In the world of NASCAR, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and F1 racing, engine valves are in high demand. In NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series, for example, valves are changed out after every race. With that kind of demand for its products, valve-train part manufacturer Xceldyne Technologies (Thomasville, North Carolina) knew it needed to get more production out of its machining centers—enough to produce hundreds of valves per day.

Valve-train parts include titanium valve locks, valve seats, retainers, guides and other ancillary support products. In addition to valve-train components, Xceldyne manufactures fuel pumps, cam drives and various prismatic engine and suspension components. During the last 3 years, its plant has expanded to 35,000 square feet. The company operates 55 CNC machines, including mills, lathes and centerless grinders, all supported by a state-of-the-art metrology lab. All of this equipment is less than 4 years old.

In the company’s search for a method to increase production capacity, it identified a bottleneck associated with measuring or touching off tools on the machines to measure offsets. Xceldyne estimated that perhaps 10 percent of machining time was spent doing this rather than producing chips.

The non-contact, vision-based presetter and measuring machine offers repeatability to ±0.002 mm. According to the shop, the machine is crucial when inspecting insert edges for damage and wear.

“We went to the IMTS show with the intent of finding ways to improve the efficiencies on the job-shop side of our business,” says Eric Gale, milling group leader. While at the show, the company learned about Zoller Inc.’s “smile” tool presetter. A few months later, it installed the presetter right next to the machining center cell, where it could support the shop’s production milling. After personnel from Zoller came to the shop to provide several days of on-site training, the company was able to effectively use the presetter on its own.

Designed for accuracy, the “smile” is a universal, non-contact, vision-based presetter and measuring machine that can accommodate tools with diameters as large as 600 mm and lengths ranging to 800 mm. Measurements are repeatable to ±0.002 mm. Display accuracy on the 12-inch TFT color display is 0.001 mm. According to the company, this feature is a big help when it inspects insert edges for damage and wear.

The unit is equipped with Zoller’s “saturn set” software, which is designed to be especially useful for small to mid-sized shops. The software can store data for as many 300 different tools, and its intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) guides operators through the measuring process, the manufacturer says. Able to provide automatic edge recognition in all four monitor quadrants, the software can measure two angles on each tool as well as length, diameter and radius.

The vision system includes a telecentric lens and dynamic crosshairs. According to the manufacturer, these features allow users to precisely measure and set cutting tools while diminishing the possibility of operator error. The measuring counter displays the actual value in real time.

Mounted in the high-precision spindle, the toolholder can be clamped and indexed in 90-degree increments via a membrane keyboard. The shop uses mostly CAT taper tooling, although the presetter is available with adapters for virtually all toolholding systems. A one-handed operating handle allows the operator to slide the camera into position to view the tool.

Most tools on Xceldyne’s machines are preset to 0.020 to 0.030 inch to start, and some jobs require a 30-tool complement to complete a part. The company soon found that once it set each tool with the new presetter, it required much less time to set up each job—an additional time savings beyond eliminating on-machine tool setting.

The presetter is said to be particularly useful for boring tools. Previously, the company would adjust the boring tool and touch off, make trial cuts and then reset the tool. With the new presetter, however, a tool will cut to within 0.001 inch of the preset dimension instantly, Mr. Gale says. “When we need to make a change, the offset is available from the manufacturer to download to the machine tool directly and accurately,” he explains.

Xceldyne produces high-performance valve-train parts and other racing components.

In addition, Mr. Gale says, the new system allows the company to refine setups and save the information for future runs. The capability to create accurate setup sheets enables the company to detail tools and to include setup notes, the type of toolholder used and tool lengths. Thus, when a job is rerun, the tooling detail is already available. This accelerates setup while enabling the company to keep up with demand and duplicate parts precisely every time.

“When we are making a Z-axis offset manually in the machine, we spend approximately 1 minute and 20 seconds, and this could be longer depending on the tool-storage capabilities,” Mr. Gale says. “With the Zoller tool presetter, this is done in 15 seconds. The big time savings come when setting a boring bar. For example, setting the bar in the machine manually may take 5 minutes, but with the Zoller, we can achieve offsets in approximately 1 minute.”