Company News

Mach 2024 was a huge success for Advanced Grinding Solutions (AGS) as it showcased the very latest in grinding and finishing technology to many engineers throughout the week on its 100 sqm stand.

AGS reported although visitor numbers were down on those that visited AGS at the Mach 2022 show, that was of course a bumper year after a 4 year hiatus, and the 2024 enquiry level easily superseded that of the 2018 show and AGS are very pleased indeed with the result.

There were many highlights throughout the show for AGS with the largest being the placement of another order for a Tschudin Cube centerless grinding machine by Gerard King; the Managing Director of Smithstown Light Engineering (SLE). Chris Boraston of AGS comments that whilst there had been ongoing engagement with Smithstown over what has now been confirmed as their 4th Tschudin grinding machine; the order was actually unexpected to be placed at the Mach show and therefore of course came as a very nice surprise. The order is the latest of many that Smithstown has given to AGS as it continues to invest in more Rollomatic and Tschudin grinding machines with Comat Filtration systems as it ramps up the production of medical components. There has been, and will continue to be, record growth at SLE who are based near Shannon in Ireland as it focuses on producing the highest quality of medical components for its customers. AGS very much looks forward to continuing with its very close relationship with Smithstown and playing a small part in its huge success story as it continues to grow and be a recognized world leader in the manufacture of medical parts.

The major exhibits on the AGS stand were the latest Rollomatic NP50 cylindrical and special form grinding machine and Comat EVO Superfiltration system and both of these were purchased by Lawrence Engineering with James Lawrence and many of his colleagues attending the show. Lawrence Engineering are another key existing customer of AGS who are involved in the mould and die industry and also the medical industry. Lawrence collaborate closely with their clients to offer them a full turnkey solution starting from mould and tool design all the way through to validation, manufacturing, and the sub-assembly of highly precise parts of all kinds. James comments that the purchase of the Rollomatic Grinding machine came in response to the growing demand for their high precision core pins and this latest investment in enhancing their capabilities with another Rollomatic NP50 ShapeSmart High Precision Pin and Mandrel Grinder will increase production capacity as they continue to grow rapidly. The purchase of the Comat Super Filtration system was driven by AGS suggesting that the filtration to various machines should be improved upon combined with a need for Lawrence to fully utilize very precious floor space. The Comat will be supporting several grinding machines and will provide filtration levels of under 3um with oil being kept cleaner than new virgin oil and to +/- 0.5 deg. The Superfiltration system can be monitored and controlled by Comat’s engineers from their technical support center in Milan ensuring that the filtration levels are optimized at all times.

AGS were also delighted that the Managing Director of Krebs & Riedel, Mr Florian Riedel, was able to visit the Mach show for the first time to engage with many customers who showed great interest in the range of grinding wheels manufactured by Krebs & Riedel in Germany. Chris Boraston comments that this was certainly a record year in terms of the number of enquires for grinding wheels as many engineers seek to improved their grinding processes. The specialists at Krebs & Riedel will be kept very busy over the forthcoming weeks as it has been tasked with a multitude of aims to reduce cycle times, improve surface finishes and overall surface geometry. The largest number of enquiries were received for the Krebs & Riedel grinding wheels with most interest being shown in the CBN and Diamond super abrasive wheels that they have long since pioneered. These include very small internal grinding wheels, small jig grinding wheels as well as larger wheels for gear grinding and only applications.

AGS ends by reporting that the very high quality of sales leads received at the Mach show demonstrates that engineers remain very keen to understand the latest in grinding and finishing technology and many came with technical drawings and samples to open dialogue as to what’s the best solution for their production needs. It was certainly a challenging time with over 120 visitors to the AGS stand on the Wednesday alone and AGS very much looks forward to working with them and the many others that visited their stand at Mach over the weeks and months to come.

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

Note to Editors:

The above is the "corporate" press release – if you also wish to include some technical information on our exhibits you can use some/all of the below to splice into the relevant sections:

ROLLOMATIC
Rollomatic, as the original inventor of the pinch/peel grinding process maintains its global leadership position with the ShapeSmart® NP50 being enhanced with new features and upgrades. The patented option for pinch grinding non‐round parts has been improved and now offers even higher accuracy and faster speeds. The non‐round form grinding process includes full pinch/peel grinding which ensures extremely high tolerances, form accuracy and the lowest TIR achievable. This is particularly important for exceptionally long and thin parts. Oblong punches, form punches, squares out of centre, corner radiuses and virtually any other shape such as triangles and hexagons can be produced with this method. The NP50 is designed and dedicated for cylindrical grinding of carbide, HSS and stainless steel components with emphasis on achieving the highest surface finishes and concentricity. Rollomatic’s are the grinding machine of choice for many cutting tool manufacturers and indeed more rotary cutting tools are produced in the UK and in Ireland on Rollomatics than on all other CNC tool grinding machines put together. In fact over 35 million rotary cutting tools are produced on Rollomatics in the UK and in Eire every year. Rollomatic GrindSmart® machines excel at producing cutting tools from 0.025mm up to 32mm in diameter, and the superior Swiss manufactured quality of every Rollomatic machine is demonstrated with their industry leading 3-year unlimited hours parts and labour warranty that comes as standard on all new Rollomatic grinding machines.

