CITIZEN MACHINERY reveals 10-Year vision at first private show in 8 years

CITIZEN MACHINERY (Nagano, Japan; President: Keiichi Nakajima) held its largest private exhibition, “CFA2023”, at its Karuizawa Headquarters from November 15 to 17. 2,800 visitors, including customers from around the world, gathered at the show, which was held for the first time in eight years. The company presented its vision for the next 10 years by exhibiting new products and the latest machining technologies, as well as unveiling its newest plant, which began production last year.

New model capable of handling up to 80 mm

The CFA is held every 5 to 10 years to present the company’s 10-year vision. This time, due to the pandemic and other factors, the CFA was held for the fifth time in eight years.

The new Miyano brand (fixed headstock type CNC automatic lathe), “ABX80THY” drew much attention.The ABX series has one front spindle and one rear spindle, and can simultaneously machine the front and rear surfaces with three turrets. It is the flagship series of the Miyano brand.

The new “ABX80THY” of Miyano brand

The ABX80THY, which can handle a workpiece diameter of 80 mm, the largest among the company’s products, was added to the ABX series. Although the spindle diameter has been significantly increased from the previous maximum of 64 mm, the design optimizes the arrangement of parts, resulting in the same installation space as the previous model. The new machine has been developed primarily for machining aircraft, medical and electric vehicle parts.

The company is particularly targeting electric vehicles. Umeo Tsuyusaki, Director and Operating Officer of the Development Division, said, “There are many square workpieces around the motors and batteries of electric vehicles. With the widespread use of electric vehicles just around the corner, we see a need to mass-produce square workpieces from bar stock using an automatic lathe with a material feeder.” In the case of a bar with a diameter of 80 mm, the machine is capable of producing square workpieces with a maximum diagonal of 55 to 60 mm.

Laser and aerosol technology

Other advanced machining technologies were also on display. Cincom’s “L20” automatic lathe (sliding headstock type CNC automatic lathe) is newly equipped with a device for laser machining with a minimum spot diameter of 0.05 mm. “It is suitable for fine machining of medical devices such as stents that widen blood vessels. It can also be used for laser engraving and quenching,” said a person in charge of development.

Aerosol machining, which converts coolant into ultrafine “aerosol” particles with diameters of 0.1 to 0.5 μm, was also demonstrated, presenting the advanced semi-dry machining. Combined with the company’s “Low Frequency Vibration Cutting Technology (LFV),” which creates a non-contact time between the workpiece and tool to break up chips, aerosol coolant can be efficiently delivered to the machining point during the non-contact time. The amount of coolant used is only about 3 to 25 ml per hour.

Lead time reduced to 1/8

The company also introduced its precision machining facility, which was commissioned in May last year. A spindle shaft finishing line has been built using, among other equipment, several multi-tasking grinders and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) with an industrial robot on board.

The final finishing line at the precision machining facility is also shown to the attendees.

The new line is capable of producing one part at a time using AMRs and multi-tasking grinders, whereas the previous production system was run in batches of several dozen parts, one process at a time. Lead times have been cut to one-eighth of what they used to be, and intermediate inventory has been drastically reduced. Director, Operating Officer, Tsuyusaki commented, “This was a challenging project even for our company. We hope our customers can find it inspiring and a new way to improve production”.

By: Masanobu Nishizuka
Staff Editor, SEISANZAI Japan