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Procedia CIRP 59 (2017) 156 – 159

The 5th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services (TESConf 2016)

Study on quality improvement of machine tools

Makoto Fujishima1, Masahiko Mori1, Kimiyuki Nishimura1, Katsuhiko Ohno1
1 DMGMORI Co,. Ltd., Nagoya, Japan,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-52-587-1811; fax: +81-52-587-1818. E-mail address:fujisima@dmgmori.co.jp

Abstract

Quality management of machine tools is the key to reducing downtime of customers’ machines and the manufacturers’ service cost. This paper
introduces DMG MORI’s systematic workflow from designing, procurement, manufacturing, and acceptance inspections to the delivery of
machines, which contributes to improvement of machine quality. Two quality management systems, one for before shipment and the other for
after shipment, are described in this paper. Various workflow systems, data analysis, remote monitoring, continuous Kaizen approaches are
integrated in the systems. However, defects of machines cannot be completely eliminated, so proactive maintenance and strong service
networks are vital for business success. Especially, proactive maintenance is favorably accepted in the industry as a solution to minimize
machine downtime and the repairing cost. This paper introduces various sensing technologies to improve the functions of proactive
maintenance.

©©2016
2016 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier B.V.
B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of the Programme Committee of the 5th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
(TESConfunder
Peer-review responsibility of the scientific committee of the The 5th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services (TESConf 2016)
2016).

Keywords: machine tools; smart manufacturing; sensing

1. Introduction DMG MORI CO (DMG MORI in Japan) and 130,000

Until recently, machine tools utilizing the state-of-the-art
technologies such as 5-axis machines and mill turn centers and
the machining methods using those machines were mainly
studied in research and development of the machine tool
industry. However, new approaches to technical development
have been drawing attention lately, e.g. various technologies
such as machine tools, peripheral equipment, control units,
and applications are combined. To be more specific, systems
utilizing the IoT technology and the concept of Industry 4.0
and the latest machining methods such as additive
manufacturing are incorporated into new solutions. The
authors have been working to employ the above-mentioned
technologies to machine tools. However, among customers’
demands, having machines that do not break down once they
are installed and start operating at their factories are still the
most important.
The number of DMG MORI’s machine tools installed at
customers’ factories is approximately 200,000 machines of
machines of DMG MORI AG (DMG MORI in Germany) are
in operation. Moreover, according to the survey, 230,000
companies are potential customers of DMG MORI.
Large-scale manufacturers have installed hundreds of
thousands of machine tools at customers’ factories worldwide,
so they need to provide meticulous services to customers to
keep those machines constantly operating. If a machine tool of
a customer breaks down, service engineers must visit the
customer’s factory to repair the machine, and the production at
the customer’s factory stops until the machine recovers. In
most of such cases, customers demand that the manufacturer
should recover the machine as promptly as possible.
Furthermore, the average life span of machine tools is
considered to be as long as 15 years and maintenance services
are required during the same period. To provide maintenance
services to customers for such a long period, it is necessary to
carry spare parts with short life cycles such as electrical parts
in stock or modify machines so that the latest spare parts can
be used.

2212-8271 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the The 5th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services (TESConf 2016)
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2016.09.029
 Makoto Fujishima et al. / Procedia CIRP 59 (2017) 156 – 159 157

