Ready to Launch for Makino D800Z

The MAKINO machine tool and its advantages were covered repeatedly on the pages of our newspaper. The machinery is really unique and opens up new opportunities for OKB MIK­RON. Great patience, knowledge and strength were ­required for its delivery and assembly.

The processing centre installation was carried out by the team­ of four MAKINO Japanese company's engineers and four specialists of our enterprise. It took them less than a month to cope with the task, although we waited almost a year to begin work on account of the pandemic. However, the ­Mikron staff did not waste time. They studied, prepared­ accessories for machine launching, purchased tools, developed software necessary for the high-intelligent ­equipment. Therefore, mutual work in cooperation with the team of Japanese engineers was effective.

Base Frame Installation

Base frame installation was one of the most difficult operations in assembling a five-axis machine tool. It arrived at our enterprise disassembled on a special low loader from the port of Vlad­ivostok. The base frame weights 14 tonnes. As there is no crane with the required lifting capacity­ at the existing industrial site, the installation was carried out using the main 10-t travelling crane with and the 30-t truck-­mounted crane.

An unexpected problem arose with the load-lifting traverse provided by MAKINO. The­ top of the cranes in K-1 workshop is significantly lower than required by the installation manual for the D800Z centre. As a result, the equipment intended for the machine tool ­installation could not be used. As soon as possible, a new sling arrangement and installation procedures had to be developed. The OKB MIKRON ­staff successfully met the challenge. The video on the frame installation is available on our YouTube channel.

After the installation, the support shoes were poured and holes for the pallet changer attachment were drilled in accordance with the markup by the MAKINO engineers.

Assembly, alignment, installation

Most of the installation time was spent on additional elements of the machine tool, such as a replacement ­tool, guards, fences and others, as well as electrical connections­.

Over the course of all the work, the Japanese specialists were ­accompanied by the OKB MIKRON staff, who, ­alongside with the unique machine assembly, learnt about the equipment design and maintenance.

In between the assembly shifts, the machine tool performed various ­manipulations according to the set program for many hours. At the end of installation, measuring and testing works were carried out.

Pallet Changer

The pallet changer ­installation was one of the last assembly stages. By installing parts on replaceable items (pallets), machine downtime is reduced.

Together with the processing centre, our company purchased six additional pallets. They will ­provide the necessary level of automation.

Increase in efficiency is one of the most important ­goals and the acquired D800Z centre should facilitate its achievement. The MAKINO developments have proved themselves worldwide and allow increasing the efficiency of metalworking equipment many-fold. Auto­mation processes have their own specifics, so our company's experts are to deal with a number of tasks in the near future to ensure their successful ­appliance in production.

The MAKINO high-precision machine­ tool was purchased at the same time as the manufacturing of a ­turning table with laser measurement of parts started. The work is carried out in cooperation with the ­Electroregion partner company. The measuring table is going to be launched soon.

Successful cooperation

According to Evgeny­ Vesyolkin, Chief Mechanical Engineer of OKB MIKRON, the centre launch increases the enterprise's opportunities. First of all, this refers to the ­productivity and metalworking speed. A big draw of the new machine tool is full cycle processing. This will ­enable significant ­acceleration of the process and expansion of the product­ range.

"The D800Z five-axis processing­ centre has a high operating speed," said Satoshi Noguchi, MAKINO's Senior Engineer. "With­ this equipment­, our Russian colleagues will be able to manufacture more high-precision parts per day than before. I am glad that, despite some difficulties, we ­finished the installation on time, and express gratitude to OKB MIKRON for their ­support and warm welcome."

Specialists­ of our enterprise were also satisfied with the mutual work.

"Interaction with the Japanese colleagues worked ­well, " Evgeny Vesyolkin noted. "Our ­approaches to work are not very different from each other. We taught them something, and vice versa. The MAKINO specialists are very disciplined and used to ­act in accordance with the directions developed beforehand. We will­ try to implement this approach on our site. I'll start off with my duties."

This does not mean the end of work. Another Japanese specialist arrived at the plant. He will be engaged in ­training of the machine operators. In the course of a 10-day period, our staff will ­be learning all the details and special aspects of the MAKINO D800Z high-precision five-axis processing centre. And in mid-April it is planned to release the first parts.