Integrated Automation: Video Spotlight

Automation in deep hole drilling machines goes far beyond just robots. Automated capabilities are commonly included in machines to empower manufacturers to achieve ideal production flows, to reduce manual part and tool handling, and to maintain superior accuracy standards in drilled workpieces.

Automation is commonly integrated into deep hole drilling machines, working in part with the entire system to enhance capabilities while providing a seamless and ergonomic experience for operators. UNISIG works with each customer’s application demands to create a solution that optimizes their production and specification goals, resulting in a machine system that brings confidence to their manufacturing.

Components such as helicopter rotors and landing gear actuators require internal profiles within deep holes, a challenging process that is further complicated as it is deep within a bore.
21

Sep

Bottle Boring for Deep Profiles | Video

Components such as helicopter rotors and landing gear actuators require internal profiles within deep holes, a challenging process that is further complicated as it is deep within a bore.

Watch the video to follow the bottle boring process become a reality.

Continue reading“Bottle Boring for Deep Profiles | Video”

UNISIG's CEO Anthony Fettig was featured on advancedmanufacturing.org , discussing high-feed gundrilling, and the relationship between deep hole drilling systems and the tooling technology that is available.
09

May

The Hole Productivity Package – Advanced Manufacturing Feature

UNISIG’s CEO Anthony Fettig was featured on advancedmanufacturing.org, discussing high-feed gundrilling, and the relationship between deep hole drilling systems and the tooling technology that is available. Indexable-insert gundrill tools can triple feed rates, and are ideal for high-production environments in appropriate hole diameter ranges, allowing manufacturers to modernize their production flow and update capabilities.

Until recently, several types of tooling for deep-hole-drilling operations were considered specialty tools—ones that few cutting tool OEMs offered and even fewer actually supported. Today, many of those tools, such as indexable–insert tools for gundrills, are now readily available as standards and come with effective application support. All of which allows shops to easily implement such tooling and reap the deep-hole-drilling benefits of doing so.

Indexable-insert tooling triples drilling feed rates over those of conventional tools to maximize output. However, to actually run these tools to their full potential, deep-hole-drilling systems must now also generate three times as much power, torque and thrust as well as have the rigidity and stiffness to prevent any vibration.Fortunately though, the higher feed rates of indexable-insert tooling translates into increased output per spindle on deep-hole-drilling machines. That is, a machine using these innovative tools can drill the same number of parts—maintain a certain level of output—but with half the amount of spindles. Consider a production output level that would require 12 to 16 deep-hole-drilling spindles equipped with conventional tools. Indexable-insert tooling allows a shop to achieve that same level of output with only four spindles.

Such productive dedicated deep hole drilling systems mean that process planners/engineers can rethink their production cell layouts for improved cost-effectiveness without sacrificing output. Four-spindle gundrill machines, for example, take up approximately the same footprint as a large lathe. So, instead of four lathes, a shop can put in one gundrill machine and save 75% of the space while still getting the same level of output.

Highly productive gundrills need automation for maximized efficiency—not only external automation but internal automation as well. On its own, a single external robot is unable to load enough parts to keep all four spindles running. Instead, the external robot, or an operator, feeds parts to an internal loader inside the gundrill that then moves parts throughout the machine. This internal integral loader is an indexing “smart” conveyor that distributes the parts where needed.

Deep-hole-drilling process control and tool life management is even more critical for the high-performance machines that run indexable-insert drills, not only to keep operations running smoothly, but also to stop the process in the event of a problem before tool damage occurs. So those deep-hole-drilling system OEMs, such as UNISIG, that have always incorporated, in one form or another, process control and tool life management systems into their deep-hole-drilling technologies are now leaps and bounds ahead of those that have failed to do so.

Advancements in automation combined with the process control capabilities of deep-hole-drilling systems streamline their incorporation into production cells alongside conventional machining centers and other systems.

While it’s possible to perform certain deep-hole-drilling operations on machining centers and even be relatively productive, the deeper the required hole, the more the operation mechanically taxes the machine tool and diminishes its output. All of which leads to increased maintenance and higher tool expenditures.

This strategy also forces shops to add more machining centers to keep pace in the event of any surges in production demand. Conversely, the alternative is to instead integrate a deep-hole-rilling system that would relieve the machining centers of that operation. The cell’s robot could move parts from the machining centers to the deep-hole-drilling system.

