Mahle’s powertrain manufacturing plant in Wellingborough, one of 10 of its facilities in the UK, manufactures upwards of 700 head and engine block sets every week for the world's third-largest construction equipment manufacturer. To ensure the company maintains its high production levels, Mahle Powertrain employs 22 Heller twin-pallet machining centres than run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, machining cast iron.
Mahle uses more than 170 different Mapal tool assemblies for its HSK63 and HSK100 machines. Product lines include everything from solid carbide end mills, boring tools, drills, taps, reamers, rough boring ISO tools, fine boring tools and specialist tools for crankshaft and camshaft machining; in total more than 90% of its tooling is supplied by Mapal.
As part of the arrangement, two full time Mapal employees are based in the tool management area at Mahle.
The Mapal toolroom
Mahle powertrain production technician explains the arrangement: "Mapal supplies the complete package; we use their tools in our machines and when the tool life expires we take the tool out, put it in a tool trolley and the Mapal engineers will come in to refurbish, re-tip and re-set the tools. Once the Mapal engineer has prepared the tool for re-use, it is returned to the machine tool carousel to be used again or it is stored in the tool management system."
To ensure the service levels are maximised, the tool setters are supported by an additional application engineer that visits to investigate potential new solutions. This strategy ensures that Mahle is continually optimising its machining processes.
One recent example of the continuous process development was the installation of Mapal's new three-flute Tritan drill. The Mapal application engineer trialled the through-coolant solid carbide Tritan against an existing 13.16 mm diameter solid carbide spiral drill. For cutting a bolt hole in the cast iron cylinder head, the previous drill operated at 2,429 rpm with a feedrate of 672 mm/min (100 m/min at 0.28 mm/rev) to achieve a tool life of 37 parts. However, the new Tritan drill cut 70 parts before needing replacement, exceeded the performance of the previous drill by 48%. Running at a cutting speed of 2,204 rpm with a feedrate double the other of 1,322 mm/min (90 m/min at 0.6 mm/rev), the Tritan drill has reduced cycle times by 60 seconds per cylinder head.
Referring to why the company selected Mapal as its tooling partner, Samwell continues: "Mapal was the one company that offered the most comprehensive solution and service for our needs. Mapal can manufacture the tools at its UK facility and even supply products from other manufacturers, where necessary, to deliver a complete package."
This complete package includes the management of inventory and costs. Mapal’s tool management program automatically orders replacements when tools are taken from the tool management department. In fact, the tool management system for the head block and bedplate works on a cost-per-piece agreement.
