The machines are designed for ease of use and versatility to fill a void where experienced operators are lacking.
There is a grinding process that provides the desired shape and dimensional accuracy for almost every workpiece. Medical devices, cutting instruments and automotive components all benefit directly from the latest in machine technology and automation. Leading grinder manufacturers are incorporating these advanced spindle technologies, controls and software, and robotics into their machines to meet manufacturing needs, tighter tolerances and finishing specifications. Faced with a shortage of experienced grinder operators and technicians, machine manufacturers are making their machines as easy to use as possible and are building in digital connectivity support to help assemblers set up, operate and troubleshoot.
Achievements of Anca Inc. in Wixom, Michigan, include spindle temperature control, loading automation, robot-connected grinding and workpiece measurement, and gear grinding technologies for turning tools and hobs regrinding. According to President Pat Boland, Anca’s new Integrated Manufacturing System (AIMS) will streamline tool manufacturing by integrating and connecting to Industry 4.0 plant-wide. “AIMS includes all key supporting elements, including hardware and a complete set of software, to support the informational aspects of the device,” he said.
“With AIMS automation, customers can achieve continuous automated production, significantly reducing non-production machine time, and enable intelligent automation to connect sequential tool manufacturing processes across the plant,” said Boland. “AIMS is designed to be modular, customizable, and scalable, and can be deployed in stages, enabling a simple, incremental, and smooth transition from traditional manufacturing to automated and integrated manufacturing,” he explained.
According to the company, Anca’s new cutting tool sharpening machines include the MX7 ULTRA, which is designed to produce a wide variety of end mills and other cutting tools. Boland explained that the system includes new software, hardware, and design features to “enable significant advances in surface finish, accuracy, and controller runout to enable batch performance from the first to the thousandth tool.”
The MX7 ULTRA is equipped with a patented Motor Temperature Control (MTC) system to compensate for thermal expansion of the grinding spindle. It also boasts nano control systems, new servo control algorithms for smooth motion, system and mechanical upgrades to increase stiffness and rigidity, and in-process measurement, balancing and runout compensation for consistent accuracy.
For manufacturers looking to enter the fast growing electric vehicle market with turning tools, gear shaping tools and regrinding cutters, the Anca GCX linear grinder offers a complete solution for external wheel dressers and grinding spindles. Linear motors LinX, MTC on grinding and dressing spindles, integrated tool measurement and direct compensation.
Boland gives an example of the GCX Linear’s ability to grind double or triple A class turning tools twice as fast as is normally required on conventional grinders. “Using MTC to control the temperature of the spindle over the time it takes to sharpen a tool is critical to reducing tool variation. Laser measuring the wear profile of a wheel is the tool used to compensate. At the micron level, you don’t. I don’t want a wheel was unbalanced and caused vibrations,” Boland explained.
Royal Master Grinders Inc. in Oakland, New Jersey, is a family business that has been manufacturing centerless grinders for over 70 years. The company specializes in centerless grinding of traditional automotive, aerospace and medical components. “Over the years, we have had to create many unique components, including bone and skull drills, cannulas, dilators, balloon catheters, catheter rods and special guidewires,” said John Memmelaer, Jr., vice president. “We have also experimented with many products have never seen the human body. During research and development, they are ground and tested on Royal Master machines, enabling medical innovation and helping companies develop new products and processes.”
Royal Master offers several models based on its TG-12×4 and TG12X8 platforms. Various precision packages are available, ranging from basic and medium servo loops to advanced systems that can grind to sub-micron tolerances. The common denominator, according to Memmelaar, is that every machine, from basic systems to the most complex, is rounded and ground to less than 1 micron before shipping. “I was told a long time ago that if you work with a product 24/7, every quarter of a second matters,” he notes. “Our goal is to get the most out of our equipment.”
As the medical industry seeks more automated solutions, Royal Master offers complete non-illuminated systems for grinding catheters, wire guides, prosthetic needles and other micro-mechanical components. “However, we have not forgotten about startups,” Memmelaar added, noting that manufacturers help these companies develop design prototypes, prototypes and small-scale production in Royal Master’s R&D lab.
