How About Just a Little Lights-Out?
Running 24/7 might not be necessary for your shop. But what if you added a couple extra unmanned hours?
Share
Think “lights-out machining,” and you might imagine machine tools running unattended all through the night. Jeff Estes of Okuma’s Partners in THINC says there is a large class of shops that doesn’t need this much lights-out capacity, but could benefit greatly from running lights-out for just a few hours at a time. Shops such as these are often closer than they think to obtaining this level of unattended operation. For example, he says, what about adding a bar feed? Read more here.
Related Content
-
Investing in Automation, Five-Axis to Increase Production Capacity
To meet an increase in demand, this shop invested heavily in automation solutions and five-axis machines to ramp up its production capabilities.
-
Four-Axis Horizontal Machining Doubles Shop’s Productivity
Horizontal four-axis machining enabled McKenzie CNC to cut operations and cycle times for its high-mix, high-repeat work — more than doubling its throughput.
-
Using the Toolchanger to Automate Production
Taking advantage of a feature that’s already on the machine tool, Lang’s Haubex system uses the toolchanger to move and store parts, making it an easy-to-use and cost-effective automation solution.