Customer success storyAuto­mated preci­sion thanks to perfect set-up

At Mack Alusys­teme, preci­sion is down to a hundredth. Produc­tion Manager Dominik Isele puts it in a nutshell: “Where others stop, we start.” A promise that is appre­ci­ated by customers from the aero­space, rail­road, elec­tronics, auto­mo­tive, and general engi­neering indus­tries. The prereq­ui­site for preci­sion manu­fac­turing made in Klettau, Baden-Würt­tem­berg, is a state-of-the-art suite of machinery. For some time now, this has also included the five-axis milling center DMU 95 monoblock with a PH Cell 300 pallet automa­tion system. “The system is a top performer,” empha­sizes Isele. The VERO‑S quick-change pallet system from SCHUNK is at the heart of fully auto­mated compo­nent machining. It serves as a pallet changing unit, a robot coupling, and for work­piece direct clamping and thanks to these flex­ible func­tion­al­i­ties cannot only handle several tasks but also cover different compo­nents with just one device.

The spindle runs 24/7

Machining on the machine takes some time due to the complexity of the compo­nents. It was there­fore impor­tant to Isele to provide a stock of clamped parts of prefab­ri­cating blanks. The machine can then process this stock succes­sively and auto­mat­i­cally. “Our aim was to maxi­mize the spindle running time and to fully auto­mate the pallet infeed and outfeed,” confirms Isele. Mack has achieved this goal with the VERO‑S clamping system from SCHUNK. The spindle is in oper­a­tion 24/7 thanks to the pre-prepared pallets in the pallet station, and the fully auto­matic supply and removal of pallets.

Access from five sides

However, speed and effi­ciency are not the only require­ments Isele has for the new machine. “We’ve got aluminum profiles that we have to machine on five sides. Good acces­si­bility was there­fore impor­tant to us,” he says. The direct work­piece clamping system WDM-5X from the VERO‑S modular system of SCHUNK completely convinced him with its optimal work­piece acces­si­bility during five-sided machining. The pillar clamping prin­ciple of the WDM-5X enables pene­tra­tions across the entire work­piece – natu­rally without an inter­fering contour.

The base modules WDM-5X serve as a basis on the pallet. Different processing heights can be imple­mented with combin­able stacking modules in different heights. The clamping pin connects the work­piece to the clamping pillar. Mack uses the dove tail version of the clamping pin. “It gives us several advan­tages,” enthuses Isele. The clamping pin allows direct clamping of flat work­pieces, which have a clamping depth of just 3.5 millime­ters. This opens up new possi­bil­i­ties for processing thin work­pieces, mold halves or free-form parts. Its trape­zoidal shape addi­tion­ally increases the contact surface through which clamping forces are absorbed. In turn, this enables a lower clamping depth for a force-fit connec­tion. “This saves us raw mate­rial and we didn’t have to make any changes to the mate­rial purchase order,” says Isele happily.

Get started auto­mat­i­cally well prepared

The pallets with the WDM-5X modules and the blanks are set up in a sepa­rate, ergonom­i­cally designed set-up station. Manual set-up is so simple that even unskilled workers can do it. The pallet with the clamped work­pieces is then picked up by the robot, stored in the pallet station and fed to the machine when requested. The robot coupling VERO‑S NSR 160 is the inter­face between the work­piece pallet and the robot. The high pull-down force on the robot-side clamping pin has such a high holding force that even heavy pallets can be handled reli­ably. Produc­tion Manager Dominik Isele is completely satis­fied with the clamping system: “Every­thing fits together, finding the solu­tion with SCHUNK, the imple­men­ta­tion of the design, and the flex­ible clamping system itself. This is a true all-round care­free package for us and is done simply and smartly.”

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