Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
ANCA machine innovation and software combine for a complete package for producing woodworking tools, reducing set-up times
By Simon Richardson, Product Manager
ANCA is well known for offering standard and special custom solutions for our customers. When ANCA designs a custom solution, we give our customers tailored and diverse options with shorter set-up times. In an increasingly challenging market, companies grinding tools are always looking at innovative products and diversifying into different sectors using existing or new machinery.
ANCA recently developed a new product which provides more flexibility and capability while enhancing the FX machine range. The product is a tooling system used on FX5 and FX7 machines which offers the ability to easily interchange between woodworking profile blades and cylindrical (shank) tools.
This means companies grinding woodworking tools can grind blade profiles and then quickly change to cylindrical shank tools, such as compression routers. In addition, companies focusing predominantly on engineering tools can consider adding woodworking blade profiles to their product portfolio.
This tooling system comes as a package. The package includes a workholding adaptor (blade chuck) to hold flat profile blades and a blade gripper head fitted to the robot loader to load woodworking blades or cylindrical tools without any mechanical changes. This means the robot head does not need to be changed. A blade gripper is used to load and unload blades and gripper fingers for loading cylindrical tools. Optional pallets are available for both blades and shank tools.
The blade chuck works with a pull stud clamping mechanism. Switching between the blade chuck and standard collet adaptor (for cylindrical tools) is done in minutes. Automatic loading and grinding of blade profiles with a smallest size of 20 x 20mm (0.78”) and largest size of 80 (3.14”) x 30mm (1.18”) is possible. This system is also retrofittable to existing FX5 and FX7 machines.
The blade chuck work holding has an adjustable insertion depth between 8 (5/16”) and 28mm (1.10”). The chuck can accommodate blades on or between 0.5 (0.019”) to 4mm (0.15”) thick using different size datum blocks. When manual loading, the chuck can hold blades up to 120mm (4.72”) long. Blades with a bevelled edge can also be supported. An air blast operates during the clamping and unclamping cycles to ensure the chuck is free of any contaminants. Digitizing of the top, side and bottom of the blade along with notches or datum features is possible. The chuck can also rotate for blades with an undercut feature, so the profile can be ground normal to the blade surface.
In addition to the tooling system for blades, ANCA has a dedicated software package for grinding varied and multiple blade profiles. The user-friendly software enables quick programming and short set-up times. The user can easily define the workholding, blank and profile or import a DXF. The blades themselves are mounted into tools used on different woodworking machinery for cutting profiles into solid wood furniture and components such as skirting boards and architraves.
When grinding blade profiles, the depth of the profile can be quite deep, and a lot of stock needs to be removed. Slice Roughing is a method of removing large amounts of stock from the blade very aggressively, meaning shorter cycle times. Slice Roughing repeatedly plunges the roughing wheel downwards into the blade from the top of the blank to the finish stock amount specified by the user. When grinding blade profiles with ANCA software, it’s possible to control the wheel pivot and relief angles along the profile which is important for blade grinding. This flexible tooling system combined with blade software, offers a complete package for producing woodworking tools.
Simon Richardson is one of ANCA’s Product Managers, looking after the technical development and commercialization of a range of machines and technology. Simon has 25 years of experience in the grinding industry, building an extensive understanding of market needs, trends and opportunities. Simon uses his intimate knowledge of ANCA products and grinding in general to offer the industry and customers a range of insights, tips and expertise to enable everyone’s ongoing success. A well-known figure amongst grinders, Simon joined ANCA in 2003 in the UK as a Sales Manager before emigrating to Australia in 2007.
For further information, please contact:
Sepideh Zandieh
PR and Communications Manager, ANCA
M: +61 439 316 131
Sepideh.Zandieh@anca.com
ANCA is a market leading manufacturer of CNC grinding machines. It was founded in 1974 in Melbourne, Australia where the company still has its global headquarters. ANCA has offices in the UK, Germany, China, Thailand, India, Japan, Brazil and the USA as well as a comprehensive network of representatives and agents worldwide.
