Polishing, tool
grinding & honing
High quality polishing at ADV Brightware Manufacturing is supported by Autopulit/Ellesco; Walter Ewag
underlines Walter Helitronic green credentials; Nagel’s compact automated honing cell fi ts the budget of
smaller companies; ‘The Art of Grinding’ – Studer reasserts its central message and credentials
ADV Brightware Manufacturing provides
customers with a complete solution
This service starts with design and goes through
toolmaking, pressing, roll-forming, 5-axis laser
pro ling, polishing, assembly and distribution, the
company has recently added a 9-axis robot polishing
cell from Autopulit (Ellesco, www.is.gd/inulul ) to
its machinery portfolio.
The project that was the catalyst for this
investment was to ful l demand for polished sideframes
for a prestigious 4x4, each frame measured
3.5 m in length and traditionally this would have
been a job for manual polishing. “The customer
recognised that the ideal solution would be a robot
cell to deliver the consistent high quality that its
customers required. With this in mind, I visited the
MACH 2018 exhibition and the Ellesco stand
caught my eye, as they had a small Autopulit robot
cell on display. Discussing this with Ellesco, it
became obvious that this could be scaled up to
provide the ideal solution,” says ABM’s automation
manager, Lloyd Jackson.
The cell development was completed with
Autopulit leading discussions, plus input taken from
Ellesco and Jackson, whose extensive polishing
know-how completed the picture. From placing the
order, the timeline for delivery didn’t slip by a day,
the way. “I couldn’t fault the service and support
provided by Autopulit and Ellesco, working with them
gave me full con dence that they would deliver on
their promises. The design of the cell is
straightforward; why overcomplicate if you don’t have
to, but it is highly capable of the complex work that
we are asking it to do and is future proof as it can be
adapted to new work when this seven-year project
draws to a close,” Jackson explains.
The cell consists of a 6-axis ABB IRB 6700 robot
( www.is.gd/owulun ) with a 200 kg payload and
2.6 m reach. This sits on an ABB IRBT 6004 track,
allowing the robot to traverse up to 2.7 m. Parts are
loaded onto a two-station interchanger capable of
holding parts measuring 950 by 4,000 mm. The
robot arm has access to four AC motor-driven
polishing tools, each equipped with invertors that
allow nite control of polishing mop speed and
polarity, which creates a more uent and adaptable
approach when it comes to polishing large parts.
Prior to polishing commencing, the robot arm
presents each polishing mop to a laser calibrating
system that calculates mop wear and automatically
compensates the program to a tolerance of
±0.1 mm, ensuring correct pressure is applied. With
the polishing mop calibrated, the robot presents it to
the compound dispenser that automatically applies
even as changes were made along
one of three compounds. The whole
system is controlled by an IRC5 single
controller and once programmed the
control recognises which of six sideframes
is loaded, so the whole
process is simpli ed to: load part,
press cycle start.
“The Autopulit cell has delivered
signi cant advantages in many
areas of our production, including
time saving, consistency and health
and safety. When manually
polishing, it could take four hours
to complete one side-frame. That is
now down to 14 minutes; with an additional 30
minutes of manual intervention with soft mops.
The cell can operate 24 hours/day, it doesn’t get
tired, so quality is consistent throughout the day.
The elimination of hard mop manual polishing also
removes any risk of Hand Arm Vibration (HAV) issues
for operators. We also have exibility, so when new
business opportunities present themselves, we have
the resources to be able to react quickly to supply
high quality, cost-competitive, aluminium and
stainless steel brightware.”
Walter Helitronic tool grinding and erosion
machines offer independently veri ed
energy savings of up to 40%
Energy savings of up to 40% can be achieved through
optimised operation of Walter Helitronic tool grinding
and erosion machines, claims Walter Ewag UK
( www.is.gd/aquxob ), a member of the United
Grinding Group. This is achieved through, for example,
sensible warm-up and shutdown programs, the
recovery of thermal energy and optimised machining
via machine control software routines.
This gure also includes an 11% reduction in the
machines’ energy consumption because Walter now
uses more environmentally friendly components in
machine build, compared to those widely available
and employed 15 years ago.
And it is not a supplier claim but one that has
been independently assessed and con rmed by
experts from the German ‘Steinbeis Sustainable
Energy Competence Center’.
Walter’s awareness of climate protection begins
with the design and construction of its machines –
for example, by utilising modern drives and improved
part loading, compressed air and extraction,
as well as by the use of energy-saving LED lights and
frequency-controlled coolant pumps. And it continues
through production by optimised machine operation.
Some of the technology improvements made in
recent times include:
38 December 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
/inulul
/owulun
/aquxob
/www.machinery.co.uk