraping provides a solution. Power scraping is a continuous rotary cutting technique in which the tool meshes with the gear being manufactured. This process combines gear hobbing and forming.

The angle of intersection between the tool and the gear shaft, and how it affects the speed, also greatly improves productivity. This means that the entire part can be processed on one multitasking machine instead of on several machines, so there is no need for multiple specialized machines and machine replacements.

Reducing machine replacement can greatly benefit any manufacturer's bottom line. Compared with traditional machining methods, other advantages of power turning include higher productivity, because the tool can be processed closer to the workpiece, higher design accuracy and flexibility.

A Sandvik Coromant customer in the automotive sector achieved a 90% reduction in processing time. In this case, the customer chose Sandvik Coromant's CoroMill 178 for power scraping, which reduced the time-consuming forming process used to manufacture gear parts with low alloy 16MnCr5.

The customer has improved the process stability and significantly improved the quality of the parts. Can robot parts manufacturers enjoy the same benefits?

For powerful scraping, it is important to consider that its advantages are not limited to any field, such as automotive or aerospace. Regardless of the market segment, the real advantage is the increased metal removal rate and the ability to machine parts with one machine in one setup.

A single setting also greatly improves machine utilization-according to Sandvik Coromant's own findings, a 20% increase in machine utilization can increase gross profit margin by 10%.

So, let us now take a look at the advantages of electric turning in robotics. In one case, a robot manufacturer in South Korea approached Sandvik Coromant to produce precision gears for 5-axis machine tools.

Specifically, the customer wanted to produce an internal gear reducer for precise motion control of one of its robots.

It takes up to 60 minutes for the customer's existing production equipment to process a part. To solve this problem, Sandvik Coromant launched its powerful turning product, which will be used in DMG Mori's NTX 1000 machining center.

The result is that with Sandvik Coromant's powerful turning tools, each part requires only 8 minutes – productivity has been significantly improved.

In addition, this success opened up a new industrial field for Sandvik Coromant: robotics. The company anticipates growth in this area and believes that its tools will provide advantages in Industry 4.0 and automated manufacturing settings. This is essential to respond to the ongoing and unpredictable challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The advantages of better tools also go beyond the tools themselves-how to apply the new spirit to your machining? This is where Sandvik Coromant's PrimeTurning comes into play.

PrimeTurning is a spirit that allows the machining shop to use a single tool to complete longitudinal (forward and backward), end face and profiling operations.

The method is based on the tool entering the part at the chuck and removing the material as it moves towards the end of the part.

This prioritizes all important metal removal rates and also means faster, better quality production and conversion-including when manufacturing parts for industrial robots that must fit in a smaller space.

As the IFR reports, as the demand for industrial robots continues to grow, their components must in turn become smaller.

So ironically, with 30-year-old powerful turning technology, coupled with CoroMill 178 and Sandvik Coromant’s PrimeTurning spirit, manufacturers can have everything they need to stay on the cutting edge of the robotics revolution.

Submitted as follows: Features, manufacturing marked as: advantage, car, component, component, coromant, customer, gear, industry, machine, machine, processing, manufacturer, percentage, power, process, production, productivity, robot, robot, Santak Vic, single, scraping, smaller, tool

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