Nidec Machine Tool Develops Digital Twin Platform for Machine Tools, and Unveils It at JIMTOF2024, Proposing an Efficient and Manpower-saving Production Method for the Future | Nidec

Press release - 9 October 2024 20:44

Nidec Machine Tool Corporation (“Nidec Machine Tool” or the “Company”) today announced that it has developed a digital twin platform that, in a machining process using a large machine tool, reproduces an actual world highly accurately by using simulation. The platform performs verification and tuning in a virtual space to improve machining program’s data to the ultimate level of completion, and uses the Company’s machine tool that can reproduce data faithfully to speedily machine a work-piece at a target quality level. The digital platform will help reduce the number of actual equipment-based processes amid the metal-processing industry’s serious labor shortage caused by a declining workforce and people’s unwillingness to work in the manufacturing industry.

The aforementioned technology will be demonstrated for the very first time at this year’s Japan International Machine Tool Fair (JIMTOF2024), to be held at Tokyo International Exhibition Center (Tokyo Big Sight) from November 5 – 10, under the topic, “Proposal on an efficient and manpower-saving production method for the future.”

This technology analyzes processes in mental component machining works that consume a lot of operators’ time, and factors that reduce machine utilization. The newly developed application software uses digital technology and AI to solve such issues. This application software uses a virtual space (on a personal computer, or PC) to simulate a machining NC*1 program that was made to operate machines, to improve the degree of perfection to the ultimate level. This is why, at a factory, operators can obtain a deliverable of a target quality level only by starting the machining process, and without performing advance verification using the actual machine or a work-piece (a material to be processed).

Normally, prior to starting any machining process, a mechanical operator is required to check and set various machining conditions (e.g., movement interference, cutting load, and cycle time), and repeatedly correct those programs and perform a test-cutting procedure. Such debugging*2processes take time, and the machine utilization remains low with the actual machine, resulting in a low productivity. By offering the application software, with which anyone can perform these works easily, the Company is ready to help improve productivity and reduce operators’ workload.

Specifically, the software program brings a PC- and monitor-based 3D image into a virtual space to check machines’ movements and work-pieces’ conditions accurately. This software enables an operator to check, among others, machining time, machined surfaces, and movements in a virtual space, without having to perform debugging or test-cutting with an actual machine. Furthermore, the Company’s highly reproducible double-column five-face machining centers can perform machining at a certain quality level without relying on people or places, enabling remote and multiple-place production.

At JIMTOF2024, Nidec Machine Tool will use a PC and MVR-Hx, a double-column five-face machining center that the Company produces, to perform demonstration using Fanuc Corporation’s digital twin technology, and offer new solutions to issues facing users.

Nidec Machine Tool’s demonstration at JIMTOF2024 will include:

*1. “NC” stands for “numerical control.”*2. “Debugging” means to search for and specify the reasons for, and the source-code location of, any malfunction or defect discovered in a test after a programming glitch or mistake, to fix the malfunction/defect so that the program runs as intended.*3. “FMII” stands for “fine mold,” which is the second generation of Nidec Machine Tool’s original mold-machining control functions.

Nidec was established in Kyoto, Japan in 1973 by its Chairman Shigenobu Nagamori. In 1979, Nidec became the first company in the world to successfully commercialize a direct drive spindle motor for HDDs based on a brushless DC motor. Since then, the company has grown into a world-leading comprehensive motor manufacturer encompassing more than 300 subsidiaries employing over 100,000 people throughout the world and with annual sales exceeding $13B. Nidec's motors, drives, generators and related products are found in a diverse range of applications including computers, smartphones, home appliances, automobiles, manufacturing plants, robots and more.