Powerful CNC Platform Provides Economic Solution for Twin-Head Steel Cutter
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Naperville, IL, June 22, 2009 --- Oxyser has dramatically increased the throughput of its oxy-acetylene steel cutting machinery, and automated the process, by developing a new twin-head machine controlled by NUM's Axium CNC platform. In total, this powerful CNC kernel controls 16 motor axes to manage the motion of a gantry with two positioning heads - each fitted with mobile oxy-acetylene cutting torches.
The machine has just been commissioned at Grupo Ros Casares' plant in Aviles, Spain, where it is being used initially to produce steel plate sections required to construct wind turbine generator towers. The shaped plates are typically cut with bevelled edges so that they can be welded together easily on site.
Believed to be the first of its kind, the machine introduces automatic programmed control of shape cutting in an application sector used to much simpler machines: traditionally, only three CNC-controlled axes are employed and the initial positioning of the oxy-acetylene tool for linear cuts is performed manually. The gantry runs over very long worktables. This allows raw steel plate to be loaded on one side of the gantry while cutting operations are in progress on the other side. Combined with dual cutting heads - which may be used individually or simultaneously in a master-slave configuration - the new machine more than doubles throughput.
Oxyser developed the new-generation cutting machine to improve productivity for Grupo Ros Casares, a major supplier of structural steelwork in Spain and Europe who provide a broad range of steelwork processing services including complex shape cutting. Although the cutting capability of the machine's oxy-acetylene torch heads were conceived with the versatility needed to produce bevelled edges for the cladding of wind turbine structures, the machine will cut virtually any complex shape defined by a CAD program.
Oxyser specialize in producing plasma and oxy cutting machines, but up to now, they have typically produced smaller systems with up to five axes of control. This project marks the company's entry into the high-end cutting market. The key technical requirement to meet the demands of this application was a much more powerful CNC kernel. NUM provided a solution in the form of its Axium platform, which offered the computational power to control the 16 axes of motion required. NUM was also able to provide all of the ancillary automation components required for the application including drives, motors, I/O and HMI panel.
The machine is enormous. The parallel worktables - one for each tool head - are 26 meters long, and eight meters wide. The gantry supports two cutting tool heads, with one slave tool following the motion of the master tool. The 4.2 cm thick steel plates being cut for the current wind turbine application typically weigh around eight tonnes each, measure around 10 x 2 meters, and have bevelled edges. To meet the end user's production requirements, the machine currently operates for 16 hours a day. During this period it cuts up to 32 steel plates. The high degree of automation of the cutting process supported by Oxyser's machine means that just one operator is needed, both to run the machine and remove offcuts.
The 16 axes control the X-Y movement of the gantry, plus the vertical and rotational movement axes of the two cutting heads. Inside each cutting head, three acetylene torches are positioned in a line. The middle torch is fixed in position. The outer torches are provided with a further two axes of linear and rotational movement to provide the flexibility of positioning required for cutting complex shapes and bevel edges. The torches can be used singly or in combinations.
All of the axes are powered by servo motors designed by NUM exclusively for high performance CNC applications. NUM also helped Oxyser to develop a custom operator control panel for the machine, based on the company's standard NUMpass HMI. The program provides a simple means for the operator to enter the required cut characteristics including speed, acceleration, angle of cut, and torch power. To help Oxyser develop the machine, NUM write a utility to provide the analog signals required to control the acetylene torches.
"NUM's controller proved a cost-effective platform for this project as all the axes can be managed from one CNC kernel, together with all of the I/O. The software environment simplified the CNC programming by making it easy to set up groups of axes to break down the complexity of this large machine," says Unai Gonzalez of Oxyser.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
NUM
At the start of the 1960s, more than 10 years before the CNC control was starting to become widely accepted, NUM's first CNC controller was being developed. NUM's strategy is to help current and future customers to construct better machines and thereby secure a competitive advantage. The company focuses on a number of high end CNC applications, where it undeniably has something extra to offer. Headquartered in Switzerland, and with R&D facilities in Switzerland, France and Italy, NUM currently has more than 35 sales and service locations worldwide. In addition to CNC hard- and software, NUM also develops and manufactures the core products having impact on the overall performance of the system including drives and motors. NUM will also integrate and take responsibility for third party products in specific solutions in close cooperation with partners and customers, to provide a one stop shop for CNC solutions. www.num.com
Ros Casares Group
Ros Casares Group is the Spanish leader in Industrial Distribution and Logistics, Steel Service Centers and Structural Steelwork. The Group has become a basic link in the supply chain of many companies who nowadays resort to different services offered by Ros Casares. www.froscasares.es
Oxyser SL
Since 1982 Oxyser SL has been dedicated to the construction of plasma and flame cutting machines. From the start, our policy has been to offer high quality and flexible products tailored to the needs of the increasingly demanding and technologically advanced market. To this end, all the machinery manufactured by Oxyser SL incorporates the latest advances in both mechanics and electronics - underpinned by our organisatio's constant desire to excel. This is evidenced by the incorporation of the latest technology in every flame cutting machine, i.e. linear guides with recirculating skate, a technoloogy that Oxyser SL has pioneered. Similarly, Oxyser SL has taken the lead in the use of numerical control based on PCs and open architecture components, providing almost limitless possibility for the future control of the machine tool. http://www.oxyser.com/
