Holistic Automation
Founded in Sandviken, Sweden, in 1942, Sandvik Coromant has become a global industry leader in tool manufacturing with over 8,000 employees worldwide. Customers from a wide range of industries – including aerospace, Automotive and oil & gas – rely on Sandvik Coromant solutions.
The tool experts have a long-standing strategic partnership with DMG MORI, from which innovative machining solutions continue to emerge. Sandvik Coromant also benefits from these in its own production. For example, two NTX 2000s were installed at the Gimo plant in 2021, each of which operates fully automatically with a MATRIS. The robot handles both the loading of workpieces and the exchange of fixtures and tools.
“As a market leader, we are required to meet the extremely high expectations of our customers in terms of innovation and quality,” says Philip Eriksson, project manager at Sandvik Coromant, explaining the company’s dependence on development and production. “Gimo is part of our Production Technology Center and is responsible for industrializing 2,500 new products per year.” He says this is done in close cooperation with the R & D departments in Sandviken and Stockholm.
„The strategic partnership with DMG MORI is a win-win situation. Our individual MATRIS automation is the ideal example of this.“
Competitive thanks to automated manufacturing
The realization of new products also includes their manufacture. “We need highly efficient technology in order to be able to offer our tools competitively,” explains Peter Andersén, responsible for Global Manufacturing Equipment at Sandvik Coromant. For this reason, he says, the company has been using automated manufacturing processes in end-toend digitalized production for decades. “Even our NC programs for the production of tool bodies are created automatically in Gimo and are new for each order.” The factory received 'lighthouse' recognition by the World Economic Forums in 2019, he said.
MATRIS – modular automation for highly flexible production
Using the example of tool bodies for drillis, Philip Eriksson refers to a new manufacturing solution that DMG MORI has worked out and implemented with Sandvik Coromant. “We manufacture over a hundred variants here, which involves a lot of setup. So our goal was an automated manufacturing solution that reduces this non-productive time as much as possible.” In the NTX 2000 turn & mill center and the MATRIS, a flexible and modular robot system, they found an optimal solution, he says. “An important point for us was the fact that we got the two manufacturing cells from one source.”
Fully automated production of over a hundred variants in a range of batch sizes
“The challenge in this project was to automate exchange of components and turret tooling as well as the centers and chuck inserts,” says Philip Eriksson, describing the scope of the automation. This is necessary due to the large number of different bodies produced.
Automatic chuck inserts of chucks and centers
A look at the MATRIS installation at Sandvik Coromant reveals the complexity of this automation solution. A total of six carts with bodies can be accommodated in the cell, enabling autonomous production even during unmanned night shifts. Peter Andersén is pleased with the good capacity utilization: “This significantly increases our production capacity.” The robot takes the raw parts from the cart and turns them through 90 degrees at another station so that it can clamp them in the NTX 2000. The blanks are mainly supported in centers in the main and counter spindles, but there is also the possibility to machine them in a collet chuck. “Since the chuck inserts and centers vary depending on the job, they are also housed in the MATRIS,” says Peter Andersén. The robot replaces them fully automatically when the components require it, he adds.
Automatic tool change for the turret
The highlight of the automation solutions of the two NTX 2000s is the automatic turret tool exchange by the robot system. “While the tools for the milling spindle, both milling and turning tools (the magazine of the NTX 2000 has 114 Coromant Capto C6 tool positions) are changed automatically, this is normally a manual process for turret tools,” explains Philip Eriksson. “This ties up a lot of labour because there are only twelve tool stations.” For this reason, he says, a separate tool magazine has been integrated into the MATRIS with space for 32 tools. “This allows us to put significantly more tools into the system. The robot also handles this change reliably.” As a tool manufacturer, Sandvik Coromant took on this part of the project and equipped the turrets with its own Coromant Capto C4 tool holders. Sandvik Coromant has achieved its goal of realizing more and longer unmanned shifts due to this project, which Philip Eriksson sees as further proof of the good cooperation with DMG MORI: “For us, the strategic partnership means that we support each other and achieve a win-win situation for all parties involved.” That is why we all want to maintain this cooperation, he said. Peter Andersén looks ahead: “Both in Gimo and at our global locations, we are currently working on further projects with DMG MORI – productive automation solutions will of course remain important in the future.”
SANDVIK COROMANT
Verktygsgatan 11
747 44 Gimo, Sweden
www.sandvik.coromant.com