On the stand of Redditch-based Heller Machine Tools Ltd (www.heller.biz), the spotlight will be on the integration of machine tools and controls into the Industry 4.0 environment (Hall 20 Stand 470).

The company has adopted the name Heller4Industry for the suite of modules it offers in the Industry 4.0 arena.

Daily presentations by Bernd Zapf, head of development (new business and technologies) at the company’s headquarters in Germany, will highlight the developments that have been made.

Within the Heller4Industry portfolio, Heller4Operation is an easy-to-use operator-oriented user interface module.

Touch-screen controls at the tool and workpiece loading stations allow rapid and simple operation, facilitate the manufacture of individual parts, and help to “integrate production into the value chain”.

Another module, Heller4Performance, includes workpiece-specific analysis for optimising a process and extracting real-time data over the Internet — plus evaluation and graphical display ‘in the cloud’.

In practice, the module could — for example — map tool-paths and workpiece tolerances in parts of a cycle where tool wear is expected.

That section of the sequence would be simulated on the machine without cutting metal, so the paths actually traversed by the tool could be recorded and compared with the workpiece design.

The ability of the machine to actually produce the part to the required accuracy could then be determined.

Meanwhile, the Heller4Services module focuses on the transparency of digital manufacturing and maintenance and forms the basis for evaluating machine data and statistics that can help to reduce down-time.

Heller’s approach with Industry 4.0 is based on extracting and evaluating more data from existing machine sensors, rather than adding new sensors, thus making better use of additional computing power in the control and Siemens Sinumerik-Edge technology.

The range of Heller4Industry applications is completed by Heller4Use, an operational module for the company’s machining centres.

Based on data collected from machine(s) on the shopfloor, a customer is billed only for the time components are actually being produced (subject to a minimum number of running hours).

From a machine perspective, MACH will mark the UK launch of the HF 3500 five-axis horizontal machining centre.

Built in the UK, this machine is intended for the five-sided or simultaneous five-axis machining of complex prismatic parts in medium-to-large batches.

The maximum table load is 550kg, while an optional speed package enables 10m/sec2 acceleration and rapids of 90m/min to be achieved, reducing chip-to-chip time by about 10% compared with the standard machine.

The work envelope is 710 x 750 x 710mm, and the machine can be equipped with a lift-and-rotate pallet changer for series five-sided production; pallet automation solutions are also available.

The fourth and fifth axes are provided by a rotary table on a +30 to -120deg swivelling trunnion (both with direct drive) that moves towards the spindle, rather than vice versa.

Four spindle options are available, with speeds up to 18,000rev/min and torques up to 354Nm.

HF-series machines are equipped with a Siemens Sinumerik 840D SL control and a double-pivoting main operator panel with a 24in touch screen.

At the show, the HF 3500 will be connected to the open-platform cloud-based visualisation software MindSphere; this is part of Siemens’ Sinumerik-Edge, which continuously monitors machine condition.