b'Productive TimesWe found there was this love for the moving-column design.facility cannot accommodate thatSimmons Machine Tool designeding of their center holes, but oth-height, Simmons Machine Tool of- and produced special grippers toers with a drive system or that have fers other automation options, suchhandle the heavy wheels, which usedisc brakes mounted to them need as a six-axis robot. a V-shaped roller and the wheeladditional machined features, such When designing the WTC-60, theflange as a gripping area. as drilled and threaded holes. For company modified a widely avail- We are able to center the wheelthose applications, Simmons Ma-able, generic vertical turning cen- that way because we have four dif- chine Tool offers the WTC-250 mc, ter by adding a special table andferent contact points, Mitchellwhich is short for machining center.tooling, reinforcing the column and enhancing the guarding, he said.Nonetheless, Mitchell said, Sim-mons didnt build the base ma-chine, and the cell didnt supply the rigidity required for the freight side of the industry, which moves heavier loads than the transit side.It is not a machine we would offer across the board, he said.When reviewing the designs of Simmons Machine Tools older ma-chines, which can last 40 years or more, the company chose to return to a moving-column design for the latest WTC-250 model.We found there was this love forGdelthe moving-column design, Mitch- The system transfers a wheel to the machine, which bores the center hole of the wheel. It ell said. then is placed by Gdels gantry on an outbound conveyor for pressing onto an axle. He said that design allows the mass of the machine carrying thesaid. If we can grab the flange, weThe company says access to pre- cutting tools, or its center of grav- know we are repeatedly locatingand post-machining measurement ity, to move over the top of a wheel,the wheel. data is important to railway com-increasing stiffness. The system transfers a wheelpanies so they can extend the lives That means you can take deeperto the machine, which bores theof wheels, as well as maintenance cuts and beat the machine up waycenter hole of the wheel. It then ismachines and automation systems.more than the WTC-60, Mitchellplaced by Gdels gantry on an out- The more data you can pro-said. bound conveyor for pressing ontovide to them, the more excited they In addition to building the ver- an axle. He estimates that aboutget, Mitchell said.tical CNC lathe for the WTC-250,90% of wheels require only bor- The interest in data began when sensors were added to locomotives to provide feedback about their ctemag.com performance. For more information about wheel boring by SimmonsThat culture shift has taken a Machine Tool, view a video presentation at www.ctemag. few years, Mitchell said. But now com by scanning the QR code on your smartphone oreverybody is asking the question, entering this URL on your web browser: cteplus.delivr. How do I get more data on the rest com/22urr of it? CTE46JUNE 2020 ProTimes.indd 46 5/15/20 10:00 AM'