Grinding Journal - Summer 2007 - (Page 12)

Summer 2007 (0.002 mm over 250 mm). These features combine to deliver peerless accuracy and stability on even the toughest material. Once Dirats Laboratories has established a machining process that produces a specimen without residual stress (and such qualification typically requires destructive testing), they know the S31 will duplicate that process no matter when it’s repeated. Or as Eric puts it: “It’s a Six Sigma machine. It does everything you need to get the process to the next step.” Relying on Studer’s fast-changeover capabilities Cutting the “time to get the first part” is critical to Dirats’ Laboratories profitability because their batch sizes are so small. Ten specimens would be a big batch. But as Machining Supervisor Richard Irwin explains “Even if we need a run of ten bars, we may not make them as a set. We may have to get one to test, interrupt the setup for another job, and then return to the original bar for another specimen.” So while the grinding itself may then return to the original bar for another specimen.” So while the grinding itself may actually be a little slow (so as not to introduce stress), changeover has to be very fast. “It’s the one place where we can save time. We can’t change the machining parameters, but we can cut the setup.” Thankfully, this is another area in which Studer technology excels. Operator Slawek Urbanek reports that “The machine is easy to setup. And the software is very easy to use. Changeover takes about 10 minutes, unless the wheel must be dressed to a new form. If the part requires a different wheel form it can take a while to dress that form into the wheel.” But Slawek also demonstrated that StuderGrind software allows him to program these changes offline on a PC, so he’s not using machine time. With any advance notice about what part he needs to grind next, he can go from part to part in minutes. And the S31’s rotating grinding head turret with twin spindles gives Slawek the ability to combine different wheels to complete a complex grind in one setup. For example, the typical test bar requires an OD grind along a central gage section, a “V” notch with a small radius at its base in that gage section, and a thread at each end. That’s one setup on the S31. 12 Grinding Journal After programming on a PC, Slawek spends only a few minutes on the machine itself. On the machine or off, he says the Studer software makes it easy. Out-of-round grinding too Although it wasn’t part of Eric’s original thinking, the S31’s ability to handle non-round grinding has opened new possibilities, because some customers now demand a test bar with a non-round gage section. “Sometimes it’s a rectangle, sometimes an oval, sometimes a rectangle with radii. From their traditional sources, customers found this to be a very expensive specimen to make because it required 25 operations and a lot of hand work. Now we have a way to make these parts easily.” That’s because Slawek can program the forms with StuderGrind software in seconds and the S31 grinds them in one setup. Eric summarized the S31 by observing that the machine “does everything a production grinder does excellently, but it’s much more flexible. That’s new to the industry.” Excellent support cinched the decision If repeatability, fast setup, and flexibility filled the bases, support scored the run. Eric says every member of the United Grinding support team “from the engineer to the field technician …has been very capable. They know everything inside out and they work efficiently. It was a major factor in choosing the Studer.” And he emphasized that he wasn’t just talking about service or training, both of which were excellent, but the ability to

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Grinding Journal - Summer 2007

Contents My Thoughts Exactly When Lives Are at Stake Walter Consolidating Production The Art of Grinding: Knowing the Source of Grinding Errors and How to Fix Them The How and Why of Conventional Vitrified Grinding Wheel Selection Grinding Glass Flat Problem Solver

Grinding Journal - Summer 2007

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