Watch the magic of digital manufacturing at work as a plain chunk of steel is transformed into a finished crankshaft—automatically on a single machine. Prepare to be mesmerized.
Over a span of several decades, the British futurist and writer Arthur C Clarke (1917-2008) formulated three basic observations about the nature of technological progress. These became known as his Three Laws of Prediction.
1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
In watching this video, Rule 3 immediately comes to mind. Produced by Martech Techonology, the short film shows a WFL M60 MillTurn CNC machining center as it takes a blank piece of steel and turns it into a finished crankshaft. The MillTurn, which is roughly the size of a single-car garage, is described by WFL as “a machine which can do anything.” (Anything that requires complex turning, boring, drilling, and milling operations, that is.) It’s not a terribly modest claim, but it is a fair one. Watch this.
Very cool. Watched the whole thing. Is there an advantage to a billet crank over a forged crank?
A forging is ultimately stronger due to its optimized grain structure, but requires a very large investment in forging dies and tooling. Above method is efficient in custom and low volume applications. Also, technically the raw billet or round used to machine this part is itself a forging, as opposed to a cast ingot.
Thanks for that additional info, I learned something!
I agree that it would be stronger than a cast crank but the interrupted grain flow from the machining would reduce the strength almost equal to a casting. I’m sure that this particular crank would still need grinding. I worked as an impression die sinker for 40 years and have never seen a machined diameter good enough for a bearing surface.
You need to see hard turning of case hardened steel.
As good as any commercial crank finish.
What engine is this for? That’s an odd configuration of rod journals, or maybe I’ve just been out of automotive engineering for too long!
Oops. A friend pointed out that it is not the same crank shown at different points in the video. One has single rod throws for an inline four, while another has the paired rod throws for a vee engine. I was seeing it as a combination of single and double throws, which made no sense to me!
Look at the two rod journals in the still capture at top of page.
~ GREAT video! But my takeaway>
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Thx, SC
Equally impressive is the CAM software that coordinated that dance, writing all the tool paths to keep it from any unplanned space/time convergence. An impressive sales demo.
Hard to believe that we are intelligent enough to configure a machine such as this…Totally mind boggling.
I worked on crankshafts on the line @ the v-8 plant in Flint,Mi in 1965.Interestinh video.
Whomever built and designed this wonderful machine should be able to build a robot-slave to satisfy all of mans’ and womans’ needs (including s-x)
ron, you and merle could duplicate this same operation in your own single car garage, couldn’t you?