ANCA CNC grinders are used for manufacturing precision cutting tools and components across a diverse range of competitive industries including cutting tool manufacture, automotive, aerospace, electronics and medical.
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This Grieve oven is a 550°F (288°C) new truck oven customized from the standard TCH-550 model and is currently used for heat processing parts at the customer’s facility. Workspace dimensions of this oven measure 60” W x 60” D x 60” H. 30 KW are installed in Incoloy sheathed tubular heating elements, while a 2000 CFM, 2 HP recirculating blower provides horizontal airflow to the workload.
This Grieve truck oven has 6” insulated walls, an aluminized steel interior and aluminized steel exterior with enamel finish. Features include a purge timer, two-position dampers on fresh air inlet and exhaust outlet and a 1200 lb. capacity stainless steel loading truck. Additional features include a 325 CFM powered forced exhauster with an airflow safety switch. The oven includes all safety equipment required by NFPA Standard 86, IRI, FM and OSHA.
Controls on this Grieve oven include a UL listed control panel, a programmable temperature controller, SCR power controller, a circular chart recorder and a circuit breaker disconnect switch mounted through control panel door.
For more information, please contact:
THE GRIEVE CORPORATION
500 Hart Road
Round Lake, IL 60073-2898
Phone: (847) 546-8225
Fax: (847) 546-9210
Web: www.grievecorp.com
Email: sales@grievecorp.com
Attention: Frank Calabrese, VP
Platinum Tooling Technologies, Inc., the exclusive North American importer of standard and custom Live Tools, Angle Heads, and Multiple Spindle Tools manufactured by heimatec GmbH, is excited to announce the release of their new catalog.
The newly released catalog offers an updated look and features their high quality machine tool accessory lines, including: heimatec GmbH – Live Tools and Machining Center Angle Heads; Tecnicrafts Industries – Collets & Guide Bushings for Swiss Type CNC Lathes; Henninger GmbH u. Co. KG – Mechanical, Air & Motor Speeders, plus Custom Machining Center Angle Heads; Andreas Maier GmbH & Co. KG (AMF) – Cleaning & Marking Tools.
Preben Hansen, President of Platinum Tooling, is known throughout the industry for his expertise and experience in the tooling industry. Hansen will continue to offer advice and welcomes the opportunity to discuss your application.
Platinum Tooling Technologies, Inc., is located in Prospect Heights, Illinois (just outside of Chicago). They recently expanded their facility to provide increased inventory to better serve the marketplace.
For more information, please contact:
Preben Hansen, President
Platinum Tooling Technologies, Inc.
16 East Piper Lane, Suite 128
Prospect Heights, IL 60070
847-749-0633
www.platinumtooling.com
phansen@platinumtooling.com
Over the last few months, I’ve had the opportunity to watch our clients react to the virus and adjust their businesses accordingly. As all our clients are manufacturing enterprises, they’ve needed to adjust their production scenario. Several innovative clients have gone from 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 shifts to achieve proper social distancing with no decline in the output. Most clients have returned to work in the office, as of this writing. Three clients have radically increased their ad spending, with one quoting me my own line, “Smaller pie, bigger slice.” He remembered 2009, all too well. The big difference here, of course, is that the current slowdown has absolutely NOTHING to do with economics.
Continue readingBy Maureen Lepke
All industries are feeling the effects of Coronavirus. Manufacturing and industrial companies are not an exception. So what can you do in a time where trade shows are cancelled, everyone is working from home and trying to find new ways to get their company’s message out? The answer is social media. Social media is a low-cost, yet valuable marketing tool that allows your company to talk to your customers every day throughout the month.
What’s the benefit of having an agency do your social media for you? We have a full-time social media director here at the agency and we are strictly industrial so we understand your world. We are consistently posting 5 days a week. Social media is usually the first thing that slows down when a company gets busy. It becomes an afterthought when social media should be a critical part of your marketing strategy.
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By Duncan Thompson, ANCA Product Manager
Industrial automation is changing the way cutting tool manufacturers operate. Machines have taken on the heavy lifting at each stage of production letting workers get on with less repetitive tasks. And while automation may sound costly and complex to implement, it’s not reserved just for just big business. There are dozens of ways a small cutting tool manufacturer can embrace automation for a more efficient and more innovative factory.
