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Automation

Keeping steel wheels spinning

Since 1910, Simmons Machine Tool Corp., Albany, New York, has built machine tools and measuring machines for producing and maintaining railway wheel sets. The company also manufactures automation systems. 

Each wheel traditionally is placed on a machining center using a forklift, a crane or another manual handling method — a slow, inconsistent process in which worker safety is a concern. Simmons Machine Tool sought to boost productivity and improve worker safety when loading and unloading railways for repairs in a vertical CNC lathe.

HS flex Heavy

HS flex Heavy Automation Solution
The HS flex heavy handling system is designed to be adaptable to five-axis PERFORMANCE-LINE machining centers (C 400 and C 650) as well as the HIGH-PERFORMANCE-LINE models (C 32 and C 42). This also marks the first time that the C 650 is available with automation capabilities. 

Smart manufacturing systems: The COVID-19 comeback

The impact of COVID-19 has changed the way we conduct business and illuminates more than ever the need for manufacturers to assess their processes and implement smart manufacturing technology. The challenges that manufacturers face daily have been only exacerbated by the pandemic. Adding value to machinery to allow unattended operations and improve productivity without relying on operators to perform every function is even more imperative in today’s climate.

Presenting an automated coolant delivery system

Precision Tool Technologies Inc., Brainerd, Minnesota, developed the FullShop automated coolant delivery system to eliminate manually monitoring and replenishing coolant so that the shop could enable unattended machining. This video, presented as a video supplement to CTE's May 2020 Productive Times article, offers a quick overview of the company's FullShop system, which monitors coolant usage at a machine tool sump and automatically replenishes coolant before it runs low.