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Wind turbine gear production accelerated by CNC refurbishment of gear shaper * linear actuator instead of 'nodding' cam enables gear profile changeovers in minutes instead of hours Stoke-on-Trent, UK, June 14, 2011 --- Advanced gear shaping software and motion control hardware from NUM has been used to bring an old manually-controlled gear shaper machine up to modern day control standards. The five-axis Stanko machine is now controlled by a NUM Axium Power CNC system, using electronic gearbox techniques to synchronise the rotary cutter, gear blank and stroking axes. It also incorporates an innovative programmable replacement for the stroking axis, which reduces product changeover time from hours to minutes - significantly improving productivity. The gear shaper was bought by DePe Gear Company, which specialises in the design, manufacture and refurbishment of gears and gearboxes for a diverse range of industrial and commercial applications, including the steel processing, rail, mining, quarrying and aeronautical industries. The company operates a considerable number of gear cutting, shaping and grinding machines at its Stoke-on-Trent manufacturing facility and is no stranger to NUM - 3 of its current gear cutting machines are equipped with NUM Axium CNC systems and NUMgear software. In this particular case, DePe Gear Company purchased the Russian-built Stanko gear shaper initially for manufacturing large internal gears for the wind turbine industry, and subsequently commissioned machine tool engineering company Euro CNC to carry out the necessary refurbishment work. Euro CNC specialises in retrofitting, rebuilding and upgrading machines. This often involves equipping manual machines with partial or full CNC systems, and the company consequently maintains a close working relationship with NUM, providing it with access to the latest CNC technology, control software, digital drives and motors. In recent years, Euro CNC has built up considerable knowledge of machine tools for gear production, and nowadays handles a wide variety of gear hobbing and shaping machines. Euro CNC quickly ascertained that although the machine was fully mechanically serviceable, it would benefit from being equipped with new motors and drives, including high performance digital units for all axes, together with a CNC system for operational flexibility and a customised HMI to replace outmoded mechanical switchgear. Traditionally, gear shaping machines employ a complex cam-driven 'noddin
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