What are the benefits of industrial automation?
Don’t invent; stand on the shoulder of giants
It’s true that bigger companies have more buying power. When it comes to industrial automation, they have plenty of scope to ask for tailored developments to suit very specific needs, or to make these adjustments in house. But as new technology and solutions are developed in response to these requests, the industry as a whole will benefit.
Just because a technology is off the shelf, doesn’t mean it is ‘standard’. In fact, our industry is constantly evolving as new solutions are found and applied. While their technology development may have been developed at the request of a large customer, as soon as it’s scalable it can be rolled out to suit most businesses. At ANCA this includes many of our innovations including 3D simulation software, our in-process measurement system Laser Plus, and RoboTeach, which makes robotic loaders accessible and easy to program.
The addition of laser etching on a Robot loader is another example that has increased the functionality of the grinding machine by including what would otherwise have been additional downstream steps in the process of making tools.
As a small tool manufacturer, vendors recognise that your priority is maximising your factory’s efficiency – machine uptime versus setup time. They know that you need software and accessories that will help you keep things ticking over without wasting time and money reloading materials.
How do you approach where to start?
Chances are there will be no obvious trigger when it comes to adopting industrial automation. Many smaller businesses won’t have planned to develop the level of automation they have. Some may have started only after an increase in labour and setup costs forced them to look for ways to run more smartly. But that is ok, you can build your automation solution piece by piece – as long as you have an agreed vision.
It may be as simple as being observant and seeing which steps in your production process have the greatest cost. Unlike other efficiency drives there is no harm in approaching this piecemeal. Start by attacking the area of your business that will provide you with greatest value. For instance:
Look for industrial automation solutions that reflect how you operate
At the smaller end of the tool cutting market there’s a good chance you’re producing small batch lots and changing geometry multiple times a day, rather than leaving the machine running constantly making the same tool all day.
In this world innovation is often a secondary need to maximising day-to-day productivity. For instance, look for solutions that allow the operator to step away from the machine and carry out other tasks, rather than being there all day. Automating geometry changes and your existing manual material management processes can make a real change to how much they are able to do elsewhere and help you maximise machine uptime vs setup time. Time is, after all, money.
Automate production but also consider automating processes
You may not have the business budgets to request tailored solutions, but out-of-the-box solutions are available that can be used to manage inventory, integrate with your ERP to manage job order, and even pack ready for dispatch. Many will work effectively with your existing processes, even if you have never automated them before.
Industrial automation can keep your focus on people
A small cutting tool factory relies on every working part being up to scratch – and that includes your people. Automation removes the risk of human error creating a safer working environment that’s less likely to be disrupted. Furthermore, changing government legislation is limiting how many hours employees can work. Automation is the obvious solution to maximise machine up time when people are not present.
Applying industrial automation solutions that connect you more to your customers will allow you to see in real time what they’re low on, what’s in high demand, or what’s coming up in your production that will suit their requirements. This allows you to explore other areas of production and manufacture tools knowing with confidence what your customers want.
Everyone can afford and benefit from existing industrial automation solutions
Automation can take the pain out of being a small tool shop. Your new factory of the future will be able to produce multiple kinds of tools without getting bogged down in manual operations.
We can all benefit from streamlining systems and processes. Focus on your speciality and leverage the tech that’s already out there. There are better ways for you to use your time. Grind the wheel, don’t reinvent it.
Duncan Thompson is a Product Manager at ANCA, responsible for the technical direction and commercialisation of new machine and application developments. Having been at ANCA for over 22 years, Duncan has gained intimate market and grinding application knowledge by working across a range of roles including service, application grinding, sales, special project development and marketing roles. As a fluent Japanese speaker, Duncan was based in the Japanese market for three years and retains strong ties to customers in that unique market. Today, Duncan’s motivation and passion in the Product Manager role comes from “working with customers from diverse international markets to understand their challenges and being instrumental in delivering solutions.
