Cosworth
Erowa automation has delivered lights-out, high-performance milling at Cosworth.
The name Cosworth is synonymous with high-performance engines. For many years Cosworth has provided the power to take so many great names to Formula 1 success.
In today’s fiercely competitive market such performance is not just required on the track. The same level of performance is required in the manufacturing processes too. So, in 2004 Cosworth (formerly Cosworth Racing) installed an Erowa Robot PX for the "lights out" manufacture of high-performance pistons.
"The requirement we had was that in order to release the full potential of one of our new 5-axis machines manufacturing pistons, we had to be able to run un-attended or "lights-out" for as long a period of time as possible” says Phil Harpham, Cosworth’s Head of Manufacturing. “We considered many different handling and loading systems, but to be honest, there was only one clear leader, Erowa. The simplicity and flexibility the system brought with it made the whole installation a dream. It has certainly met and exceeded the strict requirements we specified and the integration with the machine tool was seamless."
The Robot was installed with a Deckel Maho DMU50v and was configured with 60 pallet positions. Half of these 148mm diameter pallets are fitted with special purpose fixtures. The remainder are fitted with 3-jaw chucks.
From day one, Cosworth were achieving 13 hours unattended running through the night. Today they can run this machine unattended from Friday night right through to Monday morning.
