Commercialization of an automated modular workpiece feeding and part unloading system for low and medium class CNC milling centers
“Protozauras” alongside our partners Kaunas University of technology undertakes a project starting July of 2020, which aims to commercialize an automated modular workpiece feeding and part unloading system for low and medium class CNC milling centers.
“Protozauras” is a young and innovative company specializing in outsourced production out of Lithuania. The biggest obstacle in that field is the lack of automatization solutions in serial production. For comparison in mass production, such solutions do exist, but they are designed with a specific function in mind. As such recalibrating them is a long and arduous process. That is why such solutions would not work in serial production and right now there are no alternatives on the market. “Protozauras” is aiming to commercialize automated modular workpiece feeding and part unloading system for low and medium class CNC milling centers during serial production. During this project, the goal is to create a prototype of such a system and install it in a work environment to do the final evaluation.
Development and testing of a system for monitoring the status of CNC machining machines
UAB “Protozauras” activities include three- and five-axis CNC milling, CNC turning, many different secondary processing methods, laser welding and 3D printing.
The CNC machine tool status monitoring system will be a completely new, unique and innovative technical solution, enabling and giving CNC machining companies the opportunity to more efficiently and rationally use their three main resources – tools, materials, machine working time. The main user of this developed product is CNC machining companies of various sizes, but the product we developed will mostly be aimed at small and medium-sized companies. CNC machining companies of this size typically use mid-range CNC machining centers of various manufacturers and ages, which usually do not have any built-in (factory) monitoring equipment, making these centers cheaper and more affordable. However, on the other hand, these companies using such centers cannot effectively monitor and manage their processes, cannot ensure the high and constant quality of the services provided to their customers, face various incidents in the production process, as a result of which the cost price of their services and manufactured products is quite high, and the profit the margin is small. The system we are developing will be able to be integrated into CNC machines of any age and type (milling, turning, combined), since the system itself will not have a direct input connection from the machines – it will be independent from them. The essential operating principle of this system will be based on an artificial intelligence algorithm, which will allow the system to continuously learn, thus obtaining better and better performance results. It will also allow the system to adaptively change operating parameters and adapt to specific machining cycles without additional operator intervention. The system we are developing will have a commercial advantage over products already on the market, as several key functions will be combined into one – detection of tool wear, detection of tool breakage and other incidents, and registration of machine operating time. The integration of a unified system that will be able to collect data, warn the operator about potential problems and analyze the collected data will be attractive to new customers.
The project budget is EUR 977,775
The amount of funding allocated by the EU Fund is EUR 519,238
The duration of the project implementation is 2024.06 – 2026.06
Partners – MB “Sprendimai pramonei”