Zayer and Tekniker renew their partnership to innovate in machine tools

Zayer, a manufacturer of milling machines and machining centres, and Tekniker, a technology centre with extensive experience in the machine tool sector, have renewed an agreement initially signed in 2014 to design and develop innovative machines.

This new agreement, signed by the director generals of Zayer and Tekniker, Fernando Arocena and Luis Uriarte, respectively, will run until 2029.

Luis Uriarte underscores that “our focus consists in maintaining long-term collaborative actions of this kind as they will enable us to further growth in the Basque industrial fabric and extend our knowledge in the sector so that solutions can be scaled up for other projects”.

These lines of work will give continuity to the actions already carried out in the past within the framework of this agreement and make it possible to design new, transportable machining solutions that can perform an extensive range of processes (such as milling, turning, drilling and grinding) and optimise the use of workshop space without any special maintenance requirements. They must also be more accurate and follow a zero-defect strategy to lessen their environmental impact.

Fernando Arocena, on the other hand, stated that “it is essential to have a partner like Tekniker if we want to improve our products and services and make further progress with regard to machine multi-functionality, stability, precision and dynamics by making these units smarter”.

Cutting-edge technology

The new solution to be jointly investigated by Zayer and Tekniker will do its utmost to enhance machine performance whenever thermal variations are present. In order to achieve this goal, equipment featuring cutting-edge technology will be developed for thermal monitoring on drives in order to implement different control strategies and diminish minor errors produced by these variations.

Zayer and Tekniker will also develop several strategies aimed at improving machine rigidity, dynamics and accuracy to meet requirements related to productivity, geometric accuracy and finish quality.

Another approach will focus on developing rapid characterisation lines to verify the volumetric precision of machines and rapidly compile data on the degree of accuracy achieved throughout an entire work volume. Technologies will be looked into in much greater depth to verify machines that will feature unprecedented levels of operational speed and accuracy by implementing self-calibration solutions and reducing set-up times.

One of Tekniker’s main priorities is related to automating measurements on machines and allocating uncertainties. Thanks to this approach, metrology will no longer be an activity that is carried out once the manufacturing process concludes, but rather a feature that can be implemented in intermediate production stages to enable in-process measurements and achieve a zero-defect strategy.

Although this does pose numerous technical challenges, the agreement also includes research actions aimed at developing new multi-function systems to install several machining processes on a single machine. Thanks to systems of this kind, it will be possible to finish parts on only one machine and there will be many advantages in terms of efficiency and energy savings.

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