A recent report from utilities giant General Electric states the “industrial Internet” might boost worldwide productivity by 1.5 per cent over the next two decades, potentially adding $15 trillion to global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By “industrial Internet” the authors of the GE paper mean intelligent machines connected to online networks, transmitting production data for instant analytics.

Published in November 2012, the report only briefly touches on advanced manufacturing, focusing instead on the transportation and health-care sectors. Nonetheless, the document gives a sense of the potential of high-tech productivity-enhancing solutions for machine tools. A potential all the more significant given only a tiny percentage (one or two per cent, say productivity pundits) of manufacturing machines are currently connected to a network or set-up to automatically measure production metrics.

Of course, amidst the high-tech hoopla, there’s no shortage of “low tech” methods that can also enhance machine tool productivity, most of which are based on simple common sense.

Memex Automation, a firm from Burlington, Ontario, offers a statement on its website that underlines the allure of productivity-enhancing technology. “If you can measure it, you can manage it,” reads the site. In other words, if you can get a handle on production data, you can use that knowledge to bolster your bottom-line.

Memex’s main product is a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications platform called MERLIN (an acronym for “Manufacturing Execution Real-Time Lean Information Network”). A “machine monitoring OEE hardware and software” solution in Memex’s words, MERLIN records and analyzes real-time and historical performance data.

This data can be viewed by plant staff on a dashboard set-up. MERLIN is compatible with “all and any machines” according to its makers, including CNC and non-CNC machines alike. OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness and is a statistical measurement of capacity utilization in manufacturing facilities.

Memex president and CEO David McPhail explains why ultra-connectivity is important: “If I buy a brand new Mazak machine and put it on my floor, chances are it’s going to sit with 19 other [machine tools] that are not as new, that in most cases don’t have the ability to communicate … I’ve got a great machine, and get great data, but to be effective, I need data from the other 19 machines on my floor.”

In addition to collecting data, MERLIN can be used to identify production bottlenecks, predict machine failures, offer online diagnostics to get failed machines up and running, embed maintenance records and link to quality control systems. MERLIN can also be programmed to automatically send email or text notifications about machining problems. MERLIN can increase productivity up to 50 per cent and raise a company’s OEE from a plant average of roughly 35 per cent to 80 per cent, claims Memex.

MERLIN isn’t new, but at this year’s International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago, Memex was showing off an improved version of its system.

This new version (dubbed “MERLIN 3.0” by McPhail) is scheduled for release later this year or early 2015. MERLIN 3.0 replaces the system’s current dashboard application with a web-based application.

McPhail talks about using MERLIN 3.0 to create financial reports based on real-time data about plant-floor operations “If we can get management teams to make decisions based on cost impacts in real-time, then I think we have a real paradigm shift coming in manufacturing,” he says.

MERLIN isn’t Memex’s only product: the company also offers the Ax760-MTC and Ax9150 UMI-MTC hardware adapters. Fully configurable, these adapters enable users to communicate with CNC machines via MTConnect (an industry standard for transmitting data between shop-floor machines and software applications).

The KOMET Brinkhaus ToolScope process monitoring system serves a similar purpose as MERLIN. The system was developed in 2008 by the technology branch of the German-based KOMET Group. ToolScope can be connected directly to a CNC machine to detect, record and analyze data for the purpose of determining peak running parameters.

“The system is a process recorder. It records all necessary machine information relevant to this process, like spindle/motor torque, speed, position, coolant flow and pressure … this data gets stored as Excel-readable files … ToolScope monitors process signals, visualizes and documents them and, in a case of an alarm, the machine can be stopped at once. Different alarm reactions can be programmed,” explains Dr. Joachim Imiela, CFO of KOMET Brinkhaus in Hanover, Germany.

This year marks the release of the tenth version of ToolScope.

5ME of Cincinnati, Ohio has a web-based machine monitoring solution called Freedom eLOG.

