Process control significantly reduces cycle time and delivery delays for automotive parts manufacturer

An increase in production orders for new breeds of high-volume and high-value automotive components required OMG to consider alternative approaches to part inspection. Investments in off-machine gauging and on-machine probing enabled the company to increase manufacturing throughput, avoid rejects and reduce scrap.

Background
Established in 1949, OMG s.r.l Officine Meccaniche (OMG) manufactures high-tech mechanical parts and sub-assemblies for cars, vans, trucks and tractors. A third-generation business, the company has evolved rapidly, from simple sheet metal forming and tube bending to complex aluminium and cast-iron machining.

Its extensive manufacturing capabilities span a complete range of automotive component requirements, including engine blocks, cylinder heads and suspension assemblies. OMG’s customers are worldwide, and it operates technology- leading factories in Turin (Italy), Valladolid (Spain) and Kaniow (Poland) .

Central to OMG’s success is maintaining close partnerships with its customers. The company is quick to adapt existing production lines to meet specific requirements, from adding new machinery, to setting up new systems and working closely with customers in product design and prototyping to develop an effective manufacturing solution.

Quality, of course, is an essential cornerstone of the OMG business. Long before the advent of global quality standards, the company had created its own methods, checks and documentation to ensure tolerance compliance and manufacturing consistency. Today the company is certified to the required ISO automotive and environmental standards.

The company offers latest generation 4- and 5-axis CNC machining, state-of-the-art robotic handling, extensive automation and is already geared up to meet the demands of Industry 4.0.

For many years Renishaw has played an important role as a technology partner to OMG, as Guido Mautino, Chief Operating Officer of OMG explains, “Our partnership with Renishaw began in the mid-1990s when we started machining our first engine heads. We needed to take precision measurements directly on the machining centres, so we turned to Renishaw for advice.”

“Today we have 23 machining centres fitted with a range of Renishaw machine tool probes. Over the years, this has put us in a position to engage with a variety of global product markets where high precision measurement during production is a pre-requisite. All our CMMs are fitted with Renishaw PH10 motorised indexing heads.”

In an increasingly competitive market, raising manufacturing efficiency in order to reduce overall cycle times, production rejects and delivery delays is essential in maintaining customer satisfaction. Our investments into Renishaw solutions ensures that we achieve those goals.
OMG s.r.l Officine Meccaniche (Italy)

Challenges
With forward-thinking new clients and next generation automotive product developments come new demands for process control solutions. Here, we consider two technical challenges where OMG had to find a completely new approach to part measurement.

Continuous, high-volume part control

A customer order for 400,000 automotive parts per annum destined for the German market saw OMG convert an existing CNC production line to dedicated continuous part production.

OMG needed to put in place a constant high-volume part measurement system that could dynamically adjust the machining process to correct for factors of process drift such as tool wear, ensuring parts are continuously produced without tolerance limits ever being reached.

Competitiveness
From an overall commercial perspective, maintaining competitiveness in a crowded global market always remains a key challenge to be addressed, as Giuseppi Spezzati, Sales Manager and Board Member of OMG explains. “As a business operating in a truly global market, we are fighting every day to stand out and stay ahead of the competition. Investments in new production methods and techniques are not just about efficiency, quality and eliminating loss, they are about making our service more attractive and interesting, and anticipating future client needs.”

Large aluminium part set-up and process control
The machining of a new internal combustion cylinder head and gas engine block in aluminium was subject to distortions due to heating effects and demanded very accurate machine centering and workpiece set-up. Some form of high-reliability on-machine probing solution was needed to once again avoid high-value reject parts and costly material wastage.

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