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Appears in Print at Production Machining as: 'A Swift Tool Change for Swiss-Type Machines' This coolant-through tooling system replacement for the gang plate on a Swiss-type machine can save hours of spindle downtime per day as well as increase tool life and enhance chip control. While servicing the tools on a traditional platen on a sliding headstock lathe, it can take 10 minutes or more to index one insert. While indexing the tools, coolant spigots can get knocked loose by an operator and can cost a machine shop tool life and time. Once the inserts are indexed, it can take several starts and stops of the spindle for the operator to see if the coolant stream is being directed to where it needs to be.
Arno’s Fast Change (AFC) tooling system consists of a gang plate that holds split-shank, coolant-through turning tools, parting tools and grooving tools. Designed like a manifold, the coolant is rerouted through the gang plate to the tools. The UN-style slot in the fixed stop picks up the coolant and runs it through the pipette to the front end where the coolant goes directly to the cutting edge. The AFC system can supply coolant to one port that supports all the tooling positions, or it can supply two ports and divide the tooling positions with the needle valve. The tooling system only needs to be plumbed once and, according to the company, after that, a high-pressure coolant line should not need to be touched again. With proper setup, the high-pressure lines are moved behind the machine guards, creating a clean machining environment. This enables operators to complete safer routine maintenance. Also, the AFC’s low-profile clamps do not collect as many chips compared with a typical clamping system. When replacing a split-shank tool, the operator simply loosens two clamps to remove the cutting head and then replaces it with a new one, the company says. Simple, Quick FunctionalityA Time and Money SaverUsing the AFC system, Arno reports that it takes 17 seconds to change a tool, a vast improvement to the typical 7 to 10 minutes it can take using a traditional gang plate. The conventional method might take five minutes to change a tool, a minute to touch the tool off and another minute to adjust the spigot, for instance.
In comparison, when an operator is working with the AFC system, retouch is not necessary because the tool will repeat within plus or minus a thousandth of the previous tool positions. There is also no need to factor in time for readjusting coolant lines because the new system is a true, coolant-through system. It is also not necessary to factor in the clearing away of chips because those surfaces have mostly been eliminated with the smooth AFC design, according to Stroup. Therefore, the 17-second tool change time is the only time to factor in. But, for a real-world example, he increases the time to one minute to consider a distracted operator that might use extra seconds  These charts show estimates of cost savings using Arno Fast Change tooling system versus the standard monoblock tool system. Arno says users can gain $60,000 per year by using its Fast Change system. Although there are still 30 idle times per day, there are now only 30 minutes of downtime per day instead of 210 minutes using the traditional gang plate. “That only costs $10,000 per year, which means you’ve just made $60,000 a year on that one spindle by adopting the AFC system,” Stroup says.
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By Keith Stroup We have often touted the innovative ARNO FAST CHANGE system as a revenue generator instead of a cost saver. It's a matter of perspective I guess, but in our opinion, when you're spindle is running, more parts are being produced, thus you are generating more revenue every hour, every shift, and every day.
The total annualized "revenue enhancement" after installing the AFC gang plates and adopting all ARNO through coolant tooling was $674,500! This is broken down into two buckets: 1. Tool change time = $195,000 The incumbent tooling and gang plate were quite outdated and required a tool change time of nearly 25 minutes twice per day for each of the 4 tools in the gang. This resulted in 3 hours of spindle down time per shift! Once the AFC system was installed the tool change times immediately fell to 30 seconds for each tool, thus reducing spindle downtime to a mere 8 minutes per shift. 2. Tool life and increased parameters = $479,500 Adopting ARNO's through coolant tool holders with insert grades and geometries that were designed specifically for high production applications had a profound impact on productivity. Tables were submitted in the document that showed time reduction in turning, grooving, and parting operations with some process times being reduced by 75%. Of course, the through coolant feature increased tool life which further reduced the need for spindle idle time. This total revenue bump was calculated using 325 hours of increased spindle uptime per month. That's nearly 4000 hours of productivity gained annually... which resulted in another big advantage: The customer was able to bring subcontracted jobs back in house. At ARNO USA we love combining our years of manufacturing experience with game changing innovative technology to make huge impacts on our customers' productivity, accuracy, quality, and process stability. The ARNO FAST CHANGE program is pretty vast with new additions coming on line on a regular basis. There are nearly 50 gang plates presently available for the following machine manufacturers: Citizen, Star, Hanwha, DMG, Nexturn, and Tornos! This YouTube video provides a quick breakdown of the $195,000 tool change savings: Contact a member of our team to let us show you how to keep your spindle running longer!
Arno Werkzeuge USA has reintroduced the H.B. Rouse brand of American-made carbide cutting tools and inserts.  Arno Werkzeuge USA has reintroduced the H.B. Rouse brand of carbide cutting tools and inserts.
Formerly sold and marketed under the Arno-Rouse name, the company has reintroduced Rouse as a standalone product offering a broad range of carbide boring bars, tools and inserts for manual turning operations. The carbide insert turning tools have triple-sided inserts for quick change turning operations. Triple-tip boring bars offer an improved triangular insert located within a precision-machined pocket to eliminate shifting under heavy cuts; the insert requires the simple removal of one screw for indexing. Boring bars feature carbide inserts that provide three cutting edges instead of only one (as is common with brazed-tip tooling). |
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