The key to providing customers with machine tools which Fig. 1 shows how the processes of the manufacturing
do not break down is to improve quality during the production management, quality management, and acceptance inspection
processes. This is the common target for most of the divisions are combined. These processes and the quality of machines
in the entire plant including development and manufacturing tools are all managed at one central system by computers. Fig.
divisions. The following are the items to be achieved. 2 shows the flow of assembly work in a vertical space
1. Common items utilizing the 3D model and BOM system to create standard
Lean manufacturing procedures for assembly work and test procedures.
Education/training
PDCA cycle 2.1 Quality management before shipment
2. Design section Quality inspections are conducted to detect problems
Design review including potential problems at the factories before shipment
Design verification to prevent problems from occurring after machine tools are
Customer point of view evaluation delivered to the customers’ factories. Fig. 3 shows the flow of
3. Manufacturing section the product inspections including the positioning accuracy test,
Before shipment quality management cutting test, product inspection, running test, and shipment
Kaizen inspection.
Inspection In the quality inspection processes actions for improvement
4. Procurement section are continuously taken, contributing to the quality
Supplier management improvement of machine tools.
Acceptance inspection 㻵㼚㼢㼑㼚㼠㼛㼞㼥㻌 Digital picking 㻼㼞㼛㼏㼑㼟㼟㻌
Process management 㼙㼍㼚㼍㼓㼑㼙㼑㼚㼠
Cost management 㼙㼍㼚㼍㼓㼑㼙㼑㼚㼠
VPS䠖Virtual product
Parts preparation
Delivery management simulator Operation
indication

If these items are rigorously pursued, drastic improvement in

WEB
the quality can be expected, defects on machine tools cannot Acceptance
DMG MORI 4.0
Production
Process
check
management
be completely eliminated. So efficient and highly-qualified
Web order
services are important, and the following two solutions are the
MRP
key to providing such services. Test procedure
Operation
NET Inspection monitor

(1) Detect failures before parts broken 㻻㼞㼐㼑㼞㼞㻌 㻽㼡㼍㼘㼕㼠㼥㻌

㼙㼍㼚㼍㼓㼑㼙㼑㼚㼠 㼙㼍㼚㼍㼓㼑㼙㼑㼚㼠
Preventive maintenance with sensing technologies Fig.1 Smart manufacturing at Iga facility of DMGMORI
(2) Repair as soon as possible after failure
Development Preparation Manufacturing Quality
Remote monitoring and maintenance system management
VPS
Strong service network 3D CAD DATA 䠄Virtual Product Simulator䠅
BOM
Check sheet
Parts supply system Traceability

