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Technikreport 3/10 (www.technikreport.at)
Efficient Milling and much more -
X.MILL 1000 TL AND CNC CONTROL GPLUS 450
Last year‘s difficult economic times and harsh
the design of a new tensioner with custom spe-
in a quickly increasing demand for 3D solu-
competition reminded many players in our in-
cifications or special features, they would first
tions, where modern milling and machining
dustry that growth must have one important
speak to a production manager, who would
centers will bring clear advantages. The coo-
characteristic: it must be healthy. At least that’s
hand over the order to Engineering, and then
peration between GM Projekt and Knuth Werk-
how Martin Gärtler sees it. He is CEO and ow-
anonymous workers would perform the work.
zeugmaschinen is marked by constant organic
ner of a small business for production enginee-
In our business, the customer will speak face
growth and is based on GM Projekt’s use of
ring and custom built machines in Hohenau at
to face to the person that will actually analy-
various machines from the renown German
the river March in lower Austria. GM Projekt.
ze the problem, develop a solution and realize
manufacturer since the beginning of its busi-
Since its foundation in 1998, this company is
the solution together with a small group of em-
ness. Knuth opened an Austrian office in 2006,
well aware that production capacity must be
ployees.” This guarantees quick turn-over and
which handles sales and service for this region.
flexibly adapted to the order volume in order
high flexibility in the development of solutions
Martin Gärtler’s requirements were clear and
to keep fixed costs as low as possible. Gärt-
specific – the machine had to be just as quick
ler stated, “Even though expansion is very
The perfect machine for small batch sizes
and flexible to adapt to the problem solving
tempting, especially in view of our long-term
Despite demanding orders, GM Projekt made
task on hand as he would have been. In other
lucrative orders from BMW, ABB Robotics,
it without any CNC machines until about year-
words, he wanted a true productivity and qua-
and Novoferm, we will not sacrifice the small
end 2008. Gärtler explains that this is due the
lity “generator”, not just a “piece of art for the
business advantages to uncontrolled sales
nature of their customers’ projects: “Our custo-
art’s sake”. Norbert Artner from Knuth Austria
growth.” Major advantages are uncompromi-
mers often come to us needing a solution for a
was able to fulfill these requirements and pre-
sed quality and the fact that the CEO is the
very particular problem. They usually will need
sented facts that the competitor was not able
customer’s primary point of contact, while also
it as quickly as possible in a quantity of merely
to compete with. After all, the new X.mill 1000
serving as planner, production manager and
1 to 3. In these cases, we usually were able to
TL is provided with a CNC control developed
even hands-on machine builder. What might
have the workpiece ready using conventional
by Knuth that is unsurpassed in the market.
even be considered unethical in large corpo-
methods, even before an engineer would have
rations, is a big benefit for customers of GM
designed it via CAD/CAM. But, of course, this
Projekt. A good example is, “If BMW requested
has its limits.” These limits present themselves
next
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GPlus User Report
In the field of production, flexibility is equally important as quality, which is especially true for small batch sizes. However, this
combination is difficult to achieve in machine tools, usually due to the control that is being used. The German machine tool
manufacturer Knuth has developed a very smart and surprisingly cost-effective solution for this problem.
Norbert Artner from Knuth Austria and Martin Gärtler from the GM Projekt in front of the X.mill 1000 TL (left to right)
Productive work instead of time-consuming
around.” This is made possible by the intuitive-
combination of X.mill 1000 TL and GPlus 450:
programming
ly programmable user interface, which provides
We can do anything, but we don’t have to“. The
The Knuth GPlus 450 in combination with the
real-life machining cycles with many suppor-
control hardware is based on a standard indus-
X.mill 1000 TL milling center convinces with it
ting graphics in its own Cycle Editor. Using this
trial PC, which provides many advantages. The-
well-designed, extremely user-friendly interface,
graphically supported Cycle Editor, typical ma-
re are no storage space problems, since all NC
allowing very quick programming. This results in
chining sequences can be programmed within
programs are stored on a hard disk with large
an above average speed for the completion of
minutes.
During programming, the operator
storage capacity, and the 2-GHz Intel processor
the finished product. This brings significant time
is guided by self-explanatory input masks. No
can process 450 NC blocks per second.Ethernet
advantages, especially for small batch sizes. But
knowledge of the basic M-Code Instruction Set
and USB ports allow worldwide remote diagnos-
what exactly differentiates the GPlus 450 from
and no prior programming knowledge are re-
tics and integration of the machine in factory net-
controls of major manufacturers? First of all,
quired. Gärtler stated, “With a little experience,
works, including connections to Profibus, CAN-
it’s the concept of the operator interface. Martin
I can single-handedly and easily define the ma-
open, DeviceNet.
Gärtler says: “The Knuth control supports ex-
chining cycles directly at the machine, without
actly my way of approaching the production of
using complex CAD/CAM software. If necessa-
workpieces. I would describe it like the system
ry, we can use DIN/ISO programming to create
adapts to my way of working – not the other way
NC programs. And that’s the beauty about this
back Ü
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GPlus User Report
The GPlus 450’s user interface provides ease of use and
optimum user-guidance