According to Prof. Frank Barthelmä, Managing Director of GFE Gesellschaft für Fertigungstechnik und Entwicklung Schmalkalden e.V., the digitalization of metalworking stands and falls with the intelligent tool. "Even a self-optimizing machine tool only works through external and internal communication," explains the organizer of the Schmalkalden Tool Conference, which took place in November 2018. "And that's why the tool continues to play a crucial role." Manufacturers of precision tools, clamping tools and measuring technology should therefore focus intensively on digitalization and networking - from data generation in a rotating tool, for example, to cloud-based solutions. Barthelmä: "Let's remember: networking enables integrated services."

Frank Barthelmä, Managing Director of GFE Gesellschaft für Fertigungstechnik und Entwicklung Schmalkalden: "Networking also enables tool manufacturers to provide integrated services." © GFE

New services thanks to networking

The expert from Thuringia anticipates even closer networking between customers and suppliers over the next five to ten years. In future, product users will be involved in the entire data transfer chain much earlier than before. In his opinion, services that prepare or accompany processes, such as predictive maintenance, will play an important role as an integrated element of production.

Giari Fiorucci, Managing Director of c-Com, Aalen: "We bring together all business partners in the machining industry." © Mapal

The message has reached the industry and is already being put into practice by many manufacturers. One example of many is c-Com GmbH, a start-up of Mapal Präzisionswerkzeuge Dr. Kress KG from Aalen. The IT newcomer offers Software as a Service (SaaS) on an open cloud platform for managing tools, among other things. "A lot of time is needed to plan, recondition and optimize tools," says Giari Fiorucci, Managing Director of the Mapal subsidiary. "However, many users manage these tasks, which generate large amounts of data, largely manually." Although those involved often need the same data, it is generated multiple times and maintained in redundant databases. Things are different with the support of a cloud. On such a platform, digital twins are created as a virtual image of the tool data, including many important characteristic values such as cutting data, tool life or the number of reprocessings.

Cloud brings partners together

Centralized data collection eliminates the need to create multiple data records. However, the cloud not only concentrates the data from the tools, but also improves interaction. Fiorucci on the unique selling point: "We bring together all business partners in the machining industry across company boundaries." These include machining companies, tool manufacturers and service providers who take care of regrinding or coating, for example.

Measurement technology enables fast control

Christian Krieg, LMT Kieninger, Lahr: "Sensors indicate whether the individual cutting elements are extended or retracted to prevent damage to the components or tools." © LMT

The classics of digitalization include intelligent tools that take on new tasks thanks to new, easy-to-integrate sensor technology. There is a demand for measurement technology that enables the user to quickly intervene in the process in a controlled manner, for example to reduce wear and prevent tool damage. LMT Kieninger GmbH & Co. KG from Lahr has developed a so-called reverse countersink for a company in the energy sector, for example for the production of bores in large gas turbines. Christian Krieg, Head of Research and Development: "The sensor system indicates whether the individual cutting elements are extended or retracted in order to prevent damage to the components or tools." In tool and mold making, integrated sensors within the tool holders monitor the process forces and the vibrations generated. In this way, chatter marks can be avoided. Ideally, such intelligent tools can be used to create an autonomous control system that adapts the cutting parameters to the milling process in real time.

Schmalkalden: Virtual machining with artificial intelligence

For the 180 or so participants at the Schmalkalde Tool Conference, it was clear that virtual machining with artificial intelligence is on the rise. © Fecht Press Agency

In November 2018, digitalization was also the focus of the Schmalkalden Tool Conference, an event organized by the GFE Gesellschaft für Fertigungstechnik und Entwicklung Schmalkalden e.V., the VDMA Precision Tools Association and Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences. All major tool and machine manufacturers, institutes and many prominent users such as Audi, BMW, Bosch, Daimler and VW were represented at the conference. One thing was clear to the 180 or so participants: virtual machining is on the rise, increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) methods to optimize real machining processes on the computer in real time without risk. However, the users in Schmalkalden also saw the limits. Although AI is a great tool, it must always be run and checked under the watchful eye of employees. The industry is equally critical of the role of ubiquitous simulation. Although it saves the machinist many expensive tests, it does not make so-called real validation completely superfluous. "Nevertheless, the participants agreed that real machining is still important enough to earn the money on the cutting edge in view of new cutting materials, geometries and coatings," says GFE Managing Director Barthelmä.

The industry sees an important development that is emerging in parallel with digitalization with one eye crying and one eye laughing. We are talking about additive manufacturing, which is also finding its way into the popular press as a hyped topic under the term 3D printing. The unanimous opinion of the conference participants: additive processes are an interesting addition, but they cannot completely replace machining, especially as industrial 3D printing does not yet generally allow near-net-shape machining. This is because it usually cannot do without a final finish, for example by finishing or polishing.

From 26 to 29 June 2019, the industry will find out what the future holds in terms of digitalization at the World Cutting Conference (WCTC) of the VDMA Precision Tools Association in Tegernsee and five months later at EMO Hannover from 16 to 21 September 2019. At Tegernsee and in Hannover, the focus will not only be on technical aspects, because tool experts like Barthelmä are already thinking ahead: "Topics that go beyond the purely technical are certainly also interesting, such as legal aspects that deal with occupational safety and data security." The forums and stands at EMO Hannover 2019 will also focus on these topics.