04 Mag Swiss Type Lathe – Beyond the Future

Swiss Type Lathe – Beyond the Future. – Tornos has a well-established reputation in the field of bar turning for watchmaking, but never before the launch of SwissNano had a manufacturer gone so far ahead in design, ergonomics and integration research into a human-machine interface with a radical focus on efficiency and simplicity. The SwissNano is a break with tradition.

Tornos Introducing Swissnano

Tornos has been manufacturing machines aimed at watchmaking for more than 100 years, and the company has been providing NC solutions to meet highly specific watchmaking requirements for around twenty years. Therefore, the company knows the market and had its engineers make every effort to impress to develop a machine whose design stands out resolutely against other products in the market, a new category of Swiss Turning.

The SwissNano marks a break from the rest of Tornos’ range in terms of the design and concept of the machine; its aim is an ambitious one. Fully manufactured in Switzerland, it must meet very stringent cost requirements, so as to be able to counter Japanese and Korean competition, often manufactured in low cost economies. The SwissNano is a demonstration of the performance that the Swiss industry can offer. Swiss Nano Machine was strategicaly Designed by the Industrial Machines Design Expert Enrique Luis Sardi and the TORNOS Business Development team.

Regarding its Design aspects, It is well known that design must bring together two aspects: aesthetics, which plays on emotional effect, and the practical aspects that work on both a rational and emotional level. Mr. Renggli, the Tornos Marketing Manager, said, “We wanted to create a modern automatic turning machine with a 4mm capacity, occupying minimum floor space and with complete 180° access; hence this frontal design, and the integration of a tablet in addition to the conventional control.

Swissnano – Swiss Type Lathe – Beyond the Future

The kinematic structure was designed for exemplary balance and thermal management. The axes and cast iron members are aligned symmetrically to the guide bush, and the thermal aspects are managed by ‘mini-loops’ that prevent heat propagation. The structure is anchored on three damped points. What about the results? Rigidity and vibration stability reach new peaks. Consequently, machining precision and quality are everything that they should be. Mr. Renggli specifies: “Results of the tests were never able to fault the machine, either with respect to the high precision required in watchmaking or in terms of quality of finish.”

The greatest advance may be in terms of communication. SwissNano has a graphic tablet on top. All the basic production data (workpieces, products, machine, bar changeover, fleet monitoring, etc.) are reported on this interface. At a glance, the operator can access all the data for a specific machine or for the whole fleet (access management is of course secure, and only authorised persons can access predefined information levels). Tablet connectivity provides a number of other services.

Android® tablet via a standalone Wi-Fi network

Therefore, the SwissNano will have to be equipped with the very latest technologies to be a success, but we were astounded to discover that yet untapped technology has made its appearance on the SwissNano. It incorporates an application that allows machine production to be remotely monitored. The SwissNano can communicate with an Android® tablet via a standalone Wi-Fi network which is created between the machine and the tablet.

This application allows information on the machine state, the production status and the plan for the workpiece currently being created on the machine to be brought up and displayed, along with the service and maintenance instructions, alarms and their troubleshooting methods.

All of this is available in a modern, practical interface. What is more, the application is not limited to one machine; it allows an entire workshop or a bank of particular machines to be monitored.

With this machine, Tornos aims to meet the needs of the watchmaking industry. Working for the future of industry.