In response to the need for increased output by customers in the oil and gas and aerospace industries, Larkhall-based Gilmour Tools – one of the largest independently owned cutting tool manufacturers in Europe – has expanded its range of Ewag insert grinders with a Compact Line insert-grinding machine.

Supplied by Walter Ewag UK, a member of the United Grinding Group, the machine complements five other Ewag insert grinders (Ewamatic models) and has been installed primarily to produce threading-type inserts for the oil and gas sector.
According to managing director Gary Gilmour, the 5.5 kW/7000 rpm machine is suited to such work, offering fast and accurate insert machining. Its production capacity is not only enabling the company to meet increased order demands, but the machine also represents the latest upgrade to insert manufacturing at the 10,000 sq ft factory.
The Compact Line’s ‘three-in-one’ dressing unit is highlighted as especially useful, since it ensures grinding wheel concentricity and high process reproducibility, alongside wheel dressing, regeneration and ‘crushing’.
Gilmour Tools specialises
in the production of carbide inserts for all oil threads – to many complex shapes in a variety of materials – as well as the production of tool holders and blades.
Capable of machining carbide, cermet, ceramic and PCB/PCD inserts, the six-axis Ewag Compact Line provides resolutions of 0.0001 mm (linear) and 0.0001° (rotary). Depending on the clamping system, the machine can accommodate minimum inscribed circle diameters of 4 mm (pin clamping) and 3 mm (indexable insert clamping), and offers short set-up times, says the company.
For further information www.walter-machines.com

Swiss company Strausak AG, which produces CNC grinding machines for manufacturing and re-sharpening solid-carbide tools, wanted to offer customers the option to automate the loading and unloading of workpieces into and out of the spindle that rotates the workpiece in its U-Grind series machines.

The problem was that, to achieve high tool accuracy, an HSK 50 hydraulic expansion chuck with a diameter tolerance of only a few hundredths of a millimetre has to be employed, rather than a conventional collet with automation-friendly open tolerances.
To position the carbide blank or tool to the required level of precision, Strausak turned to robot manufacturer Stäubli, which now supplies the automation solution based on a compact, six-axis industrial robot. The position of each CNC rotary axis is controlled by a Heidenhain EQI 1100 absolute inductive rotary encoder with 18-bit resolution. Having reliable positional data fed back back to the NUM control on the U-Grind allows the robot gripper to manipulate the workpiece to within 50 µm.
Strausak’s managing director Alexandre Condrau says: “We were happy that Stäubli partners with Heidenhain for its rotary encoder requirements, as the compact dimensions of its inductive products suit our application. We also have CNC positioning of the swivelling grinding wheel head on our machines, and to achieve the necessary precision we use a Heidenhain ERA 4000 incremental angle encoder.”
Strausak sees further development possibilities that could help its customers even more. The company is currently working on programming the robot to re-grip the workpiece and readjust its insertion distance in the hydraulic chuck to enable the machining of very long tools, for instance.
For further information www.heidenhain.co.uk