For further information, please contact:
Sepideh Zandieh
PR and Communications Manager, ANCA
M: +61 439 316 131
Sepideh.Zandieh@anca.com
Greenery 33 is a company in Cincinnati, Ohio that produces creative and unique plant holders and pots. The company donates 33% of their earnings to environmental protection agencies. One of Exact’s engineers is friendly with Greenery 33’s owner, so Exact Metrology participated in a marketing campaign aimed to show the process of reverse engineering and how it can used with various materials.
The first step was to scan and have a digital copy of a physical skull. Secondly, the skull was reverse engineered using Geomagic DesignX software and NURBS. Geomagic is a leading provider of 3D software to create digital models of physical objects for industries such as: archaeology, aerospace, medical and dental, tooling, foundry and sculpture and arts. The Geomagic Design X combines history-based CAD with 3D scan data processing, enabling users to create feature-based, edible solid models compatible with existing CAD software. NURBS, or Non-Uniform Rational B-spline is used to represent curves and surfaces. Next, surface analysis is performed with Geomagic Design X for parametric modeling. Afterwards, NURBS is inspected with a color map against the scanned data of Geomagic. Lastly, .stl files rendered in Keyshot 3D of the skull are placed in product shots for Greenery 33.
This process took two days. By using reverse engineering, Exact Metrology showed Greenery 33 an efficient and cost-saving way of working with materials like plastic, glass and ceramic without physically reconstructing it.
Exact Metrology is an ISO 9001:2008 and AS9100 Certified Company
Exact Metrology, with facilities in Cincinnati, OH, Moline, IL and Milwaukee, WI and affiliated offices throughout the country, is a comprehensive metrology services provider, offering customers 3D and CT scanning, reverse engineering, quality inspection, product development and 2D drawings. The company also provides turnkey metrology solutions, including equipment sales and lease/rental arrangements.
Exact Metrology offers a complete line of portable scanning and measurement technologies as well as contract measurement for 3D laser scanning services, reverse engineering services, non-contact inspection, metrology services, and 3D digitizing. The company’s newest equipment includes a CT Scanner, the first in America being used for metrology rather than medical testing. Exact sells and rents metrology equipment solutions, in addition to providing testing as a service and application software training.
For information, please contact:
EXACT METROLOGY, INC.
Dean Solberg
20515 Industry Avenue
Brookfield, WI 53045
Local: 262-533-0800
www.exactmetrology.com
deans@exactmetrology.com
EXACT METROLOGY, INC.
Steve Young
11575 Goldcoast Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45249
Local: 513.831.6620
Toll Free: 866.722.2600
www.exactmetrology.com
stevey@exactmetrology.com
The Australian Government (Commonwealth of Australia) selected French company Naval Group to deliver a fleet of 12 regionally superior submarines, to be known as the Attack Class, for the Royal Australian Navy. The Attack class fleet will be built in a modern submarine construction yard in Osborne, South Australia.
The Future Submarine Program will deliver Australia a capability that can be built, operated and maintained autonomously, which maximizes opportunities for Australian industry throughout all phases of the program.
As the design of the Attack Class progresses, Naval Group continues to deliver on its commitment and achieve this goal in cooperation with their suppliers that now includes the Starrag Group. Dr Marcus Queins, Manager for the Large Parts Machining Systems business unit at Starrag, explains, “We are proud to be involved in this prestigious project in Australia.” Starrag has been selected to supply a Droop+Rein G 110TT HR100 C vertical gantry machine, capable of handling both large hull elements and high-precision components for submarine construction. With traversing paths of 14,000 x 13,000 x 3,500 mm (45.93 x 42.65 x 11.48 ft) in the X/Y/Z axes and an 11 m (36 ft) turntable, the gantry will be the largest machine tool ever put into service in Australia.
Starrag is collaborating with the Australian machine tool manufacturer H&H Machine Tools Australia to deliver this critical equipment. H&H will manufacture key components, supply qualified personnel to help install the gantry and provide technical support for the entire life cycle of the machine, securing an ongoing role in servicing and maintenance in the future. Starrag will provide H&H with the necessary expertise through onsite training and quality control, transferring critical skills and autonomous ability to Australian industry.
