A quick look at the headline making news on the technology or business pages these days and the word ‘efficiency’ would probably come up a lot. Businesses adore the word. A more efficient drive or flight would mean more money saved and an obvious platform to launch a marketing campaign, usually with an environmental touch to it.

In the automotive industry, Energy Efficient Vehicles or EEVs have been the flavour of the month for many months now, with environmental, financial and perhaps even political reasons to champion the production and purchase of EEVs.

The CAM software developers are also taking the efficiency route, some might say quite literally. Delcam has added the vortex high-efficiency roughing across its CAM range of product. Vortex produces toolpaths with a controlled engagement angle and so maintains the optimum cutting conditions for the toolpath that would normally be possible only for the straight-line moves.

Generally speaking, when someone has an efficient product or process, they are not afraid to shout about it. Even the academics are getting into the act. UCLA have announced that their researchers have recently improved the process for manufacturing highly efficient solar cells.

While better efficiency is an enticing marketing proposition, its intrinsic value is perhaps what engineers are more interested in. In the process of grinding, this is no exception and the value of efficiency transcends European and Asian machine builders as both spare no effort in banging the efficiency drum.

Universal Thread Grinder

In vertical thread grinding, Mitsui Seiki has developed an industry-first universal thread grinder design configuration. Sure enough, it contains elements for an efficient grinding process. According to the manufacturer, the VGE60A universal vertical thread grinder offers improved accuracy, speed, performance, and multi-functionality over conventional horizontal thread grinder designs.

According to Tom Dolan, VP of Mitsui Seiki USA, efficiency is one of the main strength of this machine. “Highly accurate and efficient machining methods for various screws, such as ballscrews, have been on the rise. Typically, thread grinders have been made the same way for the last 50 years. This new technology changes everything,” he said. The ability to carry out different grinding operations has lent weight to that claim.

In addition to thread grinding, the machine can now perform spline, gear, OD, surface, and edge grinding operations in a single setup. The manufacturer claimed that this can save customers production time while improving overall part accuracy.

Other features such as an automatic grinding wheel changer, automatic wheel guard and a CNC-controlled wheel dresser (to accommodate various shaped wheels) improve productivity. Infinitely programmable grinding wheel tilt angles from +45 to -90-degrees provide increased grinding application opportunities.

Finally, putting operational efficiency aside, the designers of the machine also made the machine efficient in size. The vertical configuration requires 33 percent less floor space than a similar capacity horizontal grinder, and allows for improved human interface with the complete work zone.

Gear Grinding

 

A continuous generating gear grinding machine, the LGA-2812 from Luren, can help increase gear production efficiency and accuracy, according to the manufacturer. In addition to the wheel spindle that can reach speeds of 5,000 rpm, the machine also includes a built-in automatic balancing system that reduces deviation caused by dressing or grinding.

In a labour market that is tight, skilled operators may be difficult to come by. It therefore makes perfect sense when a machine is designed to be operated with ease. With the grinding software, the manufacturer insists that the program allows operators with little or no CNC experience to run the machine.

The software in question offers interactive dialogues and error feedback for program assistance. A neat feature here allows operators to add gear data and grinding requirements before witnessing the creation of the grinding program. The NC process sequences will be generated automatically after that.

Surface Grinding

Over at the surface grinding segment, the JL-2550CNC is a CNC profile surface grinding machine by Joen Lih which features a longitudinal mechanism that the manufacturer says can help ensure positioning accuracy for many years.

Apart from the precise ball screw and dual anti-backlash nuts, another contributing factor to the longevity of the machine is the hand scrapped table and saddle that provide the precision in flatness, parallelism and perpendicularity while the longitudinal x-axis table travels on double –vee guide ways.

Another manufacturer, Seedtec, is also placing great care in the movement of the machine’s column in order to produce good surface accuracy. With a bold guarantee of 0.003 mm (surface accuracy), minimum vertical feed of 0.001 mm and a surface roughness of 0.02 Ra, the manufacturer points to the servo motor, precise ball-screws, positioning and the repeatability accuracy of its roller linear guideways on the column as the main pillars of its confidence. 

Tool Grinding

Finally, in the tool grinding segment, Switzerland headquarted Rollomatic claims its GrindSmart 528XS tool grinder is capable of concentricity accuracy under 0.005 mm. In addition, the manufacturer has picked up on the need for modular solutions in today’s modern machine shops. Apparently, the workhead now offers flexibility to adapt different clamping systems according to specific needs.

The ShapeSmart NP5 by the same manufacturer is a reinforced precision cylindrical grinding machine that features a pinch/peel grinding process that reportedly gives optimal concentricity.

With a grinding range of 0.025 to 20 mm, the machine is suitable for cutting tool blank preparation as well as punch and mould applications that require complex geometry and high length-to-diameter ratios. The manufacturer has also added a fifth axis that allows the ability to grind flats and non-concentric cam profiles.

Grinding Down The Challenges

Grinding in the modern context is now an amalgam of accuracy and other factors that ultimately results in a productive manufacturing process. Although the process has changed drastically, the daily grind of demanding a good quality end product has never wavered.

The future of grinding machines will probably follow the footsteps of its machining centre counterparts, where emphasis on efficiency remains the focus of a manufacturing world that demands the most out of very little.