Awea’s machines benefit from the new Pack Mold. AWEA Mechatronic Co. LTD, founded in 1986, is one of the largest and most dynamic machine tool manufacturers in Taiwan. It has a great reputation all over the world and, nowadays, it is one of the few companies in the sector that is quoted on the stock exchange.
Over the past 15 years, AWEA’s production has increased tenfold and has expanded its facilities and global sales network accordingly. In addition to its headquarters in Hsinchu (Taiwan), it has a production plant in Taichung and a factory in Suzhou (China), opened in 2014. In total, Awea has more than 100,000 square meters for the manufacture of a significant and wide range of products, including small 3-axis vertical machining centers, 5-axis milling centers with a roto-tilting table and large 5-axis dual rotary head machines.
Products honored around the world
To keep up with this sustained growth, AWEA has invested heavily in the new Taichung plant, located in the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP). This plant manufactures vertical machining centers, among a wide range of other products and services. The plant in Hsinchu manufactures mostly large machines, including the 5-axis gantry milling machines with bridge structures, as well as horizontal drilling machines. Jason Lin, Sales Manager of Awea adds that the quality of these products “has been praised by buyers from all over the world”. He also states that “AWEA has always strived to achieve the highest quality in its own production processes, choosing manufacturers from all over the world located in the most technologically advanced countries, capable of providing us with the best mechanical components and, of course, we adopt the same philosophy for electronic components”.
That’s why AWEA began its collaboration with Fagor Automation for the equipment of its machines. Fagor Automation supplies AWEA with CNC systems, servo drives and motors, as well as linear and angular feedback systems. This entire range of products has allowed AWEA “to satisfy the needs of the most demanding users in terms of performance and usability”.
Improving performance and productivity with Pack Mold
Fagor Automation introduced recently among its offer, the so-called Pack Mold: AWEA’s Sales Manager’s opinion about using it on milling CNC is that “it offers great advantages”. According to Lin, this Pack Mold “bundles up a range of features derived from combining the 35 years of experience of Fagor Automation in designing milling CNC with its latest technical developments.”
As Lin specifies, “The Moulding Pack has helped AWEA to improve machine performance and productivity by intervening in several areas: Simplified and more powerful programming languages that allow for a reduction in program preparation effort; and improved milling speed that allows for a reduction in machining time, combined with greater precision to achieve a higher level of quality in production processes”.
Every market has its demands and this means new challenges for Awea. Fagor Automation offers a wide variety of solutions for the different production needs of these markets, such as people who make small series of parts, high productivity processes, programs developed directly on the CNC or from the technical office…
Tools of Fagor Automation
Apart of the standard ISO code programming, conversational and interactive programming ways are offered to ease the way the operator develops the programs. The part programming time is significantly reduced. Additionally many tools will be offered by Fagor Automation to check the program prior to the machining. Among these tools the 3D high resolution graphics must by highlighted. They offer to the operator a very realistic solid representation of the resulting part before the machining process. It also offers the possibility to section the part to have a better view of the final result.
Going to the machining process, the high-speed milling algorithms of Fagor Automation can ensure high level surface and accuracy. Fagor Automation offers also interesting tools such as the Dynamic Override that allows the operator to fix issues during the real machining. This tool allows to modify the behaviour of the machine during accelerations and decelerations. For very heavy parts it will eliminate vibrations, maintaining the programming speed and obtaining shiny parts.
Excellent results with Fagor Machining Calculator
Mr. Lin points out that, apart from all these features, same importance goes to the FMC (Fagor Machining Calculator): “we can always work under perfect cutting conditions thanks to a rich database of materials and processes integrated in the CNC where the customer can add his own specific technology. And, with the new self-adaptive feed control, the DMC (Dynamic Machining Control), the machine can work always in the best proper cutting power. This feature enlarges the lifetime of the tools at the same time that the machining time is optimized as the milling conditions are continuously kept as close as possible to the ideal ones”.
On the 5 axis production line, the RTCP auto-calibration cycles must be mentioned. They are very useful in achieving the utmost accuracy for 5-axis machined parts. The periodic calibration of heads and tables is essential, but without the proper functionality, it’s a process that needs a long time and requires specialized professionals. Using the same words of Mr.Lin, “with these cycles, in a few minutes, FAGOR CNCs allow the user to make an accurate and quick calibration based on the actual and present conditions of the machine, the same that he is going to use to mechanize”
Mr. Jason Lin’s opinion about the Fagor Pack Mold option is very positive: “At AWEA, thanks to the features that the Pack Mold carries on, we’ve noticed a significant improvement in the quality during our milling tests, together with the big advantages that we can see for our customers, especially for molds and the 5-axis parts production. This is just another testimony of how successful the alliance between AWEA and Fagor Automation has become. It has always given us excellent results, and it’s getting better and better”.