Advanced Grinding Solutions

Advanced Grinding Solutions (AGS) reports record enquiry levels on several of its principals stands at the recent EMO exhibition. Leading the way was Rollomatic who reported record attendance levels by customers on every single day of the show and a record number of serious enquiries. Rollomatic also reported receive a large number of sales for its tool grinding machines including several "walk-on" unexpected ones.

Rollomatic, one of the best known, most successful, and highly respected manufacturers of multi- axis CNC grinding machines, is the machine of choice for the production of rotary cutting tools of all kinds and for un-round tools such as punches.

Often recognized as the world-leaders for production solutions for small cutting tools from 0.1mm in diameter, Rollomatic GrindSmart® machines also excel at producing large cutters of up to 20mm in diameter, and the superior Swiss manufactured quality of every Rollomatic machine is demonstrated with their industry leading 3-year parts and labour warranty that comes as standard on new Rollomatic machines.

For automatic loading a variety of solutions are offered including high speed robot loaders that can load 20mm dia tool blanks in around 8 seconds. A thousand tools can be stored in pallets for unmanned running throughout entire shifts. The automatic changing of grinding wheels is well catered for and the ultra-compact design of the 6-position wheel changer has a capacity of 24 grinding wheels and allows for wheel changes (complete with coolant pipes) during the tool load/unload cycle to minimize dead time to further improve productivity.

Whilst most interest was expressed in Rollomatic’s 5-axis and 6-axis tool grinding machines, AGS noted a lot of very serious enquiries for Rollomatic’s new Femto Laser machine. With cutting tools getting smaller rather than larger, what was once constituted as a special micro tool has become more mainstream and many micro tools are now in the range of 0.1 to 0.8mm in diameter and here the laser machine comes into its own when it comes to tool manufacture. Tools such as end mills and drills may be manufactured complete in one clamping by the laser with none of the issues such as tool deflection during grinding, wheel wear and coolant to worry about. The lasers are already over 300% faster than previous generation ones and interestingly customers are not only to machine exotic tools made of PCD or ceramic but carbide ones that are made in larger volumes. The Rollomatic LaserSmart machines can produce truly razor sharp cutting edges with a radius of under 1um and also defined radii of 3um or 6um for example. This ability dramatically increases cutter lifetime.

There were many UK engineers present to meet with Rollomatic’s technical engineers and Rollomatic are going to be kept very busy indeed working with them to prove out production solutions for cutting tools and medical components. There are more cylindrical cutting tools produced in the UK on Rollomatic machines than on all other similar machines combined together.

Tschudin, another one of AGS’s principals, also reported very strong interest in its range of CNC Centerless grinding machines. Tschudin showed two machines on its booth; the cube machine with an integrated Fanuc robot and the large capacity eco400 machine. Both of these machines benefit from several patents. The patented, movable workpiece support ensures that the following range of process options is available: Roughing and finishing in a dual cycle, grinding of sharp edges and precise cones and radii. Areas of application include plunge-cut grinding, grinding several operations in a single cycle, oscillation of the component during grinding and throughfeed grinding. This versatility means that the Cube 350 is suitable for a wide range of applications – from toolmaking for very small batch sizes for medical technology and mass production for the automotive industry. Various materials can be processed – from steel to aluminium, glass, titanium, carbon, ceramics, and silicon amongst many others. AGS also met with several of its UK and Irish customers on the Tschudin stand including a delegation from one customer who purchased an proline 400 machine the week before EMO.

AGS also makes special mention of the interest shown at EMO for the Comat filter systems. Comat designs and manufacture super-filtration systems that deliver ≤ 2-3 μm filtration quality throughout the entire working cycle thus maximizing the quality of parts produced on machine tools whilst minimizing lifetime running costs and maintaining maximum coolant consistency.

Comat systems can be customized to meet a specific client's needs allowing for maximum efficiency of the filtration process. Oil is filtered to a better quality than new unused oil on Comat systems.

The remote monitoring of the performance of their filtration systems from their HQ near Milan in Italy ensures effective after sales support. Systems can be monitored in real-time during manufacturing processes and customers filter systems fine-tuned by Comat to ensure that the optimum filtration quality is obtained at all times.

Today, more than 20,000 machine-tools use Comat Filtration Systems, with more than 20,000,000 litres of metal working oil super-filtered every single day. Comat operate globally and have a 30-year history in developing the most advanced filtration systems that are available.

Comat’s sales team were kept very busy throughout EMO with AGS receiving several important enquiries for larger centralised systems that can handle between 10 and 30 plus grinding machines.

For any additional information see www.advancedgrindingsolutions.co.uk or contact AGS on+44 (0) 2476 22 66 11