Unison Integrated Fibre Laser and PKM Machine

Unison有限公司成立于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管材市场，当使用航空航天、船舶、石油和天然气以及汽车行业使用的特殊材料时，可以显著节省成本。由于所有部件制造商都需要持续减少并尽可能消除成本，以精益生产为目标，因此机器供应商必须不断更新和开发其产品以满足市场需求。Unison旨在开发一种新的加工工艺，用于大直径管的搬运、光纤激光切割、加工和加工。该项目的目的是整合新的和已知的技术，以开发具有多用途功能的单一机器，避免不必要的处理并提高精度。该项目打算利用新一代的5轴并联运动加工（PKM）机器，该机器具有机器人的灵活性和cnc机器的精度和刚性，并结合Unison的管弯机技术的先进发展。这将消除对昂贵的旋转和推进卡盘单元的需要，并提高精度，因为不需要集成和同步两个单独的轴系统。此外，PKM机器具有能够使用可互换的效应器的能力，允许它在同一工作站上执行许多不同的操作，而无需移动或重新定位工件，提供了额外的选择。这种机器的开发应该使Unison的客户能够降低每次操作的成本，同时增加机器的功能将减少实现众多操作所需的工作站数量。这反过来又会降低能耗、占地面积和控制过程所需的操作人员数量，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.