TARUS: Maszyna do przyspieszania i transformacja cyfrowa

Wspieranie liderów TARUS poprzez innowacje

. Wynalazki i innowacje to siła napędowa rodzinnej firmy TARUS, jedynego amerykańskiego producenta frezarek do gliny do projektowania pojazdów. W 1984 roku firma z siedzibą w Sterling Heights w stanie Michigan całkowicie odmieniła branżę motoryzacyjną, prezentując światu swój wynalazek – frezarkę do gliny

. TARUS później wdrożył innowacyjny, rewolucyjny system sterowania maszyną SINUMERIK ONE firmy Siemens. Dzięki pełnym możliwościom frezowania i skanowania do tworzenia projektów pojazdów koncepcyjnych, ta przełomowa frezarka CNC nadała ton – i wysoko postawiła poprzeczkę – dla TARUS, który do dziś wyznacza kierunek dla swoich liderów.

Decyzja o zastosowaniu platformy SINUMERIK ONE firmy Siemens wyznaczyła nowy kierunek rozwoju dla TARUS, który jest zgodny z reputacją firmy jako lidera w dziedzinie innowacji i toruje drogę do kolejnych innowacji w nadchodzących latach.

Czas był kluczowy dla partnerstwa TARUS–Siemens. Scott Doyle z Electro-Matic, zaufanego dostawcy rozwiązań i partnera technologicznego TARUS, znał potrzeby swojego klienta.

„Dokładne zrozumienie działania TARUS i jego doskonałego sterowania ruchem – wiele z tego, co robił TARUS, idealnie wpisywało się w wizję Siemens” – powiedział Doyle, wiceprezes ds. sprzedaży OEM w Electro-Matic.„To był doskonała okazja”.

Doyle zapoznał Douga i Dave’a z technologią Siemens, zapewniając, że wielotechnologiczny SINUMERIK ONE może zwiększyć wydajność maszyn TARUS, zachowując jednocześnie fundamentalny graficzny interfejs użytkownika firmy.

Klienci korzystający z frezarki do gliny TARUS do produkcji swoich modeli pojazdów naturalnej wielkości są „zachwyceni” – dodał Dave. „Jest solidna, działa znacznie szybciej, sprawniej i ciszej. Maszyny pracują stabilnie i bez żadnych awarii".

TARUS and its customers are now realizing benefits across the production cycle, from machine setup and customization to machine performance and throughput.

Most important to Dave, Doug and their customers is the familiar look and feel of the TARUS control. This was their biggest concern and biggest question when adapting TARUS machines to SINUMERIK ONE. The process took about one year, involving collaboration between Siemens and TARUS staff, and the results are unrivaled in the industry, Doug said.

“Nobody has the user interface like we have with the reliability of SINUMERIK ONE. That’s the secret sauce,” he said. “Because we already wrote our own software for our own control, we were able to make these two things work together for our customers’ benefit.”

Users experience the trust and familiarity of the TARUS interface, but with superior machine performance. Surface quality, precise cuts, cycle times and reliability are critical to TARUS and its customers as they mill the clay into future vehicle models. In fact, it is the precision of the cutting tools that produce desired surface finishes and eliminate time-consuming hand sculpting.

Dave said customers who use TARUS machines as an extension of their own design sculpting teams are indeed achieving a higher-quality surface that rarely requires smoothing by hand.

“In processing power alone, SINUMERIK ONE is 30% faster,” said Chris Grimm, OEM sales account manager at Siemens. Testifying to that claim, Doyle has seen the results first-hand with TARUS’s internal machines. “Their throughput has increased tremendously,” he said.

Customers are saving even more time during the design and milling phase of the car models, as the TARUS software enables changes on the fly.

Doug explains: “With our software, customers have a choice. They can mill a car model, and if they want a small change, they can sculpt it by hand, then measure it. They can scan it with their scanning system, then they can mill it on the other side of the model. Or they can send it back to their CAD system so that they’ve archived the change. Sometimes, they decide to make the change with the machine.

They talk to the designer or 3D modeler, and that person makes a change to the program, and then they go back and mill it. There’s a lot of give and take with clay modeling. Our controls allow this to happen.”

Doug also emphasized reliability as an important customer benefit. Reliability means less downtime, which increases output, he said, calling the SINUMERIK ONE “one of the most reliable in the world.”

“The SINUMERIK ONE greatly improved reliability compared to our previous solution. Reliability translates into increased productivity for the customer, decreased warranty costs for TARUS and greater confidence when selling these machines to new and existing customers.”

SINUMERIK ONE is particularly helpful during machine setup and deployment, Doug said. Using a process he calls “cloning,” the TARUS team can program one machine and replicate it across multiple machines.

“We take the settings from one machine and put them on the next machine, turn it on, and it works,” he said. “Every machine acts just the same as the one we just built.”

Although Dave and Doug are focused on the here and now, ensuring immediate results internally and for their customers, they are also thinking long-term. That’s another reason the brothers felt comfortable switching from an in-house control.

As a relatively new innovation built upon a legacy of success, Siemens will support SINUMERIK ONE for many decades to come. TARUS and its customers will have no issues obtaining new parts or customer service—from both Electro-Matic and Siemens.

“The availability of replacement parts for years to come—that’s a big deal,” Doug said. “When the parts come in, we know they’re going to work. They’re plug-and-play—and Siemens maintains the supply chain too.”

Customer support is a collaborative effort between Electro-Matic and Siemens. Electro-Matic has in-house application engineers who can visit TARUS and provide product support up to a certain level of complexity before bringing in the support of the local Siemens application engineer, Doyle said.