Technology collaboration

Technology collaboration
Technology collaboration

The MTC in Coventry is exhibiting the Porsche 919 Hybrid racing car in its reception area until the start of the MACH show when it will move to the DMG Mori stand at the NEC in hall 5 on stand 5610.

DMG Mori is a Tier 1 member of the MTC and an exclusive premium partner of the Porsche Team in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). All three organisations have inherent values of innovation and technological collaboration.

The MTC focuses on delivering bespoke manufacturing system solutions for its customers and promoting UK manufacturing using some of the most advanced manufacturing equipment in the world and a team of highly skilled engineers, many of whom are leading experts in their field.

DMG Mori and Porsche began their cooperation in 2014 in a sponsorship and technical partnership agreement which would lead to a flow of knowledge between the two companies and a win-win situation with the aim of optimising the performance of the Porsche 919 Hybrid.

As part of the collaboration, DMG Mori has set up the ‘Porsche Motorsport CNC Competence Centre' at Deckel Maho in Seebach, Germany where a range of different parts are made for the Porsche 919 Hybrid. At Porsche's facility in Weissach, where design and development of the racing car takes place, the company already has two DMG Mori machines – a CTX beta 800 and a DMU 65 monoBLOCK both with the Celos machine interface, while at its Porsche Motorsport CNC Competence Centre, DMG Mori has a DMU 60 eVo FD, an HSC 70 linear and a CTX beta 800 TC all dedicated for use on Porsche components.

Michael Pidde, team leader, Porsche production at Deckel Maho, Seebach says: “We work closely with Porsche engineers, initially making one part to prove the process and to achieve the quality requirements. Once this has been achieved, Porsche then orders a quantity of components with an agreed delivery date. The process of optimising the machining can sometimes be complex as we have to overcome challenges such as deformation of the part during cutting while achieving the desired parallelism or, working with difficult materials such as glass fibre.

“Porsche engineers are continually learning from us, building manufacturability into their designs, while we are being challenged to come up with innovative machining strategies. In one instance, two parts are assembled and then machined which is faster and more accurate. Previously the two parts were machined individually.”

All the machines at DMG Mori's Porsche Motorsport CNC Competence Centre are fitted with Celos while all the NC programming is accomplished on Siemens NX CAM software. Designs supplied by Porsche are all solid models enabling Industry 4.0 integration of data through the CAM system down to the machine. “All the NC code, fixturing, tooling and other information required is all contained in one Celos knowledge database which we can access at the machine, ensuring that we can easily find the information we need and that it is presented at the correct version,” Mr Pidde explains.

For DMG Mori, the partnership with Porsche gives it an insight into the demands of motorsport, the exacting standards required and provides the opportunity to develop new and optimised manufacturing techniques. For Porsche, the sharing of knowledge has helped it in the development of reliable components for the 919 Hybrid, technology which will ultimately filter through to its road cars.

Mr Pidde concludes: “Working with Porsche has been both exciting and challenging. We have already made parts for the special battery system which recovers energy from the brakes and we are looking forward to making more complex parts such as motor housings for the coming season, which starts with 6 Hours of Silverstone on 17th April.”

DMG Mori
www.dmgmori.com

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