Do a good job in tool management and improve produ

Do a good job in tool management to improve production efficiency

doing a good job in tool inventory tracking and management is an important factor to reduce costs and shorten debugging time. Toolboss is an automatic tool management system provided by Kennametal tool company. By implementing this system, the tool management of this workshop has been comprehensively controlled

Mr. Paul treml, global marketing manager of Kennametal complete services, said that if an effective tool management system is not adopted, the processing workshop can often only achieve half the result with half the effort. When the tools in stock are about to run out in unexpected circumstances, they hurriedly think of ordering new tools, or they have stored far more tools in stock than they need at the beginning. These two situations will greatly increase the cost and cause some problems to the processing workshop

Figure 1 Mr. Gordon Hensel, the local kennametl Sales Engineer of hy tech company, and Mr. Tom Ober, the CNC coordinator, discussed the performance of inserts. The toolboss system can ensure that the staff under Mr. Ober can provide "inexhaustible" inserts

in order to solve this problem, the workshop increased new investment and purchased the toolboss system from Kennametal company. Toolboss is a set of unmanned drawer type tool management system, which can review and adjust the use, performance and purchase of tools. Now, the workshop purchases tools based on actual needs, rather than maintaining a large number of tool inventory. Since the system was put into operation, the company has saved both time and money

the company has installed a total of five sets of toolbo SS tool management system in its general plant in cranberry town to provide and configure the tools they need for each tool use point. Another system was installed at another plant in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The 25 year old company has 102 employees working in milling and turning areas. The company specializes in processing heat-treated or ground parts. The processed materials include medium carbon steel, stainless steel, alloy steel, tool steel, castings, all kinds of aluminum, pure copper, brass and bronze. The initial distance between fixtures corresponding to the marking distance in the standard is within 80 ~ 115mm

in order to process so many kinds of materials, it is necessary to stock and track different tools, so the workshop does not just need a toolbox with drawers. The toolboss tool management system meets this requirement. The system is equipped with kenmental automated tool management (katms) standard tool management software. It not only focuses on the development of seven categories of new materials, including carbon fiber and its composites, advanced semiconductor materials, superalloys, new display and key materials, new military materials, special alloys for high-end equipment, and new rare earth materials, but also has the function of tool tracking and search, It can also implement orders and complete reporting tasks between multiple toolboss systems. In other words, the five systems or five workshops distributed in the cranberry town factory of hy tech company are connected, allowing the software to automatically track and search each tool used in the workshop. When the workshop needs more tools, it can issue an order notice to the purchasing department. Mr. treml said: "Users input special work data programs into the system to ensure that operators can only extract the tools they need and determine the correct material location and processing technology. The safety system on each tool management device allows only authorized users to access the drawer containing the tools. When users input the workpiece they are processing on the embedded computer, the system will display the image of the required tools and the Turn off the data, and the LED will also display the drawer position where the tool is stored. Other LED displays in the drawer will indicate the exact tool storage position. Each compartment only stores a few tools required for processing the workpiece, so that the workshop can configure these expensive tools as needed

at the end of each shift, the software will run and submit a detailed report on the use of tools, including the information of tool usage, the name of operators, and the name and number of machined parts. In addition, entering the programmed workpiece data in the system will allow the software to send a notification whether something unexpected has happened. For example, the number of tools used for machining some workpieces exceeds the expected number, etc

each system is specially designed and manufactured for users to meet their special needs. Mr. treml introduced that the toolboss system can actually be arranged and configured randomly according to the size of drawers and the size of tool cabinets and cabinets, so as to adapt to the different sizes of various tools and tool components (Fig. 2)

Figure 2 the toolboss system can be configured with many drawers and compartments of different sizes,

to adapt to the storage and configuration of tools of different sizes

Mr. herb poor, the manager of the production plant of hy tech company, said that in the processing of many parts, the workshop largely depends on the tools of Kennametal company, especially the mass processing and production. In order to further optimize the processing technology of hy tech, Mr. poor hopes to continue further cooperation. He explained, "we hope that one day the company will have a unified series of suppliers: a tool manufacturer, an OEM original equipment manufacturer, and a tool clamping system. In this way, all phenolic insulation board work will be done in an orderly manner every time and every shift, and the quality will always remain stable and in good condition."