Machines

Micro-mold... and much more!

October 2013

For years it seems that manufacturers have been developing tools that are ahead of the capacities of the means of production for which they are intended. With its 701S machine, Willemin-Macodel gives them room to think and innovate.

There will be many added-value presentations at MAM 201, for instance the one called “A huge step toward submicron” given by Denis Jeannerat, Director of Technology, Willemin-Macodel (you can discover more about this submicronic solution here).

Indeed, this micro-machining center unveiled at the EMO is able to push the capabilities of the tools to their limits, thus providing manufacturers of tools a new field of action. Meeting with Mr. Denis Jeannerat, Technical Director and Anne Hirtzlin, Communications Representative at Willemin-Macodel.

A star is born at EMO True highlight at the last EMO, the 701S generated many discussions in Hanover, particularly in the fields of watchmaking and micro-mold. Ms. Hirtzlin says : "At Hanover, we received very many concrete requests; potential customers came to discover the machine with immediate needs". Mr. Jeannerat continues : "Customers were very receptive, the machine is totally in accord with the parts they want to produce". And if the kinematics and the delta architecture of the machine are completely different from habits to ensure very high precision (huge masses), as soon as they speak “tool and chips”, the specialists are convinced. So all planned machines for this year has been sold in September.

{{}}An impossible machine a few years ago To ensure the high precision announced (trajectories accuracies below one micron), the machine works fully by interpolation, which means that all paths are recalculated constantly, control loops must be fast and only a powerful PC can deal with it. Mr. Jeanneret says : “This computing power coupled with high resolution measuring rulers (less than 10 nanometers) allows us to guarantee submicron precision. The embedded PC is widely solicited”.

We will detail a few more aspects of this machine in Eurotec’s next issue:

Target: injected parts of a few milligrams
The benefits of 701S micro-machining: precision and quality
The benefits of 701S micro-machining: speed and efficiency
New strategies, new tools
Working in collaboration with the manufacturer to provide...
… tools developed for the machine
New approach to machining

With tools of a few tenths of millimeters in diameter, the precision of paths must be absolute. The scale of this image is of one micron between each line. The red contour represents the path of the tool. Stunning!

Benefitting from an original design that ensures accuracy with low masses, a wide dynamics and flawless trajectories monitoring, the 701 S machine forces to rethink certain principles, notably that mass equal precision.

You can read the first overview article of the 701s machine as well as all articles on Willemin-Macodel published in Eurotec here: http://eurotec-online.com/articles-by-companies/willemin-macodel/

Willemin-Macodel SA Route de la Communance 59 CH-2800 Delémont Suisse / Schweiz / Switzerland Tél. +41 32 427 03 03 Fax +41 32 426 55 30 [email protected] www.willemin-macodel.com .

..brought to you by Eurotec-Online.com

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Micro-mold... and much more!

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