Barcode
This paper introduces approaches to the above-mentioned Interference check reader
contents as a machine tool manufacturer.
Standard Transfer
Process managem
management
me t
me
2. Quality management at the factory
DMG MORI has 13 main factories in seven countries. This Operation
recor
global production system, with factories in Europe, the U.S.A.,
and China, as well as four factories in Japan and three in ORiN
Feed back
Germany, reduces risks of volatile currency exchange rates,
and enables optimal machine tool delivery for the customers Fig. 2 Utilization of Design data
worldwide in terms of transportation costs and lead time.
In-process inspection Positioning accuracy test Cutting test
Additionally, high accuracy magnescales and laser scales are
ISO standard test Cutting accuracy test
Self inspection by
produced in Isehara, and Taiyo Koki's grinding machines are the assembly
personnel
produced in Nagaoka. At the factory in Iga, the largest one
among the 13 main factories, medium-size and large-size
machine tools are manufactured. The quality management
divisions in Iga, which consists of two divisions: the before Shipment Shipment inspection Product inspection
100-hours running operation
shipment quality management division and after shipment Inspection of packaging Overall running operation of 100 specifications,
and bundled items at hours in total, covering all functions,
quality management division. The before shipment quality shipm
shipment roces
oces
oc
o ce
c e
essses
processesses
se embedded software
and safety
management division is responsible for inspecting machines
before shipment to provide customers with high-quality
machine tools, whereas the after shipment quality
management division is responsible for improving the quality
of machine tools after they are installed at customers’ factories. Fig.3 Product inspection
158
䡚2013䠅
Tolerance(䡚
New Tolerance(2014
䡚䠅
Fig. 4 Accuracy improvement process
Fig. 4 shows the sampling of measurement results of the X-
axis positioning accuracy of horizontal machining centers. The
accuracy of 80% within the allowable range is constantly
achieved thanks to daily efforts to take actions for accuracy
improvement. The allowable range of accuracy is reviewed
every year and an even more challenging target is set
depending on the measurement result.
2.2 Quality management after shipment
In the quality management after shipment, problems which
have occurred at customers’ factories are managed, so solving
those problems and taking countermeasures to prevent
recurrence of the same problems are important. If a problem
occurs at a customer’s factory, the service engineer in the
region issues the product problem report system (PPR). The
After Shipment Quality Management Group receives the
report, and forwards it to the related division(s) with
instructions about what need to be done. When a critical
problem occurs or the same type of the problem occurs on
multiple machines, the After Shipment Quality Management
Group instructs to change design or change the procedure in
the manufacturing process to prevent recurrence of the same
problem.
Remote monitoring is efficiently utilized in the quality
management after shipment. Approximately 10,000 machine
tools are connected to the DMG MORI’s network and these
machine tools are monitored remotely [1]. When a problem
occurs at DMG MORI’s customer’s factory, detailed
information about the machine such as the diagnosis result by
CNC and the alarm history can be checked at offices of DMG
MORI to promptly solve the problem (Fig. 5).
Customer’s Factory
Problem mobile phone
network
Diagnostic requests can be automatically sent by
machine or manually sent by machine operator.
Problem is diagnosed and repaired
Screen information
(Data is compressed)
Operate and monitor CNC screen
One screen information can be
displayed in 3sec
Fig. 5 Remote monitoring system
Makoto Fujishima et al. / Procedia CIRP 59 (2017) 156 – 159
3. Sensing technologies for machine tool
The paper has explained quality management and services
to be provided after shipment so far. As a next challenge, the
paper introduces preventive maintenance and predictive
maintenance [2], [3] in which sensing technologies are utilized.
Many sensors have been effectively used lately in various
fields such as consumer appliances, health care, transportation,
and businesses. Numerous sensors actually function these days,
many of which were once thought to be inconceivable to be
put into practice. Consequently, the production volume of
sensors increased, while production costs per unit decreased.
According to the 2013 TSensors Summit, the volume in the
mobile sensor market grew exponentially, exceeding annual
increases of 200% between 2007 and 2012. Visionary
organizations foresee the number of sensors will reach trillions
within the next decade [4], exceeding the sales of billions in
2012 due to the recent growth of the demands for sensors..
More and more sensors will be utilized for machine tools in
the near future. Members of CIRP have been studying various
types of monitoring technologies by using sensors [5] , [6],
and determined that some of the technologies will be effective,
if they are put into practice. The goal of this study is, therefore,
to develop a test machine equipped with various sensors and
utilizing practical applications in the industry by employing
sensing technologies that were studied in the past.
In this study, acceleration sensors embedded in the spindle
unit were used to measure chatter vibration, collision impact,
and abnormal bearing vibration. A coolant level sensor,
developed by ourselves, is advantageous in terms of cost and
performance. Electric current and voltage sensors were used to
measure energy consumption of the entire machine tool.
Temperature sensors embedded in the spindle unit and table
were used to compensate thermal displacement or diagnose
spindle bearings. Motor power and spindle speed obtained
from the NC unit were utilized as well.
Machine tool input-output (I/O) signal lines are usually
connected to the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). I/O
signals are mostly digital binary at DC24V. Analogue signals
can be received by the PLC, but a generic PLC is not suitable
to receive high-speed analogue signals in sensing technology
studies. The sampling rate required for acceleration sensors
exceeds several kHz, which is several fold of chatter vibration
frequency. Since generic PLC control cycles commonly
perform only in the millisecond range, a platform that allows
machine tool manufacturers to utilize sensor data without
limitations of the PLC or NC unit was developed [7].
Machine Tool The backbone route of the sensing network was structured
Manufacturer’s Service
Center
with the 100BASE-TX Ethernet. Because sensors cannot be
connected to the Ethernet directly, four types of interface
boards for sensor signal inputs and Ethernet outputs were
developed.
The Data Acquisition FFT Board (DAQF) has three
acceleration sensor interfaces and two temperature sensor
interfaces. In addition, the real time FFT function is embedded
in this circuit board. The Data Acquisition Temperature Board
(DAQT) is a general A/D converter board with the voltage
input terminal and thermistor interface. The Electrical Power
Monitor Board (EPM) is connected to electrical current
sensors and voltage sensors, which were placed at three-phase
 Makoto Fujishima et al. / Procedia CIRP 59 (2017) 156 – 159 159