“One of our really cool new medical device machines is being used to grind biopsy needles in a completely autonomous way,” says Memmelaar enthusiastically. He explained that the device uses a robot to move the part onto a grinding wheel in the correct orientation to grind flat surfaces, trocar shapes, and other desired shapes needed for a needle.
To automate small volumes, Royal Master has opted for a less complex robotic approach, using Universal Robots collaborative cells that anyone on the shop floor can set up for production runs ranging in size from 1,000 to 2,000 pieces. For large volumes of work, Royal Master uses Fanuc robots with pallets designed for lift systems.
“With the vertical stacking system, operators can move pallets in and out without disturbing light curtains or safety chains,” Memmelaar said. “It’s very efficient. The operator only needs to change the pallet,” he says, noting that the measurement and compensation of the wheel diameter is done automatically.
To meet the challenge of finding experienced grinder operators, Royal Master has customized its interactive operator interface to be user friendly. “We have made it easy to navigate and set up the grinder HMI, and have included tutorials with suggestions and shortcuts to help operators save data, learn about the machine, and get answers to any questions they may have.”
In addition, the company equips the machine with detailed “grinding recipes” for specific parts. “We have many customers who want us to simulate their setup sheets directly on the operator interface so that the operator can call up the setup sheet with the part number and all parameters.”
Unison Corporation, headquartered in Ferndale, Michigan, traces its history back to the late 1950s, when it invented the DedTru clamp, which attaches to the table of a surface grinder and turns it into the outer surface for circular grinding.
Over the years, the application of this machine has flourished. In fact, according to President Dave Swider, there are approximately 10,000 DedTru and TruFlute grinders worldwide today in use in the medical, dental, aerospace, automotive, off-highway, plastics, and petrochemical industries. Unison’s TruFlute line includes cutters and grinders, peeling and punching grinders that can handle the tight tolerances required for medical device manufacturing.
“The concentricity of the DedTru fixture was at least 50 ppm, which was revolutionary at the time,” said Swider. “In 1977, around the time of the first personal computer, Unison installed a programmable computer on a manual coffee grinder that was said to be the first in the industry.
“From here we developed three-, four-, five- and eight-axis grinders and offered a three-axis automatic loader/unloader on our machines,” continues Swider. “On some models, we have a double-sided spindle providing a 9th axle,” he adds, elaborating that “if you have a wheel block with four wheels on one end of the spindle, you can. The spindle rotates 180° and uses a second wheel block of four wheels on the opposite side.”
Unison’s medical manufacturing customers use TruFlute grinders to manufacture drills, reamers, end mills and various specialty tools such as trocars for the medical market. Three new models were shown at IMTS in September.
The smallest, according to the supplier, is the DedTru Model 2150 3-Axis Centerless CNC Grinding System, ideal for making blanks for cutting tools. The Model 2150 uses Unison’s proprietary software and controls that allow the operator to set up centerless grinding such as through feed, feed, and secondary operations, including taper plunge grinding and cylindrical workpiece grinding from 0.005″ to 5″ (0.127-127 mm).
The Model 2150 is capable of cyclic dressing of grinding wheels with automatic wheel wear compensation. Whether dressing a simple flat wheel or a complex profile, dressing can be done automatically in a grinding cycle controlled by the machine operator.
“It’s a completely closed system,” Swider said. The Model 2150 is a 3-axis machine with Yaskawa AC servo motors, drive amplifiers and glass scales, and control feedback automatically compensates for wear. “In the past, an experienced grinding operator would move a handle to adjust the machine. Today, the operator uses a Unison CNC system to automatically move the machine to where he wants to grind.”
For finishing and grooving orientation, Unison offers a Model 3000 Dual Spindle 5 Axis CNC Forming Machine and Grinding Machine. According to Swider, the machine is designed for rapid preparation of tool blanks with a 9,000-10,000 rpm direct-drive spindle that “can do both rough and finish grinding in a single pass.” According to him, the new Unison EZ software allows Model 3000 operators to quickly set up and/or change tool geometry through an easy-to-use interface by simply filling in empty fields and then checking the part program with a real-time 3D machine part predictor.
