Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
During the last two years, AME’s Speedcut Division has invested in new production and measuring equipment and concentrated heavily on R & D and saw blade innovations to improve the tool life of carbide- and cermet-tipped circular saw blades.
We are very pleased to announce the promotion of Christian Schedler to the Product Manager position at this division.
In his new role, Christian will oversee P&L responsibility for the division, including its sales, application engineering, product management and project management functions.
Christian’s distinguished career has encompassed R&D, Engineering and Product Manufacturing. He has a broad assembly and service experience on machine tools and knows the market’s needs for productivity improvements. Prior to this promotion, he worked in service as a Global Service Rep for a German machine tool company and as a Designer of carbide saws at Advanced Machine & Engineering. Christian has the experience, energy and judgment necessary to lead the division to continued success, insuring its future growth objectives are achieved.
Advanced Machine & Engineering Co., is a manufacturer located in Rockford, IL, serving the Machine Tool Industry with precision components and accessories, including spindle interface components, workholding devices, and, through our sister company, Hennig, machine enclosures, chip removal and filtration systems. The Fluid Power – Safety markets are served with cylinder rod locks and safety catcher devises; and the Production Saw market with our Amsaw carbide saw machines and Speedcut blade products. AME has manufacturing partners and customers around the world and across the U.S. To learn more, visit www.ame.com.
Hennig, Inc. design and produces custom machine protection and chip/coolant management products for state-of-the-art machine tools. Hennig products are designed to protect against corrosion, debris and common workplace contaminants. Manufacturing facilities located in the U.S., Germany, Brazil, India, Japan, China and South Korea. Repair centers are located in Machesney Park, IL; Chandler, OK; Livonia, MI; Blue Ash, OH; Mexico City, Mexico and Saltillo, Mexico. To learn more, visit www.hennigworldwide.com.
For more information, contact:
Tim Waterman
ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO.
2500 Latham St.
Rockford, IL 61103
Phone: 815-316-5277
Fax: 815-962-6483
E-mail: info@ame.com
Connect with AME online: 
Using Stotz air gages to validate spindle interface components, this leading supplier keeps quality on highest levels; every part, every time
Stotz USA, LLC, is a leader in air gaging technology, products and quality gaging system integration. According to company president, Chris Koehn, Stotz has achieved that goal by a variety of means, not the least of which has been the loyalty of good customers, who appreciate the value Stotz products brings to theirs. One of those customers is also a longtime friend of Koehn’s and he can say that with complete honesty, because he worked there, long ago.
Advanced Machine & Engineering (AME) of Rockford, Illinois is a world player in high-quality machine tool spindle interface components. As part of the Goellner, Inc. Group, AME enjoys a reputation throughout the machine tool industry for manufacturing the finest power drawbars, spindle shafts, guide bushings, locknuts, hydraulic sleeves, expansion gibs and more. AME components, through their own branded products and those of their brother companies such as OTT Jakob, Spieth and Tschudin & Heid, as well as their “other brother” Hennig, itself a world leader in chip conveyor and machine protection systems, are found on nearly every major machine tool brand.
AME was a customer of Stotz before Chris Koehn ever came to work at the air gaging company. Today, these two market leaders maintain a great working relationship, for all the right reasons. AME demands the highest level of quality in their machining and finishing departments and Stotz air gaging systems facilitate the accomplishment of that goal, every day, according to AME Service Manager, Greg Hobbs. “Air gaging is the only technology we’ve found that’s accurate enough to check the machine tooling and especially the spindle tapers we produce here. That’s a fact. In the past, we’d use hard gages and we still use them, but only for certain OD checks. We’d blue up the tapers, insert them, give them a good twist and do our inspections. Way too much inconsistency. Today, with sophisticated HSK tooling, this method is too hit or miss to be reliable. Air gaging provides dead stops on the test stand and the documentation is unbeatable for validation on the straightness, surface finish and taper angles. Plus, the Stotz system allows us to upload all the data on every part, so we have our favorite word…documentation…for every part we produce.”
Hobbs also commented on the user-friendliness of the Stotz air column. When the program is first input into the column for a part in the AME grinding department, for example, the Stotz column essentially becomes a PLC, providing hard data via the Ethernet connections to the host data base. In this manner, every parameter of every part is documented and recorded. In a classic example of the law of unintended consequences, this process is not only used on the parts run, it’s also used for calibrating the AME machines, in a predictive maintenance function.
