Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
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: 
Hennig custom enclosures on generators provided through W.W. Williams to huge dairy products processing plant in Michigan.
Machesney Park, IL-On a recent installation at the Ovid, Michigan processing plant of the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA), the standby power generation system supplier, W.W. Williams (WWW) of Dearborn, Michigan, required an increased level of sound and environmental protection on the three generating stations, in accordance with the specs received from their customer’s architectural firm. They turned to their enclosure suppliers for assistance, as the challenges were many. For the complete package, the project was awarded to Hennig. As WWW’s Brunswick, Ohio-based project manager on the job, Al LaManna, puts it, “We’d begun to see Hennig as our go-to guys on enclosures, owing to the continued satisfaction we’d experienced with their levels of quality, engineering and especially responsive service.”
The Ovid facility of MMPA processes over three million pounds of milk per day, specializing in the production of liquid dairy blends, dry powders and bulk butter. These dairy ingredients are offered in spray-dried, liquid, condensed and instantized forms. Fluid products are typically loaded for bulk tanker or 55-gallon drum delivery, while powders are packed in 50 lb. bags, 25 kg bags or one-ton totes. Butter is produced in 25 kg cubes. Such production processes place substantial load on the local utility company’s power generation system and also create ambient dust contaminant challenges for the plant’s equipment.
During the construction process on the three enclosures needed for the standby power generators, extra attention was given to the insulation, silencers and electrical controls for the unit, to ensure proper functioning, sound attenuation and minimized environmental impact. These enclosures and fuel tank assemblies further required additional features, as mandated by the Michigan Department of 
Environmental Quality, including overflow protection valves with a spill box for fuel containment on the remote filling apparatus, fill panel alarm system with level switch, extended vents above the roof line, a special mastic coating on the bottom of the fuel tank and stainless steel fuel supply and return lines.
Following the submission of the complete specification and winning the job, Hennig engineers Christian Grobe and Robin Moore, as well as sales rep Matt Sopchyk, led the team that produced the enclosures at the company’s manufacturing/fabricating facility in Rockford, Illinois. Al LaManna had occasion to visit the plant during the construction and was impressed by the efficiency of the vertical integration. Hennig performs all metal fabrication, finishing and the rigorous testing to UL standards in-house. “Even a midstream specification change by our customer was handled at Hennig with no upset in the production schedule,” notes LaManna.
Founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1912, W.W. Williams has evolved from one of the nation’s largest industrial distribution, repair and service companies to a highly diversified solutions provider. They provide solutions to customers with technical / mechanical service and repair, remanufacturing, warehouse / supply chain management and service a varied customer base. Their products and services include diesel engines, transmissions, heavy duty truck repair, refrigeration, power generation and third party supply chain logistics services. Their customers comprise on-highway trucking, off-highway equipment, Department of Defense OEM’s, vehicle OEM’s, U.S. Military and marine enterprises. The company represents the MTU Onsite Energy group and specializes in gas and diesel engine systems, fuel cell systems, gas turbine systems and gen-drive engines, to provide primary, standby and continuous power.
As Territory Manager for the company, Todd James Rundhaug, observes, “We are constantly looking for quality component suppliers to
complement our MTU Onsite Energy power generating equipment. We began our relationship with Hennig in 2008 and have been extremely satisfied with the quality, workmanship, delivery and especially the after-sales sales support on their enclosures and fuel tanks. Due to a variety of factors, our types of equipment require highly specialized enclosures and UL Rated fuel tanks. The total service package from Hennig on these products has been excellent.” LaManna agrees, noting his customers’ repeat satisfaction with the full package supplied by Hennig. On this Michigan Milk Producers job, Hennig supplied the enclosures, each equipped with a heater, overhead lights, powered louvers, battery back-up lighting with NiCad battery power and GFI wall outlets.
Point man on the job for Hennig Enclosure Systems was Matt Sopchyk, who noted there were three enclosures needed for the onsite generators on this project. Each generator is a 2000 KW unit, with a sub-base fuel tank holding 3480 gallons of diesel. “Hennig design standards for this application included our complete in-house powder coating process for the enclosure walls, doors and roof sections over the all galvanealled steel construction. This job was finished in MTU gray, matching their gensets.”
The UL142 approved steel fuel tanks are finished with a phosphoric pretreatment high-pressure wash and then a 2-step polyurethane process. Hennig enclosures are of a semi-monocoque design, meaning the structural integrity and inner strength are engineered and built into every panel and roof section. This allows for clean and functional design, without the need for separate framing or additional substrate supports of any kind. Also, the Hennig fuel tanks are engineered and built in a similar way, with full interior baffling and sub-structure integrity to support the genset without the need for surface mounted I-beams to support the genset or the need for an additional, costly raised floor above the tank top. The tank top is the floor within the genset.
To learn more about Hennig products & services, visit www.hennigworldwide.com or call contact:
Tim Waterman
Hennig Inc.
9900 N. Alpine Rd.
Machesney Park, IL 61115
(815) 316-5277
info@hennig.ame.com
www.hennigworldwide.com
Connect with Hennig online: 
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Hennig, Inc., at www.hennigworldwide.com, has been designing and producing custom machine protection and chip/coolant management products for state-of-the-art machine tools for over 50 years. Hennig products are designed to protect against corrosion, debris and common workplace contaminants. Hennig has manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Germany, Czech Republic, France, Brazil, India, Japan, China and South Korea. Its North American repair centers are located in Machesney Park, Ill.; Chandler, Okla.; Livonia, Mich.; Blue Ash, Ohio; Mexico City, Mexico; and Saltillo, Mexico.
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