Complete machining of railroad wheels and axles
At a Glance
Forged railroad wheels and axles are fully machined in a new gantry-type machining center in Russia and automatically transported back and forth between the relevant machines. One challenge in transporting and machining the raw parts is compensating for their dimensional variations, which range from 5 mm to 250 mm. Due to the large number of parts and high quality requirements, it is also essential to be able to track them at all times.
Significant variations in the raw parts can be detected by a camera system, and their data can be forwarded for further processing. The individual parts are tracked by a master computer (based on the WinCC SCADA system), which controls part tracking and order management while displaying system availability. Within a gantry system, the parts are automatically moved by an NC gripper across the
surface gantry via a Sinumerik 840D controller.