The contract was awarded following a complex selection process. Noting its many years of experience and its extensive, as well as technical, expertise in handling large, complicated projects, the Starrag Group was deemed a worthy selection for this contract. Few machine suppliers can manage an order of this magnitude from over 15,000 kilometers (9320 miles) away — but this was not a problem for the Starrag Group, as Australian sales partner H&H Machine Tool Solutions will facilitate local work, ensuring that everything runs smoothly onsite. A previous project carried out in South Australia, for which Starrag supplied four machines for aircraft construction, demonstrates a proven track record, in this regard.
Gantry machine for precise heavy-duty cutting of large and heavy workpieces
The size and efficiency of the milling machine being supplied, which is also capable of turning components thanks to the integrated rotary table – tried and tested as part of the Dörries range of lathes from the Starrag Group – was of fundamental importance. The Droop+Rein G 110 TT HR100 C owes its high precision to features such as the hydrostatic guides in all linear axes, as well as the thermo-symmetrical design of the milling unit with its integrated C axis. Milling heads can be changed automatically via a head change interface. The team responsible selected five different machining heads to use on this project. The high-performance fork milling head features not only the ability to use the tool at any angle but also the necessary prerequisites for heavy-duty machining on five axes simultaneously. Alternatively, the machine can be used with one straight and one angled 100-kW (134HP) milling head with a torque of 7,500 Nm (5531 ft-lb). A turret and a horizontal facing head are available for turning operations on the components.
The large, multifunctional machine supplied by Starrag from its Bielefeld plant gives the operator optimum access. The operator can reach any point on the workpiece thanks to the spacious cabin, which travels along the gantry and features the latest Siemens operator panel. The cabin can reach a height of 8 m (26 ft) and be moved towards the center of the table.
The last but by no means the least decisive factor in favor of the Starrag Group was that, having already supplied machines to reference customers, the company could prove that the installed machine technology is very robust. This ensures that, with proper maintenance, the machine will be operational for the entire duration of the submarine project. The first of the Attack Class submarines will be delivered in the early 2030’s and continue into the early 2050’s.
Company profile: Starrag
High-precision machine tools for greater productivity
Starrag Group is a global technology leader in manufacturing high-precision machine tools for milling, turning, boring and grinding workpieces of metallic, composite and ceramic materials. Principle customers are internationally active companies in the Aerospace, Energy, Transportation and Industrial sectors (Industrial Components, Luxury Goods, Med Tech). In addition to its portfolio of machine tools, Starrag Group provides integrated technology and maintenance services that significantly enhance customer quality and productivity.
The umbrella brand Starrag unites the product ranges Berthiez, Bumotec, Dörries, Droop+Rein, Ecospeed, Heckert, Scharmann, SIP, Starrag, TTL and WMW. Headquartered in Rorschach, Switzerland, the Starrag Group operates manufacturing plants in Switzerland, Germany, France, UK and India and has established a network of sales and service subsidiaries in the most important customer countries.
The shares of Starrag Group Holding AG are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
For further information:
Starrag
Michael Schedler
Head of Marketing
Tel. +49 2166 454 0
info@starrag.com
www.starrag.com
The Grieve Corporation, experts in industrial manufacturing of ovens and furnaces with a long history of 70+ years, launched an updated website with new features and enhancements to existing capabilities.
“As our company continues to grow, we look for our new website to offer the digital tools necessary to better serve our customers,” said Tony Caringella, COO.
The website details Grieve’s entire selection of ovens and furnaces in a digital catalog that is easy to navigate. With hundreds of different models, customers can help narrow down the right equipment for their process by utilizing the oven finder tool by applying filters such as workspace area, operating temperature, loading method and more. Although the company offers hundreds of standard models, Grieve also has unique customization abilities to engineer the best equipment for one’s application; the site details many custom ovens and furnaces as well.
Site visitors can browse Grieve’s selections of ovens and furnaces and submit a request for quotation; the viewer can find the equipment that fits their process needs, along with compatible modifications and accessories, and submit a message directly to Grieve for a customized quotation that can be tailored to a specific process or application.
