Spirax Sarco, America’s leading provider of steam system solutions, has for nearly a century, been committed to helping steam users optimize productivity. Located in Blythewood, SC, Spirax had an immediate need for a solution to turn a family of steam valve bodies with ease of change over and a low cost-to-valve ratio.
Spirax was using a rotary transfer machine to manufacture steam valve bodies needing multiple sides turned. The machine had a long change over process and issues with capability. There was an attempt by Spirax to repair the machine, but the repairs and upgrades were unsuccessful.
Spirax Sarco purchased a fully turn-keyed MW200 with gantry loader. For Spirax, Murata built a pallet system and feeder tables that would allow an entire part family to fit on one pallet rather than having to change the pallets for each part number. The gantry work holding was also adapted to make changeover of this component minimal. Lastly, an indexing chuck was incorporated for bothspindles. This allowed Spirax to turn the multiple sides on each spindle. Since the MW200is a twin spindle machine, you get two completed parts per cycle.
Murata has in-house capability to customize solutions for each customer. Although the machines arrive with the gantry built into the system, MMUSA builds all feeding systems and gantry work holding internally. Murata’s experienced in-house design engineers adapt customer needs to complement the automation of the system.
Changeover time from one size part to another is 30 minutes with the Muratec MW200. Changeover with the transfer machine could take up to 3-6 hours.
With redundant tooling as a standard feature, shutting the system down because of tool wear is not as frequent. This allows for uninterrupted turning giving the operator time to focus on other areas in the process. As a bonus, the equipment was incorporated into a one-man, three-machine cell.
Spirax wanted a system that was easy to changeover due to the lot sizes they run. Their experience with a “custom” machine was unsuccessful, and they wanted an out-of-the-box system that offered them simple automation. They did not want to break the bank with their investment. The Muratec MW200 solved all three concerns.
