Master Abrasives has installed a Micromatic Eco 200 grinding machine at the facility of Border Ballistics Technologies (BBT) in Scotland.

Geoffrey Kolbe, managing director of BBT, has been in the non-military gun trade for over 25 years, establishing the company in 2015 to fill a gap in the UK market. The company is a manufacturer of gunsmith tooling such as chamber reamers and headspace gauges, all of which are produced with high-quality finishes and precision.
“In line with market demand we needed to increase our production output,” says Kolbe. “We identified that by taking the basic blank preparation operations off our tool and cutter grinder, productivity would increase with the introduction of a manual/semi-automatic cylindrical grinding machine. The Micromatic Eco 200 supplied by Master Abrasives proved to be the ideal machine for this purpose, and the price was very reasonable too.
“The production of special purpose bespoke stepped reamers and headspace gauges in tool steel demands very tight tolerances on specific dimensional features such as outer diameters, angles and faces,” he continues. “The Eco 200 manual/semi-automatic hydraulic machine fulfilled our requirements perfectly. Its introduction into production will improve our manufacturing lead-times and contribute to lower production costs.”
The new machine at BBT has a 400 mm grinding capacity between centres and an additional internal grinding spindle. The wheel-head’s nitride hardened steel spindle runs in precision multi-point hydrodynamic bearings, a configuration that gives very
high rigidity and damping.
“Master Abrasives provided a very professional service from start to finish,” says Kolbe. “The machine was delivered on time and was up and running within a couple of days.”
For further information www.master-abrasives.co.uk