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From the machine to the workshop

Published on January 22, 2010

The new workshop management software Jfmx Level 2 has just been installed at the company CAUQUIL SA - Toulouse (F).
Developed after several years of experience in the automation and mechanical machining coordination for MCM machines, JFMX has been extended to control all the machining centers in the workshop CAUQUIL, company specialized in the production of prototypes and first series for Aeronautics.
This innovation project had the goal to increase the flexibility, through the management of the extreme working variability, and to let the production profitable even in case of very small batches on the twin pallet machines.

The whole workshop activity (raw components, fixtures and tool arrangement, machining execution and control) is coordinated, documented and registered through the IT instruments equipping each work station. JFMX supervision software has been installed on every machining centers of the workshop, in a special version purpose-developed to grant the interface and the management of the machines not produced by MCM (figure 1).
The real innovation of this system if compared with similar projects for a workshop automation, is the mode of programming and executing the mechanical workings, according to the Network Part Program (NetPP) which is a concept introduced by MCM for its own machines.

This function, normally available for MCM machines, enables a massive time saving in the development and optimisation stages. It ensures also the execution of all the part-program phases, from the execution of just one part for the process validation, to the retrieval of each single machining. With NetPP in fact, the operator communicates not only with ISO code, but also with the mechanical machining model, selecting on the screen which parts, which machining to execute or recovery (figure 2). The execution of NetPP is also in charge to grant that all these choices are respected during the machining, launched and checked automatically on the machining center. The success of the project has been ensured by the retrieval of the existing program data base too, through a sophisticated software module, produced by MCM, able to analyse ISO code and to restore the model of workings according to the new mode, in a safety way and through a minimal man intervention.

Particularly appreciated by the operators is the simplicity in the interfaces use, allowing an immediate and painless passage to the new way of working. Besides the integration of images, schemes and manuals taken directly from the Helios factory IT systems in the JFMX user interface, has allowed the quite total elimination of papers.

The automatic final balance of the activities for each machining center, regarding parts produced, machining time, machine stop time, has duly enabled to complete the global management, increasing the factory reactivity.
The project has been completed with the introduction of a MCM multi-pallet machining center CLOCK 900 MP12 5 AXES, allowing CAUQUIL to extend his capacity to serve a market in a continuous evolution.