The coolant level in the tank can be easily detected with this
ATC, Magazine Chattering control Balance monitoring/ control
sensor. That is, monitoring the clean tank and dirty tank
Preventive Maintenance 䞉XYZ Vibration sensors
䞉 Motor load and torque 䞉Motor load 䞉SP Balancing data enables us to predict when the filter between the tanks needs
䞉Bearing temp. and vibration data
B Axis automatic
rotation adjustment
cleaning or replacing. The timing is when the difference
䞉 Servo data from motor Hydraulic management
drivers
䞉 Pressure between coolant levels of both tanks becomes higher than a
䞉 Controller alarm
Power monitor 䞉Contamination of oil
certain level.
䞉Power consumption
(Voltage & current) Oil cooler management Reducing the power consumption of a machine tool is one of
Remote monitoring 䞉 M/C body temp.
䞉Alarm signal 䞉 Oil Temp. the most important themes. The authors have studied power
䞉 Atmosphere temp.
䞉Operation monitor
䞉sensing data
䞉 Motor load saving and experienced that power consumption was actually
䞉 Controller alarm

Automatic servo Coolant quality

tuning Distortion
䞉Servo data from motor
drivers
Machine
leveling
Compensation
䞉Vibration data
䞉Vibration data 䞉Load cell data 䞉Temp. data
Fig.6 Sensing items for machining center
power supply. Aside from calculating electrical power
consumption, this function monitors power supply quality.
The EPM is also connected to the coolant level sensor. Fig. 6
shows all the sensing items which could be mounted on a
machining center, e.g. sensors for the spindle, table, ATC,
magazine, coolant, power consumption and so on. The coolant
level sensor and power consumption sensor are introduced.
A new approach for the measurement of the coolant level is
introduced here. This system uses a capacitance-type original
level sensor shown in Fig. 7. The electrodes of this sensor fall
into nine areas. Each electrode pair has different capacitance
values depending on whether the electrode is in the air or
submerged in coolant.
The collected capacitance values were converted to voltage
values and transferred to the EPM through the RS485
interface. Nine electrode pairs as the sensor device and the
control circuit are on one circuit board, which makes the
sensor cost less expensive than a currently available level
sensor.
䞉Coolant level
䞉 Water level and temp. data
䞉 Contamination level
reduced on actual machine tools by employing some of the
technologies that were studied. The next step is to monitor and
visualize power consumption of each machine tool. A digital-
computing-type power meter was developed for this. The
voltage sensor and electric current sensor were attached to the
three-phase power input area so that samples of the voltage
and electric current are collected simultaneously at a high
speed, analog data is converted to digital data, and
instantaneous power is calculated by multiplying the data with
the microprocessor(Fig.8). The result is processed by the
averaging procedure for a period of one cycle (T), the active
power P is calculated, and the active power P is displayed on a
HMI via the Ethernet. This system measures power
consumption and detects abnormal power consumption as well,
which enables us to determine machining processes and
predict potential problems for machine tools.
Though many sensor technologies have been widely used on
machine tool, the security of such application is still a concern.
This includes the integrity of sensing data transmission,
customer specific data protection and reliable sensing
acquisition system to prevent harmful attack. The security
issue needs further investigation, and this paper does not cover
the topic.
4. Conclusion
(1) Smart manufacturing enables us to efficiently manage the
quality of machine tools before shipment in the factory.
(2) Remote monitoring enables us to efficiently  perform
maintenance work for customers’ machines after shipment.
(3) Sensing enables us to improve functions of preventive
maintenance.

References

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Fig. 7 Level sensor and inner circuit Development of Remote Monitoring and Maintenance System for
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