Short tool life with long setup times, a two-part process, and fluctuations in quality – the turning process in the production of worm shafts made of alloyed steel was not pure joy for the IMS Gear team. With ISCAR's NEOSWISS exchangeable head system and a PENTA 17 special insert, the company managed to get the task under control and significantly increase tool life and productivity.
IMS Gear's roots in the Black Forest run deep – the family business was founded in 1863 by Johann Morat in Eisenbach in the High Black Forest. Originally supplying the watch industry with gears, the company has steadily evolved and is now an internationally positioned and sought-after manufacturer of drive technology. IMS Gear, headquartered in Donaueschingen, has branches in Germany, the USA, Mexico, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, employing around 3,100 people.
It primarily supplies the automotive industry with components, assemblies, and transmissions, but also offers solutions for e-bikes as well as planetary gears for household appliances, building technology, logistics, and agriculture.
"We mainly process different metals, from automatic steel to stainless steel, but also plastics, which we shape into gears and housings using self-produced tools in the injection molding process," says Berthold Weisser, Manufacturing Engineer at IMS Gear in Eisenbach. "The batch size ranges from prototypes to large series. Our customers expect not only high quality but also innovative ideas and flexibility."
To ensure this, Berthold Weisser has been working closely and on equal footing with technology partner ISCAR for over 25 years. Matthias Boss, technical consulting and sales, knows the machines and processes at IMS Gear very well and can support the machinist with tools, advice, and expertise.
PENTA 17 cuts
"When I saw the new NEOSWISS exchangeable head system in the catalog, I immediately knew it would be something for IMS Gear and Berthold Weisser," says Matthias Boss. During one of his regular visits, he introduced the tool to him. The turning system with interchangeable heads offers numerous application possibilities, short setup times, and is user-friendly. NEOSWISS consists of a shank and six tool heads for all typical applications such as turning, facing, threading, or grooving.
They are user-friendly and secured with just one screw in the shank. Thanks to the clamping mechanism and four-point support, they sit firmly and securely. "The modular system immediately piqued my interest," says Berthold Weisser. "We had been dissatisfied with the turning process on one of our long-term runners for some time."
Specifically, it was about a worm shaft used in car parking locks. The team led by Berthold Weisser produces around 2,500 pieces per week. The component, 76 millimeters long and 13 millimeters in diameter at its widest point, is made of alloyed steel 16MnCrS5. The basis is three-meter bars with a diameter of 14 millimeters, which are fed into the long-turning machines by bar loaders.
In this process, the complex component is longitudinally turned with an ISCAR NEOSWISS tool, featuring a square of about ten millimeters, manufactured with a six-edged MULTIMASTER milling cutter, multiple approaches, and two grooves. "And exactly those gave me a headache," says Berthold Weisser. Because the previously used two-edged tool from a competitor did not deliver the desired results.
"We always had to go in twice with the tool to achieve the width of 0.77 millimeters, and for the chamfers on the edges of the grooves, we needed an additional tool, the dimensional accuracy was not consistently given, and after just 2,000 parts, we had to change the cutting edge," the machinist counts. "To make matters worse, the edge change was not pleasant for the operator and took a long time."
Matthias Boss proposed the NEOSWISS with an exchangeable head for the five-edged indexable insert PENTA 17 with a cutting width of 0.7 millimeters for this application. Instead of the standard, a special insert for profile grooving should be used at IMS Gear, allowing Berthold Weisser to create openings and chamfers in just one pass. The edge change is quick and user-friendly with the PENTA 17. The user simply removes the tool head, rotates the PENTA 17 insert one cutting edge outside the machine, and reinserts the head.
The subsequent measurement is unnecessary, as the repeat accuracy of the head is 0.05 millimeters, and the position of the basic holders does not change. "I was immediately excited and agreed to tests on our machines," says Berthold Weisser.
More productive in series
The trial runs were convincing, and IMS Gear adopted the solution into series production. The team can now perform turning faster than before and with significantly longer tool life. The edge change is user-friendly and practically without setup time. The operator removes the tool head with the edge to be changed and inserts a new one that is already prepared at the machine. "A subsequent measurement is unnecessary, and the setup time is practically reduced to zero," says Matthias Boss.
"Furthermore, IMS Gear can now also use high-pressure cooling for better chip breaking and easier chip evacuation." In addition, IMS Gear saves about two seconds per component. "That may not sound like much at first, but with 2,500 pieces per week, that adds up to more than an hour," calculates the boss. Berthold Weisser is very satisfied with the collaboration with ISCAR and the new solution: "We now produce 4,000 shafts per cutting edge, which is twice as many as before," Berthold Weisser is pleased to say. "The five edges of the PENTA 17 easily handle 20,000 parts. This means we can produce reliably and without fluctuations in dimensional accuracy for two months per cutting insert."
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