Yamazaki Mazak Kabushiki Kaisha

Masaki Itoh

Naoomi Miyagawa

Toshihiko Inoue

Toshihiko Asari

A nozzle holding means ( ) having a nozzle ( ) being free to eject laser beam from its top end is provided being free to move along a guide means among a plurality of machine tools. Nozzle holding means operation control means ( ) for controlling hardening operation on a workpiece by the nozzle are provided, and communication control means ( ) are provided for exchanging information necessary for hardening operation on a workpiece to be machined with each machine tool between the control means and a control means of each machine tool. The nozzle moves among the machine tools and hardening operation is performed on workpieces ( ) in the respective machine tools, thereby it is not necessary to provide a hardening unit for exclusive use every each machine tool, and it is possible to provide a hardening equipment having high working ratio.

Hardening equipment and hardening method

A saddle is movable along a guide means provided, passing through an neighborhood of machining area MA of a plurality of machine tools . The saddle is provided with a machining head , being free to selectively insert in and retreat from the machining area MA, and a plurality of kinds of nozzles for ejecting laser beam. The nozzle suitable for a portion of workpiece to be hardened is selected so as to attach it to the machining head . When hardening is instructed, the nozzle is moved to a desired position with respect to the workpiece in the state of the workpiece located on the machine tool , and the laser beam is ejected from the nozzle so as to harden the workpiece

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Aichi-ken, Japan

Masaki Itoh