Computerized controls monitor critical machine functions and alert operators to problems encountered during grinding, tracking and logging errors. The Model 3000 can be networked and/or controlled over the Internet, and can also be equipped with remote controls for direct communication with Unison technicians.
The grinding machine is equipped with Yaskawa AC drive amplifiers and servo motors, as well as an automatic part loader/unloader for continuous part grinding. The Model 3000 features a Schaublin W25 pneumatic clamping system and a precision gauge that the company claims guarantees part repeatability.
The Unison 9300 6-axis CNC machine is designed for fast and accurate production of high-precision drills, end mills and reamers with a 21.5 hp direct drive double-sided grinding spindle. (16 kW). The 9300 also comes with the new Unison EZ Fill in the Gap software and a complete library of software packages and utilities.
Norton | Saint-Gobain Abrasives offers a wide range of custom-made abrasives to meet the challenges of the precision engineering market, including new, more difficult-to-grind materials, more stringent finishing requirements, and more automated and controlled manufacturing processes.
Presented by Norton IMTS | Saint-Gobain Quantum Prime grinding wheels contain proprietary nanocrystalline ceramic particles that suppliers say can significantly improve performance across a wide range of applications. The company says the new system offers “extremely high grinding efficiency and part quality” as well as longer wheel life than conventional ceramic abrasives.
The new Norton IDeal-Prime ID high-performance grinding wheels for precision applications also feature a Quantum Prime grit. The micro-destruction properties of the new Saint-Gobain ceramic particles, combined with the holding properties of the advanced bond, result in long life for IDeal-Prime grinding wheels, high grinding efficiency, consistent part quality and excellent surface finish, resulting in lower costs, the company claims. saving 30% or more.
Paradigm Plus’ “next generation” diamond grinding wheels feature new premium grit technology that complements brittle metal bonds for superior grinding performance. The company says this technology, combined with an advanced new lightweight core material, results in lower specific cutting energy, a 25-50% increase in material removal rate (MRR) and a significant increase in wheel life compared to current Paradigm wheels. . For round tools and inserts, the new G-Force Plus Next Generation wheels feature premium grain technology and an improved hybrid bond to significantly increase MRR and wheel life over current G-Force wheels.
The new Norton Abrasive Process Solutions (APS) program provides grinding expertise to help customers determine the best grinding or finishing solution for their application. Applications range from simple to complex, non-manual or automated, for metal fabrication, industrial grinding and virtually all abrasive applications. The APS program leverages the Norton team’s knowledge and access to 30 different machines and the state-of-the-art APS robotic automation cell that is the heart of the new APS program at the Higgins Grinding Technology Center in Northborough, Massachusetts. The APS team provides development, optimization, automation and internal testing of abrasive processes. APS services include testing and optimizing new abrasives, improving quality and/or productivity, and learning new user processes.
The next generation NORaX N889 abrasive belt with micro-structure is precisely and flexibly designed to produce a uniform, fine-grained part surface for a range of industrial applications, including medical, aerospace, automotive, marine, metalworking, and general metalworking. According to the company, the new belt delivers a 30 percent performance improvement over other belts in its class.
According to Norton, the TQ and TQX shape ceramic grains are the longest shaped ceramic grains in the industry, optimized for the highest MRR and the coldest cut.
For automotive and bearing manufacturers who require high performance grinding solutions for external grinding of cams and crankshafts as well as internal grinding, Saint-Gobain Abrasives offers Norton Vitron7 cBN grinding wheels with high precision vitrified bond.
For gear manufacturers, the Xtrimium range of gear grinders is designed for high performance gear grinding under extreme conditions with tight tolerances. The range of gear grinding products is specifically designed by category to provide higher profile accuracy, maximum shape retention and non-stick grinding when machining worm, profile and cone parts. The highlight of the range is the innovative dual worm gear design, which allows two operations to be performed on the same grinding wheel, resulting in significant time and cost savings.
Post time: Dec-22-2022