Oil company invests in automation

US manufacturer looks to UK innovation to drive throughput efficiency in midst of oil sector downturn and prepare them for Industry 4.0

In order to remain competitive and maintain margins, a US company has selected a proven partnership to ensure its success far into the future. This major Texas- based oil company asked Doosan and Cogsdill to develop a process for auto – loading facing heads, boring tools and splining tools, onto a conventional HBM for machining their components.

Having previously delivered solid results for the company, there was an insistence for Cogsdill's ZX modular tooling systems in their headquarters in Houston.

South Korean and UK engineers designed and manufactured an auto-coupler system enabling the facing heads and other tooling to be automatically loaded from a tool stacker mounted to the Doosan DBC130 HBM.

The innovative adaptation of a standard spindle, to incorporate a spindle interface with a hydraulically-actuated clamping system, allows tools to change automatically. Enabling rotating and non-rotating tools, the adaptor allows interchangeability between internal contours, bottle bores and splining features as opposed to multiple operations on several stand-alone machines. Thus, providing far greater capacity and drastically reduced manual intervention associated with manufacturing these components.

Enabling vast capabilities at speed and scale, also with the benefit of high-pressure coolant for swarf evacuation – that cannot be efficiently achieved with conventional tooling. This new hands-off approach is a major turning point for the next-wave of fully autonomous production.

“This is a fantastic collaboration with Doosan – a partner that we have a great relationship with. We’re continually evolving to best face engineering challenges and move towards the next phase of efficient automation – whether it be manufacturing materials and processes, or laser-enhanced tools for auto-sizing.” – Lee Donaldson Cogsdill UK Executive Director.

“The new range of DBC machines is impressive and this ZX auto-tool interface is a real game changer and cements Doosan’s global leadership when it comes to visionary heavy tool automation and puts the HBM into a market position usually associated with RAM-type machines.” -Tony Dale, Technical Director at Mills CNC

Perhaps the future of manufacturing may not yet be fully visualised, but the collaborative use of industrial know-how and attention to detail seems to be exactly what will guide Industry towards 4.0 – and ensure the UK is seen as the key innovation powerhouse within global manufacturing.