Future of Machine Tools

抄録

In the manufacturing field where machine tools are used, electrical vehicles, aging, and IoT have been important keywords. Although an automobile has been a byword for a product for mass production, the number of mass production processes to manufacture the same parts will be reduced because the number of components in the powertrain will be significantly reduced due to the transition to electrical vehicles. More and more new materials will be used to reduce the weight of automobiles, which means die and mold production will be demanded instead. In the aging society, the demand for implants and medical equipment will be significantly increased. Furthermore, growing demands from the semiconductor industry in the IoT boom bring momentum to the machine tool industry. The manufacturing style is rapidly changing from mass production of the same parts to high-mix low-volume or custom-design production. On the other hand, lack of experienced engineers has been a serious problem in both developed countries and developing countries. For machine tool manufacturers, providing not only machine tools but also engineering is an important task. Furthermore, promoting automation in high-mix low-volume production is even more important. To tackle those tasks, machine tool manufacturers must work on development of automation technologies for long-time automatic machine operation, improvement of machining accuracy, effective chip disposal and production of machines that never stop. This keynote speech is about effort to achieve these goals by using IoT and sensing technologies and what the machine tool should be in the future.