Going deep and cellular: Drilling Performance

By Unisig

Across every industry, manufacturers are working to meet growing customer demand in a globally competitive market. Despite a widening skills gap, by organizing advanced technology into highly optimized work cells, manufacturers are maximizing productivity through automation.

Specialized equipment, like a deep-hole drilling system, often is challenging to integrate, which quickly can create production schedule bottlenecks. To eliminate the risk, shops that perform deep-hole drilling should seek out OEMs that understand the needs of high-production manufacturers and have the capabilities to bring technology into the factories and work cells of the future.

The four-spindle UNI25HD gundrilling machine supports modern, high-feed tooling with increased feed rates, power and thrust, empowering deep-hole drilling customers to maximize the potential of the process. Integrated automation keeps production moving with minimal effort from operators, allowing deep-hole drilling production to keep up with manufacturing goals. Image courtesy of Unisig

Deep-hole drilling systems, which can produce holes that exceed a 20-1 depth-to-diameter ratio, are a unique class of manufacturing equipment because of the focused tasks they conduct. An increasing number of machining centers boast deep-hole drilling capabilities, but these machines simply cannot operate at needed speeds, particularly for parts that require exceptionally high accuracy. Manufacturers that must perform deep-hole drilling capable of rapid production and high throughput should instead select machines designed for the task.

Automating Holemaking

These shops increasingly opt for deep-hole drilling systems that also work with automation. In a typical deep-hole drilling work cell configuration, such as one for producing rifle receivers or automotive shafts, the equipment can use automation to time its cycle completion to mesh with other production processes. For straightforward automation, conveyors and pick-and-place robots move and position parts for deep-hole drilling with exacting repeatability and accuracy while automatic toolchangers, doors and inspection stations keep parts moving swiftly into, out of and around the cell.

Because deep-hole drilling tends to apply to long, cylindrically shaped parts, workpiece configuration eases or complicates some aspects of automating load-in and load-out cycles tied to drilling operations. Workholding axes, for example, can provide automatic part gripping with pneumatic or hydraulic chucks operated through advanced controls for deep-hole drilling systems. In this configuration, machines can pick up a part, drill it and set it back down on a conveyor or part collection area. In deep-hole drilling systems themselves, specialized designs also offer automatic chucking, and robot-tending systems can add further flexibility with end-of-arm tooling, workholding and measuring systems.

Pick-and-place robots move and position parts for deep-hole drilling with exacting repeatability and accuracy. Image courtesy of Unisig