Vendors are ready to surprise customers and visitors attending IMTEX 2019 with plenty of new products and solutions.
by Team MT
The end of this month will see vendors of all machine tools and CNC gather at the only largest trade fair for this sector. IMTEX 2019 celebrates 50 years this time! IMTEX 2017 & Tooltech 2017 held in BIEC attracted a footfall of 75,440 visitors. Going by reports, the fair generated orders worth Rs 1,670 crore and enquiries to the value of Rs 18,989 crore. Probably this time should be better considering that the economy has been on an upswing as compared to two years ago.
Few realise the role the machine tool industry plays in the economy. For laymen, they are just tools to cut, sharpen, bend, grind, etc. But it’s the precision of these tool that add to the automotive, aerospace, and any other industry that uses steel, aluminium, titanium, Inconel, and other hard metals and alloys that need to be given a shape. Machine tools have gradually evolved over the past millennia.
Vendors display new technologies that ay have taken two years in the making.
Similarly, there is a a host of ancillary industry that plays an important role along with machine tools. This is the lubricants and cooling oils that are necessary to up the performance of the tools. Every year, millions of dollars are spent on the replacement of machine tools due to the low performance of lubricants. Machine tool oils are the ideal solution for increasing the lubrication of equipment. Proper synchronisation is required during the operation of equipment for the efficient working of the procedure.
On showcase
Speaking of what IMTEX 2019 holds for them, Yatendra Kumar, business head, MOTULTECH India, Atlantic Lubricants & Specialities, says, “Motultech is always focused on giving a competitive edge to customers. We are not only putting up our latest technology product like “synthetic oil based neat cutting & grinding oil” or “bactericide & Formaldehyde free water-soluble products” but also the sustainable solutions for metal working industry. We found that many SME customers are still on very low performing as well as low hygiene products. These products are also extremely costly in correct disposal. We are also displaying our “CLEAN” hydraulic oil. This is not just filtered oil as perceived in India to get rid of the metal particles (also known as NAS value) but this is special hydraulic oil, which keep the entire hydraulic system as clean as new even after many years of usages.”
The Ceratizit Group will be displaying its lines of cutting tools and related products. Among the products the group plans to show are Komet 3D-printed HPC PCD milling cutters. According to Ceratizit, 3D printing tools allows the production of geometries that would otherwise be impossible to achieve with conventional means. An example is the design of coolant channels. 3D printing helps ensure that each cutting edge is precisely supplied with coolant by a separate channel.
Tungaloy will showcase TunGforce range of products for accelerated machining. It will also display many new grades and geometries for increased productivity and longer tool life for difficult to cut materials. The new AH8000 grade for turning heat resistant materials and AH3000 series grade of milling, exhibit Nano Multi layer PVD, which delivers superior coating adhesion and improved wear resistance at higher cutting parameters. The new T9200 series turning inserts for steel machining, exhibit an outer Titanium Ceramic coating, which helps in improving surface hardness and also offer good hot hardness resistance. Tungslot’s six cutting edge insert for slotting as thin a width of 4mm, gives great advantage to customer for both accelerated machining and reducing the cost per component. Deep Tri Drill is the new indexable Gundrill from Dia 14.0 mm – Dia 28.0 mm and shortly will get expanded to 12mm – 40mm.
Sameer Kelkar, CEO and R&D head, Grind Master Group, says, “IMTEX is indeed a platform for showcasing new technologies and what one can look forward in the next 5-10 years. Automation and its flexibility will matter going forward. In 3-4 years, we are going to enter the foundry sector. Currently foundries are lacking in automation and this is the exact pain point we are going to hit. We have next generation fettling solutions for foundries. In foundries, most of the rejection happens at fettling. Automating this process will be our agenda. Our mission is “transforming foundries and human lives”. We have already received orders from agricultural foundries for front-end engineering.”
Dormer Pramet has extended its Force program of solid carbide drills with a specific range for stainless steel applications. The Force M assortment of drills provide a high level of productivity. Their introduction within the company’s Dormer range, follows the recent launch of the Force X drilling family for use in a wide range of materials. All the Force program of drills feature a modified four-facet split point geometry, to enhance self-centering and hole-quality. Also, this improves chip formation, tool strength and wear‐resistance. A unique feature of the Force drills is their Continuously Thinned Web (CTW) technology flute construction. This offers a very strong web design, while at the same time reducing thrust forces during drilling. Combined with the drills’ consistent edge preparation, which provides predictable wear, CTW supports a highly consistent and reliable drilling process. Each drill in the Force range is manufactured from premium micro-grain carbide to provide an excellent combination of hardness and toughness, resulting in high wear resistance and longer tool life. Supporting drilling depths of 3xD (R467) and 5xD (R463), the
Superior technologies is what is needed for quality output and quicker time-to-market.
Force M drills feature internal coolant delivery in sizes from 3mm to 16mm and 1/8 to 5/8 inch.
In the past, if maintaining a short machining cycle time was critical to your process, there was a difficult decision to be made about whether the benefits of any automated on-machine probing outweighed the increased cycle time. Now with the SupaScan QuickPoint macro, probing is so fast that the choice has become much easier; on-machine probing is now a reality even for machining applications with very short cycle times.
Exclusive to SupaScan – Renishaw’s ultra-fast on-machine probing solution for workpiece set-up – the QuickPoint macro cycle delivers market leading speed of measurement. QuickPoint cycles are different from normal touch-trigger cycles as they measure using the analogue deflection of the OSP60 probe – Renishaw’s innovative analogue probe for machine tools, capable of scanning and touch-point measurement. As there is no need to wait for the machine tool’s trigger response, point measurement is much quicker using the QuickPoint macro.
After each point measurement is taken, results are stored in machine variables. These results can then be used for job set up prior to machining, to measure a component mid cycle for in process control, or to inspect a component after machining has completed for post-process verification. The macro offers a compelling alternative to other Renishaw touch-point cycles – allowing existing touch point routines to be upgraded with ease.
Most vendors display not only latest technologies, but also a full range to attract customers.
What matters
There is much need for government support in terms of subsidies and incentive schemes for using the high-end machines. Kelkar says that in Europe and America, if machines are Industry 4.0 compliant, they get subsidies up to 50% of the machine value. This naturally encourages manufacturing industry to invest in high end IoT and Industry 4.0 compliant machinery and automation. As of now government has some schemes at various levels for MSMEs, schemes for promoting new innovative products development and for developing new high-end machinery. Here partial R&D cost is taken care by government which is an excellent initiative.
Jay Shah, MD, Tungaloy India, says, “GST is certainly a welcome initiative by the government. This has put an end to all the hassles of documentation with the earlier VAT regime. Each state having different sales tax led to confusion in documentation. Collection of C-form also was a difficult activity. GST has freed a lot of productive time to entrepreneurs. As cutting tools form the major support to the manufacturing industry, it would help the industry if the GST is reduced to 5-8%. That will give an impetus to the SME segment.