As presented yesterday, the MAM 2014 consists in two days of excellent presentations from industrial and academic leaders in the field of microassembly and micro machining. Let’s carry on our discoveries.
This year included special sessions on micro-manufacturing applications, notably Medtech and Watchmaking. Reuniting about 90 people from 8 countries, the event is of high level and touches all aspects of micro and nano products. With this unique blend of academic and industrial aspects, partakers are totally immersed into the present (amazing) and the future (even more amazing) of micro and nano products.
Downsizing products leads to new manufacturing possibilities On the presentation on Watchmaking, Denis Jeannerat, Director of Technology with Willemin-Macodel explained the huge step towards de submicron realized by the company with its new 701s machine. Indeed the presentation was not to sell something but to explain the trends and technique… and that’s sure the machining by chip removal has still nice days to come.
Interpolation for better results The new 701s machine clearly changes the way to see high precision machining. The spindle is fixed and the part is held on a 3-arm delta system. Result? The mass to be moved is minimal (1,5 kg) and then allows the whole machine to be smaller, less energy consuming, quicker (up to 5G) and far more effective. The whole machining strategy uses interpolation… and thus reduces the necessary number of tools to realize a part.
Watch plate far more efficiently On a watch plate, we usually need between 25 and 40 tools in traditional machining, with the news 701s, 5 tools are enough. This also saves time on tools changes. Speaking about time, on the watch plate presented, the new machine needs 5 minutes and 30 seconds… while traditional machining uses 45 minutes. This 8-time improvement seems to be “standard” with that machine.
A big hurdle? Yes it’s hard to believe! Questionned on the way to introduce the machine on the market, the director explains that the main difficulty to overcome is the “too good” performance and “strange reversed concept” of the machine. And to achieve in convincing their customers, the company realizes a lot of tests on customers parts... and the results are amazing!
It seems that yesterday, some companies were interested in going to Delémont with their parts…
To know more about that machine, you can read all articles recently published on Eurotec here.
Willemin-Macodel SA Route de la Communance 59 CH-2800 Delémont Switzerland Tél. +41 32 427 03 03 Fax +41 32 426 55 30 [email protected] www.willemin-macodel.com
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