TSCHUDIN
Tschudin machines are used to grind parts from 0.1mm to 250mm in diameter and for the plunge grinding of parts that are up to 500mm long. Uniquely for centerless grinding machines; all Tschudin machines benefit from a special design feature with the workrest blade mounted onto its own CNC axis. This patented feature allows for the blade, complete with components, to be transferred outside of the grinding zone for safe and easy loading and unloading of the parts. This overcomes the dangers involved in trying to load parts in between the grinding and control wheels which is the case for all other centerless grinding machines. Proline versions also benefit from another patented feature which is the automatic control of the height adjustment of the control wheel. This means that operators no longer have to battle with making constant adjustments for wheel wear to ensure that the grinding point always remains the same. This necessary adjustment is done fully automatically on the Tschudin Proline machines. All Tschudin machines benefit from having the machines bed and blocks made entirely from solid natural granite. This guarantees the maximum amount of thermo-stability with the high density ensuring maximum stability and strength.

COMAT
Oil that is filtered by Comat systems does not need to be replaced and many clients report that they have never changed the oil for up to 20 years (save top-ups due to oil loss). Main applications for these filter systems include tool grinding on Rollomatic and similar grinding machines and also on turning machines and automatic lathes. Comat systems can operate with any oil having a viscosity ranging between 5 and 30 Cst at 40° C (104° F). The filters media needs to be re-generated once per day for full production/heavy stock removal applications and this takes just 15 minutes or so and machines do not need to be stopped whilst this is carried out. If the system is fitted to a grinding machine used for regrinding cuttings tools then re-generation of the media would only be required every 1-2 weeks. In terms of running costs then the Comat systems are usually only around 25% of the cost of running competitor filter systems who often rely upon expensive candles or filters that need replacing at a very high cost. Most of the end users supported by AGS are only spending around £250 a year on the Comat filter media as compared with the users of other systems facing huge bills when sets of filter candles or discs, that are a wear item, need replacing.

Krebs & Riedel
The cornerstone of the KREBS & RIEDEL grinding wheel factory in Bad Karlshafen was laid some 125 years ago. Today the family owned company operates worldwide as a manufacturer of individually manufactured precision grinding wheels and impresses with innovation and solution-oriented application technology advice. Above all, customers from the automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering, medical technology and wind power sectors rely upon the high-precision products manufactured by Krebs & Riedel. In addition to conventional internal and external grinding wheels, cutting wheels, cup wheels and grinding segments with ceramic and synthetic resin bonds, KREBS & RIEDEL also manufactures CBN and diamond tools with ceramic bonds. The medium-sized family business with over 250 committed employees and an annual turnover of 31 million euros is one of the leading German manufacturers of abrasives. An export share of around 48% shows the companies international orientation.
Krebs & Riedel has subsidiaries in China and India, as well as 30 international distributors including Advanced Grinding Solutions Ltd of Coventry here in the UK. A team of application technology consultants looks after customers worldwide. KREBS & RIEDEL attaches particular importance to research and development and works closely with several research institutions. Important investments in sustainability management and the expansion of the Bad Karlshafen site are currently being planned.
KREBS & RIEDEL is a specialist in the field of gear applications and supplies top gear manufacturers around the globe. These grinding wheels are used on many gear grinding machines, including those from the manufacturers Gleason, Kapp-Niles, Klingelnberg, Liebherr, Mitsubishi, Reishauer and Samputensili. Single-profile and composite tools for fine or polishing grinding operations are available to achieve the fine surface quality and high load-bearing proportions. These combinations can be combined and delivered with the tried and tested compositions as well as with the Blue Moon specification. Advanced Grinding Solutions now supplies Krebs wheels to several top UK gear manufacturing companies who are able to call off specially profiled wheels for gear production on fast deliveries. Under agreement Krebs can keep customer’s blank wheels in stock and upon order will profile these to suit and then supply within just 2 or 3 days.