Partnerships focus on quality

Waukegan, IL —Yaskawa Electric America, Inc. has partnered with Bridgeport Machines Inc. as their supplier of servomotors and drives. In order to achieve greater systems efficiency, higher speed, accuracy, and improved reliability, the machine tool market is constantly looking for improvements in servomotor and drive technologies. "It has been a simple business decision. To raise the bar on our global sales effort, we need partnerships with machine part suppliers that have the same high standards we set for ourselves," states Dan Griffith, president of Bridgeport Machines.

Yaskawa's Sigma motor line has a rated torque from 1 inch-lb to 620 inch-lbs, and peak torque of up to 1,500 inch-lbs. The design utilizes neodymium/iron/boron permanent magnets, which the company claims provide higher flux densities, compared to ceramic or samarium cobalt magnets.

All of Yaskawa's digital drives can accept analog reference for speed, torque, pulse and direction control, or can be interfaced via YENET network. A personal computer can be used to set and store all parameters.

Bridgeport is currently monitoring a test series of 31 machines to determine a "cradle-to-grave" analysis of their performance. Following 13 weeks of testing, there have been virtually no complaints, Bridgeport says.

The machine tool industry is aggressive now in terms of improving performance and quality, Bridgeport says.

There is substantial growth in two domestic markets that Bridgeport has a major interest in. The first is vertical machining centers, where the market is growing very rapidly. The major reason is that end users are replacing less productive equipment. The medical industry has also been an enormous outlet over the past eight or nine years for Bridgeport machines. Nearly every medical supply manufacturer today is using Bridgeport equipment, Griffith says.

"Everybody wants to do the right thing," states Griffith. "Suppliers do what they have to do and customers benefit." That's the hope both Bridgeport and Yaskawa have, and both say they expect to cooperate more.