Business news

9 Oct 2020

Belarusian engine maker MMZ buys equipment in Germany to upgrade manufacturing processes

MINSK, 9 October (BelTA) – The Belarusian engine manufacturer MMZ has bought new sophisticated equipment in Germany in order to upgrade manufacturing processes, the company’s press service told BelTA.

According to the source, production modernization is one of the key avenues of development for MMZ. The company became a state scientific organization in spring 2019. Using the money the central state budget appropriated in 2020 to finance scientific, R&D, and innovative activities, the company bought new modern high-technology equipment in Germany: an ACCURA 2 bridge-type measuring machine from ZEISS and an industrial CT scanner phoenix v/tome/x c450 from General Electric. The equipment is unique in Belarus.

The ACCURA 2 bridge-type measuring machine uses sophisticated software to perform all kinds of measurements using contact data and optic data.

The machine allows inspecting products and parts, testing the calibration of measurement devices, performing reference measurements for proprietary needs and for other companies. The machine can inspect products and parts made of various materials such as metal, composites, plastic, metal-ceramics, and rubber.

The new machine will help MMZ product engineers and process engineers build 3D models of various products and parts and polish them. The measurements will be stored and accumulated. Statistics will be used to make conclusions about the necessary refinement of many manufacturing processes. Apart from that, the new machine can perform laser scanning of products and parts for the sake of reverse engineering.

The new machine can also perform a broad range of measurements on objects that weigh up to 2.5 tonnes. The new limit greatly exceeds that of the old measuring machine, which had been used for over 30 years and had been limited to only 250kg.

The new measuring machine also automatically corrects measurements depending on temperatures of the scanned object. It is particularly important for large objects. Metals tend to shrink in low air temperatures and expand in high air temperatures. If the scanned object is large, the measurement results can vary greatly.

The ACCURA 2 bridge-type measuring machine is part of the Industry 4.0 paradigm. It can connect to the Internet for software updates, can share measurement programs and CAD models with partners.

Specialists of the Belarusian State Metrology Institute have performed calibration tests of the new machine. MMZ specialists, who will work with the machine, have been trained and will be able to use the new skills in practice.

As for the new industrial CT scanner, it offers unprecedented capabilities to the company. MMZ specialists will be able to perform external and internal measurements of any parts, compare results to CAD models, find cavities, cracks, and inclusions, and measure thickness of walls of parts. In other words, they will be able to find defects that cannot be seen with a naked eye at initial stages of manufacturing. The CT scanner will also allow reconstructing parts for reverse engineering.

The company will be able to use the CT scanner soon after getting the necessary license from the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor).

The new equipment is intended primarily for MMZ’s R&D division. It will empower MMZ engineers to create cutting-edge products and organize their effective manufacturing. The MMZ’s total volume of fixed-capital investments will be close to Br10 million this year.

Minsk Motor Plant (MMZ trademark) was founded in 1963. It specializes in developing, designing, and making modern three-, four-, six-, and eight-cylinder engines. The company offers over 100 modifications of engines with their output varying from 7 to 330kW. They are designed to power agricultural machines, road construction machines, forestry vehicles, automobiles, buses, power supply plants, compressors, and other kinds of machinery.