Currently, the world of industrial production is undergoing a rapid and profound change. The demand for higher efficiency, more flexibility, better quality, and greater accuracy are challenges for every manufacturing company; at the same time, they are drivers of technological development. Under the motto "Innovate Manufacturing", the industry will be showcasing its solutions to urgent present and future problems at EMO. SCHUNK will be presenting comprehensive solutions and a colorful array of its innovations, which can be used to realize digital transformation and come closer to the goal of sustainable production.
Sustainable principles in handling and workpiece clamping
Energy and resource-saving processes are a prerequisite for sustainable production. The key here is reducing consumption. EMO trade show visitors will be able to experience SCHUNK's energy-free gripping of sensitive components with the gripping technology ADHESO and witness for themselves how parts handling is residue-free and easy on resources – with no external energy supply. ADHESO uses natural adhesion forces to handle sensitive components during the manufacture of battery and fuel cells, and applications in the medical, pharmaceutical and electrical industries, among others.
Further developed generations of modern lathe chucks, such as the jaw quick-change chuck ROTA THW3 also follow the principle of sustainability. In addition to its enormous flexibility and functionality, the lathe chuck impresses with up to 20 times longer maintenance intervals than comparable products thanks to its patented sealing. This also results in up to 20 times less lubricant consumption; and the coolant needs to be changed less frequently too. In addition to the environmentally friendly aspects, this also opens up new areas of application. Thanks to the quick jaw change system, the chuck can be adapted to changing clamping tasks in a matter of seconds.
Networked production already starts on a small scale, with the component. Smart manufacturing components make a significant contribution to efficient, more sustainable and transparent processes. In Hanover, SCHUNK will be demonstrating a variety of actuator and sensor clamping systems. The electromechanical quick-change pallet module NSE3-PH 138 IOL with its innovative piezo-hydraulic drive and fully integrated sensor technology is one of the absolute highlights. The clamping module is controlled via IO-Link and generates high pull-down forces with identical dimensions to comparable pneumatic clamping modules. Integrated electronics detect various clamping states such as clamping slide positions or pallet presence without additional interference contours.
Another trade show highlight is the iTENDO² smart hydraulic expansion toolholder. It provides real-time data directly from the tool and detects wear at an early stage. In addition to process-reliable machining, the intelligent toolholder ensures a longer tool service life and less waste. With "easy connect" and "easy monitor", SCHUNK now provides two new enhanced digitalization stages. The extension package iTENDO² easy connect enables simple connection to the machine and to the existing process monitoring system. iTENDO² easy monitor, on the other hand, offers machine operators a straightforward introduction to simple process monitoring.
SCHUNK already showed how to make application-specific solutions quickly available with its new configurable product series last year. Using free, browser-based SCHUNK web tools, electric and pneumatic SCHUNK grippers, gripper fingers and clamping jaws can be adapted to specific applications. At EMO, SCHUNK presents easyToolholder, another product configurator for individual design of toolholders. With the new digital tool, standard toolholders can be modified in terms of dimensions, clamping diameter, interface or chip bore as required and be optimally adapted to the application with just a few clicks . The respective 3D data is available for download in real time and in a wide variety of formats and can then be tested virtually in the machine simulation. SCHUNK uses this to reduce complexity in system planning and provides tailored solutions for a wide range of applications.
Automated processes are becoming more important. There are many reasons for this and, sooner or later, companies will have to embrace this trend. With its new quick jaw change system BWA for TANDEM3-clamping force blocks, this is precisely the issue SCHUNK is addressing. With it, the clamping jaws of 2- or 3-jaw clamping force blocks can be changed manually or automatically via a robot within a very short time and thereby adapted to new clamping tasks – completely without tools.
New SCHUNK adapter jaws now open up access to the extensive SCHUNK clamping jaw program for third-party vises too. Until now, the portfolio of available top jaws was limited to the respective vise manufacturer because the interfaces were manufacturer-dependent. Now, with its adapter jaws, SCHUNK is enabling compatibility between third-party vises and the top jaws from the SCHUNK and Gressel ranges.
EMO visitors can look forward to further innovations such as new additions in toolholder technology or automated pallet loading.
SCHUNK at EMO in Hall 3 I Booth I20