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AMJun19Features - esprit1
AMJun19Features - esprit1

With the implementation of ESPRIT CAM software, UmbraGroup has advanced the entire production process of its manufacture of ballscrews, electromechanical actuators, electro-spindles and milling heads.

 

Industry 4.0 is here and companies today research the most advanced technologies to manufacture their products. However, certain sectors, such as aerospace, use these technologies as just a starting point for achieving manufacturing excellence. Aircraft manufacturers and their technical partners must be ready to accept every challenge in today’s world to achieve their goals of producing the highest quality products from simple to complex in the most efficient way possible.

Since 1972 Umbra Cuscinetti has been a valued partner to the aerospace industry, and has grown over time to become a world leader in the design and manufacture of ballscrews for the aerospace industry. Umbra also manufactures electric spindles, milling heads and electro-mechanical actuators for both aeronautical and industrial applications. Umbra’s growth has transformed their parent company in Foligno, Italy into the multinational UmbraGroup, with four offices located in Italy, Germany and the US, and a workforce of more than a thousand employees worldwide.

Most of Umbra’s employees are located at the Perugia factory in Italy, dealing with the design and manufacturing of ballscrews, ranging from 10mm up to 10m in length, mainly intended for aerospace applications. Umbra became the first manufacturer in the world in the field of aeronautical screws to make this particular part.

"We export, with pride, more than 90% of what we produce here in Foligno, Italy to every airline in the world,” says Angelo Radicioni, production manager at Umbra Cuscinetti. “Every airplane with over 100 seats has at least one component inside it that has been made in our factory. This is also thanks to the will and passion of our founder, Valter Baldaccini, who made this important growth possible.”

In today’s production departments, digital drawings are usually provided, but the list of tools and CNC programs for manufacturing the simplest components are still manually developed, with more complex parts being machined using a CAD/CAM software system.

“The goal we set was to implement a CAM solution, usually used for more complex operations, for even the easiest parts, in order to provide us with the total cycle time to determine the overall efficiency of our processes,’’ explains Mauro Trasciatti, production supervisor. Umbra decided to implement ESPRIT CAM software by DP Technology for its innovative improvements in CNC programming speed and increased productivity on the shopfloor.

Turning the screw on demand

To meet the multiple demands of customers and members of Umbra’s own internal design team, the company increasingly pushed for more advanced machine tools to reduce cycle time and improve productivity.

“We needed a machine tool solution that would allow flexibility and at the same time speed in standard operations,” says Gianluca Mercuri, turning & milling specialist at Umbra Cuscinetti. “ESPRIT CAM software provided us with everything we needed to run our advanced machine tools, and gave us the ability to save customised milling and turning operations, both for the processes we use most as well as our non-standard processes.”

Today the field of electromechanical actuators is growing fast for Umbra’s parent company in Foligno, and they continue to advance both their internal and external turning processes, and multi-axis milling.

"One of the most complex operations that we accomplished with ESPRIT CAM was wrap pocketing utilising a simultaneous fourth axis,” ends Gianluca Mercuri.

With full integration of ESPRIT CAM software, UmbraGroup was able to optimise its CNC machining centres, and benefit greatly from certified post processors. This has allowed Umbra to exploit the full functionality of its CNC machine tools, increase its productivity and continue to make high-quality parts, all with the help of ESPRIT.

www.espritcam.eu

Company

DP Technology

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