At AME, various testing of machined spindle interface and other components is performed both at the machines in the grinding department, in a temperature-controlled 72° environment, plus in the company’s totally environment-controlled in-house testing department, supervised by the company’s Director of Quality, Brad Patterson. He confirmed Greg Hobbs’ observation that numerous other technologies have been investigated over the years for quality checking at AME and that air gaging has been found to be the best and most reliable for this company’s applications, particularly ID dimensions and configuration. Patterson also observed, “The sophistication of the Stotz air column is unmatched in the industry. We get all the data required and we get it in exactly the fashion needed to support our customers. Repeatable results and elimination of error, every time. Plus, the set-up is much faster than on our laser mics, which can’t be used for ID measurement.” Patterson further noted that the replacement of the bluing technique, one he termed a “black art,” with air gaging has brought and keeps AME up to the most current industry standards for quality evaluation.
The typical Stotz air column found here is the Model MSG, with four pneumatic channels or ten LVDT channels operating simultaneously, pneumatic length measuring, user specific programming up to 18 programs per column, full statistical analysis and full data transfer capability within the host network. All info is fed into the AME host computer by serial number, so any job can be quickly retrieved, while historical records on any part produced can be easily called up for evaluation, deviation claims or to dovetail with a customer’s internal quality protocols.
Typically, as AME’s Grinding Supervisor, Sam Schubert, explains, the finished product will rest for 24 hours of soaking, allowing the diameters to normalize. Though statistically predictable for most metal materials, thermal expansion can cause off-normal readings to occur. For checking certain bearing journals or spindle shafts, snap gages are set to accommodate size measurements down to the twenty millionths (0.000020”) range. The acceptable diameter tolerances for most AME products measured are in the 1-2 tenths (0.0001-0.0002”) range.
In cases where new masters are made for setting control values, those values are preset offline and programmed into the air column’s software, according to Greg Hobbs. Stotz typically performs this function for the customer in a remote manner over the Internet, through a proprietary IP address.
Among the many products finished in this grinding department are CAT/ISO 40 taper spindles, HSK test arbors, HSK grind quills, HSK steep taper milling tools and more. Often, older and worn spindle shafts are reverse engineered by AME for retrofits and reman’s. Even in these cases, air gaging is used to evaluate the finish process on the ID taper, as this versatile technology is easily adapted to such applications, according to AME personnel.
Sam Schubert expanded on the use of Stotz air gaging at AME.
“We have a full and very expensive inventory of hard gages with state-of-the-art indicators attached. But the air gages can do so much more. We use them for set-up on the grinding machines and they save us hours, every week. When you run the number of jobs we do here, that translates into substantial, additional work product and therefore more revenue for the company. In terms of reliability, some of the Stotz air gages we run here have been at AME since we began using the technology, nearly ten years ago now.” Schubert also noted the air gaging set-ups on the grinders dramatically reduce the time to first part in his department’s operation.
On one major spindle shaft project for an Asian machine tool builder, who was looking for a local source of supply in America, Schubert notes, AME was confronted with an unusually large quantity run, where tool degradation during the run would normally impact the production at some point. After an initial batch was produced, the machine builder claimed that everything but the taper was satisfactory. Quite surprised by this claim, AME checked all the documentation and determined that the customer’s test unit was actually out of spec, in a case where the error was repeated consistently and thus overlooked. In the end, the AME products were deemed better than perfect, in that instance.
Sam Schubert cites a useful analogy here. “The documentation we can produce from the air gaging procedure is like a birth certificate on every unit we make. All our spindle shafts for customers, for example, can be viewed as a series of genetically identical twins to each other and we’re providing the documentation of their DNA.” Quite a family.
As evidence of their commitment to this technology, Schubert notes that AME is now purchasing air gaging fixtures for all new customer applications. This quality spindle interface manufacturer aims to “keep breathing easy” in their process and product validation, as a result.
“Stotz has been a leader in gaging technology for almost 60 years. We are constantly striving to improve our designs and develop new products to solidify our position as a leader in measuring technology. The Stotz customer base consists of the top manufacturers and suppliers in the machine tool, automotive, aerospace and medical industries,” according to company president, Chris Koehn.
Harold Goellner, Vice President at AME, also contributed to this article.
For more information: STOTZ USA, LLC Email: chris@stotz-usa.com Attention: Chris Koehn, President
All photos kindly supplied by Bill Edmundson of Advanced Machine & Engineering
Release: STOTZ USA, LLC
Date: January 20, 2010
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At both the AIST Iron & Steel Show and the Forge Fair, Advanced Machine & Engineering will be displaying their carbide circular sawing systems.
AMSAW® high-speed, production saw machines are specifically designed to use carbide blades to improve the cutting speed of ferrous and non-ferrous material, bars or billets, rails, profiles, pipes and tubes. Standard design features include:
Options include: stock size measuring, automated length measuring systems, bar manipulating systems, infeed and outfeed systems and stackers.
Also displayed will be various chip conveyors, safety devices and machine enclosures offered by AME and its sister division, Hennig.
