TURNING NEWS IN THE ROUND
Finishing the job Grinding crankshaft
Automotive subcontractor installs Studer universal grinding machine;
transmission component specialist acquires Holroyd gear grinding
centre; tooling expert invests in another ANCA cutter grinder.
Steed Webzell has the details
Employees at Hinckley-based Arrow
Precision have access to a range of
quality machine tools, helping the
company’s connecting rods and crankshafts
to deliver the required levels of performance.
And now Arrow has one more: a Studer S41
CNC universal grinding machine supplied by
Micronz (https://is.gd/ohequv).
The recently installed S41 is now fully
operational across two shifts and, in some
areas, is exceeding Arrow Precision’s
expectations. For example, in addition to the
external grinding of crankshafts journal and
pins, the S41 is being used to grind internal
features such as ywheel location bores.
Crankshaft bores that previously took 30
minutes to grind on a manual machine now
take less than 3 minutes. As well as
producing high levels of surface nish on
crank journals and pins, the Studer S41 is
achieving sub-micron levels of diameter
grinding accuracy.
Ian Arnold, managing director, explains
the reasons for the S41’s purchase:
“As achieving the speci ed diameter and
surface nish characteristics of journals and
pins constitutes the most critical crankshaft
machining process, our new grinding
machine needed to be of the highest
possible technical standard. Also, as we
manufacture crankshafts in series
production and in short runs, we required a
machine with great exibility and quick
changeover times.
“Not only has the speed and ef ciency of
our Studer CNC universal cylindrical grinder
removed the possibility of production
bottlenecks from our grinding department,
the extra capacity it has created – and
additional capabilities it provides – have
journals at Arrow Precision
on a Studer machine
opened up new commercial opportunities.
“Importantly, as our operators received
excellent on-machine training, and as
Studer’s control is so intuitive, our staff
soon mastered the S41.”
Featuring distances between centres of
1,000/1,600 mm, centre heights of
225/275 mm and the capability of
machining workpieces with a maximum
weight of 250 kg (Arrow has the 1,000/225
mm version), the Studer S41 CNC universal
cylindrical grinding machine was designed to
accommodate medium-to-large workpieces.
The majority of daily grinding tasks can be
performed, while the S41 can also be
con gured for single-purpose use.
Elsewhere, one of Europe’s leading
producers of helical and spur tooth pinion
gears has selected a GTG2 gear grinding
centre from Holroyd Precision (https://is.gd/
ocerim) to test-grind a range of specialised
gears and tooth forms.
Developed speci cally for grinding
precision spur and helical gears, worms,
screws and rotors of up to 350 mm diameter
and 160 mm gear face width, Holroyd GTG2
grinding centres use what is described as a
64 September 2019 www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets
/ohequv)
/
/www.machinery.co.uk