New coaching know-how now out there globally from Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division leverages the facility of its digital twins to assist producers prepare machinists and metrology specialists to make use of helpful shop-floor tools. By combining {hardware} that realistically replicates machines with manufacturing simulation and operator’s software program instruments, it helps trainees acquire sensible expertise with out risking harm to costly business-critical tools, losing supplies, or tying up helpful manufacturing assets.
HxGN Machine Coach was developed by Hexagon to assist firms and academic establishments entice and prepare the following technology of machine staff – one thing that’s vitally necessary with the business going through a expertise and labour scarcity. Within the US, for instance, job openings are hovering close to all-time highs at 800,000 with 55% of roles unfilled 1, whereas nearly three in 10 manufacturing companies in Europe reported manufacturing constraints within the second quarter of 2022 as a consequence of an absence of staff 2. The talents scarcity is compounded by the truth that coaching individuals to make use of CNC machines, and related instruments, is pricey, sluggish and probably harmful. By coaching machine operators utilizing an correct and interactive bodily simulator, producers can onboard and upskill their workers quicker and extra affordably than ever earlier than.
Hexagon’s new {hardware} simulator bridges the manufacturing expertise hole by making it simpler to arrange inexperienced workers for the calls for of the manufacturing facility. It’s versatile as a result of a digital twin will be created for the particular machine model, sort and configuration they are going to use. As soon as skilled, staff can simply transfer from HxGN Machine Coach to actual machines, as a result of the simulator is designed to be as life like as attainable – with {hardware} that replicates the feel and appear of an actual machine and a 43-inch display screen that shows correct simulations of a big number of machine and chopping instruments.  A light-weight tower, bodily CNC hand wheel and CMM joystick completes the expertise by enabling trainees to answer points and management machine actions precisely as they’d on the store ground. The agile coaching system additionally gives a variety of digital twins for coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) to offer sensible expertise.
Every coach unit will be outfitted with as much as three CNC controllers — together with these by Fanuc, Heidenhain, and Siemens — on a single coaching console. The machine coach utilises the most recent model of Hexagon’s NCSIMUL CNC simulation software program to simulate 3-axis, 5-axis, and mill-turn machine instruments; and I++ Simulator software program to simulate full metrology processes.
“Crashing a machine software due to incorrect setup is a nightmare for each the brand new machinist and administration involved {that a} piece of equipment value thousands and thousands might be completely broken,” mentioned Alexander Freund, director of product administration at Hexagon, “Crashing a digital machine software or CMM is safer for employees and tools and gives a practical expertise to trainees whereas making certain that helpful assets stay up and operating.”
Employees coaching to be machine-tool operators, machinists and, in the end, CNC programmers, can use any of the three controllers to learn to use its related conversational programming language. Accompanying scholar workout routines embrace instruction sheets that mimic typical manufacturing workflows and job specs. These directions listing digital chopping instruments to be assigned to jobs and the CNC program to be loaded to the coach unit. Along with troubleshooting and studying swap between handbook and computerized run modes as wanted, college students learn to set machine-tool origins and power parameters, and to find out chopping software compensation.
HxGN Machine Coach is out there globally now, supporting 3-5 axis CNC machine instruments, mill-turn machining and CMM coaching, with help for as much as 3 CNC controllers on a single unit. It comes with a library of machine digital twins for Hermle, DMG and Fanuc machines. CMMs help contains the Hexagon TIGO SF, with help for different CMMs by way of the I++ Simulator, paired with both QUINDOS or PC DMIS metrology software program. Clients can request a digital twin of another machine.