Today’s deep-hole -rilling machine OEMs must always stay ahead of the curve in terms of tooling, then modify and engineer their machines accordingly to capitalize on any new technology. Doing so ensures that deep-hole-drilling systems continue to grow in capability and in application versatility to give shops further incentive to rethink the deep-hole-drilling process and how it could benefit their production operations.

Anthony Fettig, UNISIG CEO discusses deep hole drilling tooling
Capable of drilling precision centerline holes up to 20 feet (6 meters) deep, UNISIG's B700-6M can drill up to 700 mm in diameter. Counter-rotation of the workpiece ensures highest accuracy drilling.
05

May

B700 BTA Deep Hole Drilling Machine Operation | Video

Capable of drilling precision centerline holes up to 20 feet (6 meters) deep, UNISIG’s B700-6M can drill up to 700 mm in diameter. Counter-rotation of the workpiece ensures highest accuracy drilling. Powered by a 2-range geared headstock, this machine is engineered to provide full-power delivery for high-torque demands – total spindle power is 216 hp (161 kW), including the workpiece spindle

APMEN caught up with Dr. Lim Beng Siong, senior scientist, PE COI and Anthony Fettig, CEO UNISIG at a seminar tailor-made for local companies to understand the use, co-development, support and maintenance
01

May

Going Deep Into Oil and Gas

Originally posted in Asia Pacific Metalworking Equipment News (APMEN)

APMEN caught up with Dr. Lim Beng Siong, senior scientist, PE COI and Anthony Fettig, CEO UNISIG at a seminar tailor-made for local companies to understand the use, co-development, support and maintenance of deep hole boring and gun drilling machine for the fast growing oil and gas sector.

What is your personal take on the oil and gas industry in this region?

Dr Lim Beng Siong: For oil and gas in this particular region I think most of the jobs are moving over from other parts of the world to this region largely because of cost and proximity. As such, there is a big tendency to move the new parts or more complex parts here. If you bring in more complex parts, there are more difficult holes to drill, and therefore you need more advanced machines to produce them.

Anthony Fettig: What we find are our customers do not necessary move production but they duplicate it. To achieve service proximity, for example, they have production in Houston for complex product and they want to have the same production capability in Singapore or elsewhere in Asia so they can respond quickly to their customers who have rigs in this region. As a result, there is definitely a push to have similar technology or advancing technologies that are available in the US in Singapore.

What is the future technological trend in deep hole drilling in the oil and gas sector?

LBS: Most of the tools will be equipped with sensors. These sensors could be gamma ray sensors or magnetic resonance imaging sensors. When you incorporate these sensors you must have wiring to send power and another set of wires to pick up the status. Sometimes beside the sensors, they even have a tiny hole that acts as a flow line.
This hole becomes a chamber to measure pressure and temperature. When we need to incorporate these features, it becomes very challenging.
We see that in this part of the world, there will be more operators requiring intelligent tools, those that can measure the profile of the terrain and carry out data logging while drilling is taking place.

AF: The holes are getting smaller and deeper. The machinery and tools we are using get pushed to a greater extreme. As such, we always try to build a machine such that the tool is the limitation because when people buy a machine, they expect to use it for 20 to 30 years.

Exotic materials like Inconel and Titanium; do they change
the game in deep hole drilling?

AF: We commonly drill super alloy or proprietary alloys. For proprietary alloys, they are constructed for specific reasons, for example, some are designed to undergo high elongation before breaking. As a result, they are more difficult to work with and in addition, there is no instruction book that comes with the material, so our customers have to use our machine to ‘feel’ their way into the machining process. As such, our machine must be sensitive to allow the engineers to determine the best cutting parameter on the material with very little information to start with.

More on Deep Hole Gun Drilling

In the oil & gas sector, deep gun drilled holes are created on extremely hard and corrosion resistant, nickel and chrome-based alloys to serve as safety, control, wire-lines and flow-line holes to allow for effective command, control and communications between the down-hole tools with the surface control crew.

To facilitate communication between surface and the down-hole tools, companies need to create high aspects ratio holes of 700 that are of 5 m deep x 7 mm in diameter to accommodate flow and wire lines. Many of these down-hole tools are now equipped with highly sensitive instruments such as gamma rays, X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging that requires an additional layer of protection using non-magnetic materials such as Inconel 718, Incoly and K-Monel.

Related to this article:
  • Oil & Gas Industry Deep Hole Drilling