“We can extract data from any industrial asset, and through a series of insightful web-based reports, take that data and provide a visualization to customers such that they can understand exactly what’s happening on the plant floor with their machines,” explains Pete Tecos, executive VP marketing and product strategy, 5ME. “It’s a way to identify bottle-necks. Drill into root cause issues and use that information to streamline their operations.”

Freedom eLOG can interface with any machine tool on a shop floor. Tecos says Freedom eLOG can result in productivity gains in the neighbourhood of 50 per cent. Like its counterparts at Memex, 5ME showed off an enhanced version of the Freedom eLOG at IMTS 2014.

5ME is also a leader in “cryogenic machining technology”—that is, using liquid nitrogen (LN2) instead of traditional coolant in machining applications. Liquid nitrogen—for those who failed high school chemistry—makes things extremely cold.

While it sounds like science-fiction, cryogenic machining isn’t new. The problem was, it was an expensive and not very effective process. Companies tried spraying tools externally or submerging the workpiece in liquid nitrogen. Neither method worked well.

5ME figured out a way to deliver liquid nitrogen in vacuum jacketed feed lines through a machine, through the spindle or turret, then inside the tool body, right to the cutting edge. When the liquid nitrogen reaches the latter, it evaporates and the cutting edge is chilled to a brisk -321°F (-196.11°C). This counteracts the heat generated in metalworking applications and allows the tool to be used beyond normal parameters.

5ME call this process, simply, 5ME cryogenic machining.

Productivity gains with 5ME cryogenic machining “depend on the material types and the processes. We’ve seen improvements in throughput up to five times—so five times faster…[cryogenic machining] works very well for the types of materials and machining processes that you would find in the oil and gas industry, aerospace or automotive,” says Tecos.

5ME literature says cryogenic machining on compacted graphite iron (GCI) can result in a five-fold increase in finishing cutting speeds. Cryogenic machining can also produce a two-fold increase for semi-finish cuts on titanium. Tool life can be increased up to 10 times and there’s less wear on the cutting edge.

Not only that, 5ME cryogenic machining is “a very safe technology” that’s environmentally friendly, continues Tecos. Nitrogen is a non-greenhouse gas that isn’t flammable. Using liquid nitrogen means there’s no coolant to dispose of.

For all these high-tech strides, there are also some decidedly “low-tech” methods of achieving greater machine tool productivity.

“The placement of machines into areas or ‘cells’ within the plant can definitely help increase productivity,” says Michael Cope, product technical specialist at Hurco, in Indianapolis, Indiana. “For example, if a shop often runs multiple operations of the same part on several different machines—such as turning the first operation on a lathe, then completing the milling operations on a mill—having those machines located close together will allow one operator to easily move the parts from one machine to the next, as the parts are finished in each operation … thereby reducing the time it takes for completing all necessary operations.”

“Fluctuating temperature can also be a huge problem,” adds Cope. “For example, if the temperature in the shop is very cool in the morning and extremely hot in the afternoon, then machine and part accuracies will suffer…causing the operator to chase dimensions as conditions change. However, if the environmental temperature around the machine is controlled and steady the accuracy of the machines and parts will also stabilize, making it much easier for the operator to manage tolerances and make it easier for that operator to multi-task. If he or she spends all of his or her time chasing dimensions, that isn’t very productive.”

“Yes, frequent heat and cold or draft conditions can adversely affect production by causing machine thermal migrations to become erratic and unpredictable which in turn will affect the operators’ ability to maintain a consistent size in production leading to more frequent offset changes and the possibility of producing [scrap] depending on the tolerance required,” echoes Tom Sheehy, manager of applications engineering for Hardinge based in Elmira, New York. “Moisture can produce rust conditions on the machine tool and on the finished components being produced leading to rework or increased scrap.”

Sheehy and Cope both cite a list of obvious—but sometimes neglected—steps that should be on any machinist’s check-list. These include checking the spindle chiller, doing warm-up procedures on the spindle and axis, inspecting fluid levels, etc.

In other words, as impressive as high-tech solutions can be at identifying hard to see areas for manufacturing improvement, it doesn’t hurt to regularly kick the tires and check under the hood of your machine tool, so to speak, if you want to ensure maximum productivity.