Advanced Machine & Engineering Co., is a manufacturer located in Rockford, IL, serving the Machine Tool Industry with precision components and accessories, including spindle interface components, workholding devices, and, through our sister company, Hennig, machine enclosures, chip removal and filtration systems. The Fluid Power – Safety markets are served with cylinder rod locks and safety catcher devises; and the Production Saw market with our Amsaw carbide saw machines and Speedcut blade products. AME has manufacturing partners and customers around the world and across the U.S. To learn more, visit www.ame.com.
Hennig, Inc. design and produces custom machine protection and chip/coolant management products for state-of-the-art machine tools. Hennig products are designed to protect against corrosion, debris and common workplace contaminants. Manufacturing facilities located in the U.S., Germany, Brazil, India, Japan, China and South Korea. Repair centers are located in Machesney Park, IL; Chandler, OK; Livonia, MI; Blue Ash, OH; Mexico City, Mexico and Saltillo, Mexico. To learn more, visit www.hennigworldwide.com.
For more information, contact:
Tim Waterman
ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO.
2500 Latham St.
Rockford, IL 61103
Phone: 815-316-5277
Fax: 815-962-6483
E-mail: info@ame.com
Connect with AME online: 
Improves efficiency and bearing reliability on industrial compressors and other applications; positive locking WITHOUT washers and keys; supports extreme thrust loads
Advanced Machine & Engineering Co., (AME) Rockford, IL provides its unique Spieth locknuts for accurate rotor positioning and reliable thrust bearing retentionon compressors, shafts, spindles and other industrial/commercial applications, in a unique engineering achievement.
In a compressor application, for example, the locknut can play a key role in establishing the clearance between the rotor and the compressor housing, where too little clearance causes seizure, while too much reduces compressor efficiency, due to leakage around the rotor body.
While the standard Spieth locknut configuration had considerable appeal for the application, several design refinements were deemed highly beneficial for this application. “We liked the positive locking feature without washers and keys, plus the locknut’s ability to support extreme thrust loads by providing full 360º contact around the thread flanks,” according to one application engineer contacted for this story.
Key features that led to one compressor manufacturer’s selection of the Spieth product from AME included:
The full circumference contact of the Spieth locknut was designed to ensure the locknut would not back off, even when subjected to extreme shock loads. It further aligns its contact face with either a zero runout or, as needed, it can be adjusted to suit the inaccuracies of the in-line connecting components, thus compensating for minor errors of parallelism due to the stack-up of mating parts. Uneven bearing loading is thus compensated and its impact minimized.
The basic design of the Spieth adjustable locknut involves two axially arranged radial grooves, one from the outside and one from the inside, which result in a diaphragm-like cross-section to give the locknut a predetermined axial elasticity. The internal groove divides the locknut into a clamping and a locking section. Depending on the nut size, multiple axially arranged socket head set screws are used to clamp the sections together. This eliminates the thread flank clearance between the rotor and the locknut, allowing for shockproof clamping.
In installing the locknuts, a consistent tool torque setting was found sufficient to achieve parallel locknut body and threads. Thus, the face of the thread flank and centerline of the shaft were always in ideal alignment. This was done to provide a square thrust collar for thrust bearing reliability and rotor positioning.
Other applications for Spieth locknuts typically include shaft and spindle retention on bearings, where displacement, axial preload and clearance issues are critical. The unique design of this locknut ensures no back-off, even when subjected to extreme shock loads. In machine tool and heavy equipment use, for example, spindle runout due to uneven bearing loads can be eliminated, due to the full 360º contact around thread flanks. Spieth heavy-duty locknuts can be used with needle and roller thrust bearings, plain thrust bearings or taper roller bearings on ballscrews, worm drives, bevel gears and other high-thrust carrying components.
For technical questions on this article, please contact Shane Hatfield (shane@ame.com) at AME.
Advanced Machine & Engineering Co., is a manufacturer located in Rockford, IL, serving the Machine Tool Industry with precision components and accessories, including spindle interface components, workholding devices, and, through our sister company, Hennig, machine enclosures, chip removal and filtration systems. The Fluid Power – Safety markets are served with cylinder rod locks and safety catcher devises; and the Production Saw market with our Amsaw carbide saw machines and Speedcut blade products. AME has manufacturing partners and customers around the world and across the U.S. To learn more, visit www.ame.com.
Hennig, Inc. design and produces custom machine protection and chip/coolant management products for state-of-the-art machine tools. Hennig products are designed to protect against corrosion, debris and common workplace contaminants. Manufacturing facilities located in the U.S., Germany, Brazil, India, Japan, China and South Korea. Repair centers are located in Machesney Park, IL; Chandler, OK; Livonia, MI; Blue Ash, OH; Mexico City, Mexico and Saltillo, Mexico. To learn more, visit www.hennigworldwide.com.
For more information, contact:
Tim Waterman
ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO.
2500 Latham St.
Rockford, IL 61103
Phone: 815-316-5277
Fax: 815-962-6483
E-mail: info@ame.com
Connect with AME online: