Unison Integrated Fibre Laser and PKM Machine

Unison Limited成立于1973年，在管材机械行业建立了成功的业务。Unison的专业知识针对的是高品质的管材市场，在航空航天、船舶、石油天然气和汽车工业中使用外来材料可以节省大量成本。由于所有零部件制造商不断需要减少成本，如果可能的话，消除成本，以精益制造为目标，机器供应商不断更新和开发产品以满足市场需求是至关重要的。Unison的目标是开发一种新的加工工艺，用于处理、光纤激光切割、加工和加工大直径管材。该项目的目的是整合新的和已知的技术，开发具有多用途功能的单一机床，避免不必要的处理和提高精度。该项目旨在利用新一代五轴并联运动加工(PKM)机床，它具有机器人的灵活性和NC龙门机床的精度和刚性，并结合Unison管材折弯机技术的先进发展。这将消除昂贵的旋转和推进卡盘单元的需要，并提高精度，因为将不需要集成和同步两个独立的轴系统。此外，PKM机器能够使用可互换的折叠器，使其能够在同一工作站中执行许多不同的操作，而无需移动或重新定位工件，从而提供额外的选择。这样的机器的开发应该使Unison的客户能够实现每次操作成本的降低，同时增加机器的功能将减少实现多项操作所需的工位数量。这反过来将减少电力消耗、占地面积和控制工艺所需的操作员数量，确保提高生产率。

Established in 1973, Unison Limited has built a successful business in the tube machineindustry. Unison’s expertise is targeted at the high quality end of the tube market wheresignificant savings can be made when using exotic materials as used in the Aerospace,Marine, Oil & Gas and Automotive Industries.Due to the ongoing need for all component manufacturers to reduce and if possible, eliminatecosts, aiming for lean manufacturing, it is essential for machine suppliers to constantly updateand develop their products to meet the market needs. Unison aim to develop a new machiningprocess for the handling, fibre laser cutting, machining and processing of large diameter tubes.The project intention is to integrate new and known technologies to develop a single machinewith multipurpose functionality avoiding unnecessary handling and improving accuracy.The project intends to utilise the new generation of 5 axis Parallel Kinematic Machining(PKM) machines that have the flexibility of a robot with the accuracy and rigidity of a CNCgantry machine in combination with an advanced development of Unison’s tube bendingmachine technology. This will negate the need for costly rotating and advancing chuck unitsand increase accuracy as there will be no need to integrate and synchronise two separate axissystems. Also, the PKM machine has the capability to be able to use interchangeable endeffectors allowing it to perform many different operations in the same work station withoutthe need to move or reposition the work piece, providing additional options.The development of such a machine should enable Unison’s customers to achieve a reductionin costs per operation whilst increasing the functionality of the machine will reduce thenumber of stations required to achieve numerous operations. This in turn will reduce powerconsumption, the floor space footprint and number of operators required to control theprocesses, ensuring increased productivity.