Ordering replacement parts is made simple with the Ecommerce platform. Customers can search by part type to find parts needed for their equipment, and order directly from the website. The Grieve team will verify the item with the customer’s equipment to ensure compatibility. Customers are also encouraged to create an account which will hold their information for ease of checkout for future purchases.
Grieve works with sales representatives throughout the country (as well as globally) to support customers that would like assistance at their workspace to determine the best equipment for their needs. A local sales representative can be located using the Locate a Rep tool. Another resource for customers is the extensive resource library, housing hundreds of manuals, component literature, safety information, etc.
Explore these features, as well as additional information on all of Grieve’s products, processes, and services at www.grievecorp.com.
Contact info:
Allison Luber: (847) 546-8225
The Grieve Corp
500 Hart Rd, Round Lake, IL 60073
www.grievecorp.com
Exact Metrology, a comprehensive metrology services provider, recently completed a job at Chicago Jet Group. Located in Sugar Grove, Illinois, the company started in 2003 with the idea of providing the highest level of professionalism and attention to detail in the corporate aviation industry. Chicago Jet Group specializes in aircraft acquisition, aircraft management, charter services, pre-purchase evaluation, aircraft avionics, aircraft consulting and aircraft maintenance. The company was retrofitting older Dassault Falcons avionics and needed a CAD model of the panel to see how it would fit.
Joe van der Sanden, application engineer from Exact Metrology, scanned the panel with an 85 series Hexagon Romer Absolute Arm. The Absolute Arm 7-axis delivers tactile probing and laser scanning in an ergonomic package. It is the best choice for ease of movement and ease of measurement. The flagship RS5 laser scanner offers high-speed 3D scanning 
for surfaces and features on a wide range of finishes and materials with less investment than the RS6. Furthermore, the RS5 laser scanner boasts a wide and horizontally-oriented laser scan line and fully-automatic exposure settings, making general purpose scanning functionality simple to apply regardless of application. In addition, with mid-range width at 115 millimeters, the laser scanner line of the RS5 makes digitizing large surfaces simple and quick. The RS5 can be easily removed from the arm, allowing simpler and safer access to touch probing functionality in hard-to-reach areas. Thanks to repeatable mounting, it can be remounted without recalibration. Through the on-wrist OLED display screen of the Absolute Arm 7-axis, the RS5 allows for measurement feedback and settings adjustment at the point of measurement for a clear improvement to workflow productivity.
Then, dimensions were obtained in Polyworks Inspector™. The Polyworks software suite covers the complete product development cycle, from part and tool design and prototyping down to final inspection of assembled parts. Polyworks Inspector™ is the industry-standard toolbox for product engineering, assembly guidance and final inspection.
Reverse engineering was performed using Geomagic Design X. This software combines history-based CAD with 3D scan data processing and enables the creation of feature-based, editable solid models compatible with existing CAD software. Geomagic Design X allows users to re-use existing designs without having to manually update old drawings or re-measure and rebuild a model in CAD. This software is easy to learn and use, for it uses familiar history-based tools found in all major CAD products.
Chicago Jet Group was very pleased with the work performed by Exact Metrology and they would be happy to work with them again. A senior avionics technician at the company said, “This will save us months of measuring and drafting.”
Exact Metrology is ISO, AS9100 Certified as well as FFL and ITAR Registered.
Exact Metrology, with facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio, Moline, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, plus affiliated offices throughout the country, is a comprehensive metrology services provider, offering customers 3D and CT scanning, reverse engineering, quality inspection, product development and 2D drawings. The company also provides turnkey metrology solutions, including equipment sales and lease/rental arrangements.
For information, please contact:
EXACT METROLOGY, INC.
Dean Solberg
20515 Industry Avenue
Brookfield, WI 53045
Local: 262-533-0800
www.exactmetrology.com
deans@exactmetrology.com
EXACT METROLOGY, INC.
Steve Young
11575 Goldcoast Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45249
Local: 513.831.6620
Toll Free: 866.722.2600
www.exactmetrology.com
stevey@exactmetrology.com