Decreasing costs by 90 percent for each new part and reducing machine downtimes during part run-in from 15 shifts to one

Innovating specialized aluminum parts processing

HANOMAG Aluminium Solutions GmbH (HANOMAG Aluminium) specializes in finishing aluminum components, primarily for the automotive industry. It has been part of the Hanomag Lohnhärterei Group since 2021 and operates 26 chambers and continuous furnaces at its Kassel and Baunatal sites in Germany. The company also mechanically processes cylinder heads, engine blocks, subframes and housing parts that are heat-treated at a machine park with almost 40 4-axis and 5-axis computer numerical control (CNC) machining centers, which are all equipped with modern SINUMERIK controls. Additionally, the company carries out measurements on coordinate measuring machines (CMM) during production.

“In a three- to four-shift operation, we process aluminum parts in various quantities, from prototypes to pre-series to large series,” says Dominik Köhler, production manager at HANOMAG Aluminium’s Kassel plant. “The components often go through all processing steps until they are ready for installation, but some are only premachined.”

To help HANOMAG Aluminium optimize its processes, the company teamed up with the d.u.h.Group, which is a Siemens Digital Industries Software platinum smart expert partner. The d.u.h.Group used NX™ software and the Virtual NC Controller Kernel (VNCK), which are part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services, to construct a comprehensive Digital Twin. This enabled HANOMAG Aluminium to create and optimize CNC programs on the computer model in parallel with production. This reduced machine downtime during part run-in by 90 percent and increased quotation calculation dependability with reliable preview data.

Overcoming challenges to improve productivity

In the automotive industry, there are conflicting objectives between higher speeds and vehicle weights and the need to reduce energy and raw material consumption. However, companies can resolve this with consistent lightweight construction. In addition to the structural design, the choice of materials is an important lever.

Due to its low density and satisfactory strength properties, aluminum is a preferred material in the aerospace industry as well as for constructing rail and road vehicles.

Aluminum is used in numerous areas of vehicle construction, from combustion engines and electric motors to chassis and structural components, doors and body parts. This includes using cast and formed components.

Additionally, the processing intensity of the parts varies greatly, with processing times between 75 and 540 seconds. Their average production period or lifecycle is around seven years, with a downward trend as products are replaced, discontinued or redesigned. Due to faster model changes and development cycles, new parts are introduced more frequently.

“This is not the only reason why it is important for us as a contract manufacturer to reduce the retooling and run-in times when changing components,” says Köhler. “It was equally important for our management to obtain reliable forecasts of the exact processing times at an early stage as a basis for binding proposals.”

The production manager was aware that it would not be easy to achieve these goals with the previous processes. “The machine programs were created and, above all, optimized on the machines,” says Köhler. “Running in a new part typically blocked the machine, including the operators, for 15 shifts or five days.”

Selecting NX as a CAD and CAM solution

To overcome this challenge, Köhler decided to carry out these activities in parallel with productive machine operations whenever possible; thus, he approached various major computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software vendors. Additionally, since most of the downtime was not caused by programming, but by successive optimizations, purchasing CAM software alone would be insufficient. HANOMAG Aluminium required a major digitization step to facilitate carrying out most of the component run-ins in a realistic simulation using a machine-specific computer model.

HANOMAG Aluminium chose Siemens as its solution provider due to its NX software for CAM and computer-aided design (CAD) and its Digital Twin approach, which enables machine-specific, highly realistic simulation run in; optimizes CNC programs offline and in parallel with production and reduces downtime significantly.

Programming while machining

For project realization, Siemens referred HANOMAG Aluminium to d.u.h.Group, a mid-sized German company that offers its customers tailored solutions to improve the efficiency of their processes and to drive Digital Transformation. In addition to implementing software, consulting and training, this also includes customizing and developing software.

For HANOMAG Aluminium, d.u.h. Group’s manufacturing software specialists created five postprocessors to use with NX CAM. These are configurable and can cover the entire machine park at the Kassel and Baunatal plants. Using these, they can create programs in parallel with production based on the parts‘ 3D models, which customers supply in various file formats.

“The ability to import all common formats and avoid the loss of accuracy when using neutral formats was one of the criteria for choosing NX CAM,” says Köhler. “Another was the software‘s ability to handle the often large data volumes due to the variety of machining operations.”

Additionally, leveraging NX CAM also provides functions for automatically creating recurring machining steps based on geometry properties.

Creating a virtual machine park

The digitization experts at d.u.h.Group created the complete Digital Twin of all the machine tools for HANOMAG Aluminium. This facilitates carrying out not only CNC programming but also the run-in process at the office in parallel to production.

Using the 3D design data the manufacturers provided allows HANOMAG Aluminium to generate a computer model of the machine. However, this does not consider the real-time behavior of the control electronics. Therefore, the company cannot simulate the machining process with sufficient precision to provide a representative result that can be directly transferred to real-world operation.

To overcome this limitation, the software developers at d.u.h.Group added the VNCK to NX CAM. This allows HANOMAG Aluminium to operate the virtual machines and carry out the machining simulation using the control software.

“Our CAM experts created a complete Digital Twin of the machine tools,” says André Fehn, presales and CAM team leader at d.u.h.Group. “These act as true-to-life digital representations of the movements of the physical machine tools with the exact speeds, accelerations, tool changes and cycle times.”

Additionally, teaming up with d.u.h.Group provided services such as staff training, installation, infrastructure optimization and the integration of customer processes, ensuring a quick and smooth transition. After integrating Siemens’ solutions, HANOMAG Aluminium had two computer workstations that could create, check and optimize the complex machining processes instead of directly at the machines. It is also possible for the company to simulate manually generated CNC code, as well as direct feedback to the part design.

“The investment in NX CAM and the Digital Twin of our machinery based on VNCK has paid for itself in less than a year thanks to the largely parallel component startup,” says Köhler.

“With NX CAM and the Digital Twin based on VNCK, we validate and fine-tune CNC programs virtually before the first machine run. This cuts setup effort, helps prevent collisions and keeps production running smoothly from the start.”

Achieving substantial productivity gains

Leveraging the NX CAM simulation based on the Digital Twin of the entire machine park has revolutionized the run-in process for new parts at HANOMAG Aluminium. This process now resembles virtual commissioning because the computer model first carries out the startup, preventing collisions, reducing risk and avoiding rejects.

After successfully completing the virtual run-in on the Digital Twin, the workpieces transfer to the physical machines.

Although the company still carries out final optimizations directly at the machine, the time has been reduced from 15 shifts to one.

“After d.u.h.Group experts integrated Siemens solutions, our savings amount to over 90 percent or around 11,000 Euros per component,” says Köhler. “This alone has paid for the investment within a year.”

By using virtual run-in, HANOMAG Aluminium also greatly improved its quotation calculation’s accuracy and reliability, allowing it to calculate exact cycle times. In a highly competitive market, this contributes to the company’s effectiveness.