Combining eco-friendliness with high productivity and high accuracy. The Smart Machine suited for a decarbonised society produced at Okuma's carbon neutral factories
As a step towards turning the decarbonised society into reality, Okuma has defined the “Green-Smart Machine” as intelligent machine tools that contribute to resolving environmental issues, by autonomously achieving both stable dimensional accuracy and reduced energy usage, and the company offers a full product lineup.
Okuma has been using automation and process integration as a part of its effort to reduce energy usage while still achieving high-productivity, high-accuracy machining for becoming carbon neutral at three Japan plants which are its main production bases. In addition to these measures, Okuma started using green energy in October 2022, and its three plants in Japan will become carbon-neutral plants ahead of schedule (Scope 1 and 2).
In its wide lineup of products, which ranges from small 2-axis CNC lathes to multitasking machines, 5-axis machining centres, and large double-column machining centres, Okuma has incorporated Intelligent Technology to achieve high-accuracy and high-efficiency machining and enhanced the technology to contribute to high-quality and stable-accuracy production. Okuma has issued a declaration that its “Green-Smart Machine” is an eco-friendly smart machine suited for a decarbonised society because of its autonomous reduction of energy usage and recording of CO2 emissions, which were made possible by Okuma’s proprietary technology developed over the years.
Okuma will produce these products in its carbon-neutral factories and provide them to the world, and together with its customers, Okuma will contribute to offering solutions for the social issues faced by the manufacturing industry.
Green-Smart Machine
To reduce energy usage, technologies that shorten production time and that reduce energy usage during machine operation are essential.
In terms of the production processes, process integration by multitasking machines and 5-axis control machining centers would be effective in reducing energy usage. However, the complexity of the machine structure makes it difficult to achieve stable machining accuracy, and the warm-up operation and air conditioning control required to stabilise accuracy, as well as human intervention to check machining accuracy, use a large amount of energy and can inhibit customers’ high productivity.
Okuma has solved this problem by developing machine tools that provide high-accuracy and high-efficiency machining. To achieve decarbonisation, Okuma has integrated its proprietary technologies, which are based on its machine tools developed up to now, for allowing machines to autonomously reduce their energy usage, and identifying as the “Green-Smart Machine.”
[1] Clearly identifying the machine as a smart machine suited for a decarbonised society. A “Green-Smart Machine” emblem will be attached to machines in future orders for domestic Japan shipments from April 2023.
[2] Maturity model of machine tools for decarbonisation to identify the machine tools needed to achieve a decarbonised society. This will eliminate operator intervention requirements. The “Green-Smart Machine” is required to maintain high accuracy and reduce energy usage, and achieves Level 4, “autonomous energy reduction with accuracy stability” where the machine autonomously controls the equipment.
[3] The “Green-Smart Machine” is manufactured in a carbon-neutral factory
Plans are underway to expand the use of green energy through the installation of mega-solar facilities and the use of geothermal heat, for instance.
The Thermo-Friendly Concept, an Intelligent Technology that allows machines to autonomously maintain a stable high level of accuracy. This also reduces time and energy used on warm-up and dimensional correction processes for maintaining high accuracy. It also enables high accuracy to be maintained for a variety of conditions, making equipment shutdown more feasible.
AI-based intelligent technology has been incorporated into more machines since its launch in 2001 and is standard on 125 models. This technology has a proven track record in production for customers around the world with a total of over 60,000 units produced in 20 years.
ECO suite plus
Autonomous energy-saving function “ECO suite plus” is incorporated as standard in Okuma’s OSP series of NC units. This enables data analysis based on machine operating information and equipment-specific operating information and supports the recording of CO2 emissions for traceability.
The ECO suite plus applies Thermo-Friendly Concept technology to maintain the required accuracy and proactively shut down equipment without operator intervention for achieving Level 4, “autonomous energy reduction with accuracy stability.” More than 42,000 units have been delivered since its launch in 2014, reducing factory energy usage worldwide.
New operation control technology for spindle cooling systems that achieves Level 5, “autonomous balance of both accuracy stability and energy minimization under all operating conditions”.
Demonstration tests of energy usage reduction, including during machining, were conducted on a sample workpiece simulating a stainless steel valve, and the effectiveness of the cooling system was confirmed by a 68% reduction in energy usage.