Machining Powertrain at Toyota Motorsports. (WIP).

Although Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari team were somewhat indomitable during this past Formula One season, come the 2002 season there is a new team that hopes to contend for the World Championship: Toyota. The decision was made to go to F1 racing in 1998.

One interesting aspect of this undertaking is that while "Toyota" brings "Toyota City" or "Japan" to mind, in the case of the Formula One undertaking, Toyota Motorsports GmbH is operating out of Cologne, Germany.

Inside the shop in Cologne they are hard at it, working on the V-10 engine that will power the vehicle. This is, in a word, demanding. According to Werner Schmitz, manager of the CNC department at the facility, "To insure the life of a motor that performs at up to 18,000 rpm for the distance of the race, all components have to conform to the highest precision standards." So with regard to machining, he notes, "The only solution is machining in one setup, where our goal for accuracy during five-axis simultaneous machining lies in an area of less than [+ or -]10 [mu]m." The one setup solution, of course, is critical so that there aren't tolerance stackups associated with refixturing the components.

Already having experience with more than 20 milling machines from DMG, the people from Toyota Motorsports contacted the firm's DECKEL MAHO facility in Pfronten, Germany, which supplied the equipment and had worked with Toyota on tailoring it. For the engine program, Schmitz and his colleagues selected a DMC 200 U five-axis universal machining center, which features a pallet changer, CNC-driven B-axis, and a 7.9-in. X-traverse path. To assure that this machine would meet the rigorous demands of the motor sports operation, engineers from the machine company worked with the people from the race team during development and installation.

Although the volumes of engines produced are low by standard automotive metrics, they are still non trival: "At least 250 to 300 motors with two cylinder heads have to be delivered every year," says Schmitz. The machine can be run 24-hours per day.

In order to achieve precision in all of the production operations performed, the production facility is temperature controlled to within 0.8[degrees]C. Apparently, there was a comprehensive thermal examination of the machine tool: the cast iron foundation, the pallet-changing mechanism, the clamping mechanism, the universal milling head, the spindle motor, and even the coolant lubrication cycle were checked out. And while he won't say much about what modifications were necessary (keeping a competitive advantage), Schmitz does comment, "We discovered a number of weak spots, eliminated those, and we have reached our goals." Optimizing conditions took more than one year.

Of course, in machining parts for F1, things that are difficult are common. As Schmitz observes, "In motor sports, many materials are routinely used that would be considered exotic in other areas. This is true of highly hardened aluminum alloys as well as titanium alloys and hardened steels. All new materials have one thing in common, namely, they are extremely difficult to machine."

Apparently things are going well in the machining, however. They've installed a second DMC 200 U with an eight-pallet changer in Cologne.

Details about the DMG machines, write in 120 on the Reader Service Card.