Robert Brooks: It's highly elastic and I'm going to start my impression with Mazak. Now Mazak is the kind of company I would fully expect to be at a machine tool show and they are really sort of the avatar for machine tool building in North America and even in the world. They are never really trendsetters but they're on top of everything and they do everything in a very thorough way. So what and they were right there at the center. You walk in and they're there, and they had 15 machines of all different types of, you know, vertical, horizontal, everything.
But what really grabbed my attention was among their presentations was something was what they called the WAAM system, W-A-A-M. This is built on one of their this is well, let me let me step back a second. This is hybrid manufacturing. This is combining machining with additive manufacturing or you know the more you study this, they'll call it additive and subtractive manufacturing, cutting away the metal, adding the metal. Now, this isn't the first time Mazak has done this. About six or eight years ago they had a hybrid manufacturing system on display at IMTS. That system was using the powder bed technology for additive manufacturing, which is very effective at converting CAD models into finished parts or semi-finished parts because there always has to be some surface treatment on those things. But it's a difficult one to run in a machine shop setting because it is kind of messy, you know, with all that powder.
So what Mazak is showing now is a 5-axis machining center with an adjunct wire arc additive manufacturing system. They've contracted Fronius, which is a European welding system supplier. So this is a step forward, but really what got me was the scale of this. Their workspace for these parts is 27 inches by 23 inches. They can manage workpieces up to almost 900 pounds. with axes travel of 32 inches by 20 inches by 20 inches. So they've got something specific in mind for producing in this way. And that's really fascinating to me. But when additive manufacturing first came to the awareness of machining operations, They didn't know exactly what to do with it. Is it competition? Is it an adjunct? There's as many, you know, this is a really elastic area too, but by Mazak’s embrace of this technology, what they're signaling is that this is a whole new range of production technology for machine shops. And I think that's really fascinating. So that caught my attention and I wanted to mention them first because I don't want to give the impression that I think machining is not at the center of manufacturing technology. It firmly is by this example.
So that's me first. Your turn. You tell me what you are impressed by.
Thomas Wilk: Well, I'm going to play off the example from Mazak and link what that innovation that they were showcased to the larger trend that I observed, which is that at the trade show manufacturing challenges are now being linked directly to supply chain challenges. And when you've got a machine like this one that Mazak rolled out, I think one of the applications they were discussing with us at that after hours meeting we were at with a larger group, they mentioned moving production closer to either Tier 1 manufacturers or, when it came to defense contracting, closer to the front, closer to where the need for the part was. And so that really did catch my attention and that's the technology did, same as with you.
And I also reflected, now wait a second, this trade show is now showcasing the need to solve two or three problems at once. We're no longer talking about the immediate production and capacity issue. We're talking about how does the machine itself support supply chain initiatives. And so that did catch my attention. To be honest, their defense examples also caught my attention. That was also a thread that I heard a conversation throughout the show. It came up at a Women in Manufacturing presentation where one of the participants said that was one of the things she was proudest of doing was manufacturing, I think, shell casings. And I'll talk more about the CRMN initiative later in the podcast. But yeah, as far as the amazing innovation goes, the combination of additive and subtractive plus the presumed modularity and portability of the machine really stuck out as, oh, we're not solving one problem anymore with machine. We're solving two or three.
About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.
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