Gibbs Gears has recently installed a Klingelnberg Höfler CNC external/internal gear grinding machine at the company’s Stoke Mandeville headquarters.

The Klingelnberg Höfler Viper 500K will further expand the busy concern’s gear-grinding capacity and enable the production of complex gear geometries to high standards. Klingelnberg Höfler machines are available in the UK from Micronz.
Explaining the purchase, Paul Stevens, operational director, says: “The acquisition of the Klingelnberg Höfler Viper 500K gear grinder was prompted largely by our growing business within the Formula One, Formula E and other motorsport classes. It was also driven by a significant increase in business from the hypercar and aerospace sectors. The common denominators between all of these industries is their need for the highest standards of precision and quality, the technically challenging nature of the complex gear geometries they specify and their frequent requirement for fast delivery times.
“Due to increasing business with these demanding sectors, we recently undertook a search for a cutting-edge gear grinder,” he continues. “Although a couple of the technically advanced gear-grinding machines that we considered ticked some of our boxes, the only machine that delivered on all of our requirements was the Klingelnberg Höfler Viper 500K. It also helped our decision that many of our customers use Klingelnberg machines and have been delighted with their performance.
“Now fully operational, in addition to manufacturing gears with the demanding standards of precision and quality that we require, the Viper 500K has the speed of operation and quick change-over characteristics that are now improving productivity and reducing delivery times.”
For further information www.micronz.co.uk

Master Abrasives is introducing further machines to its showroom in Daventry having installed an Alex Machine Tools’ NH-500 surface grinding machine, which is new to the UK.

The demonstration area at Daventry was initially set up to show the range of Master precision grinding products, including conventional and superabrasive grinding wheels, diamond dressers and superfinishing products. Master-branded products will be available to support any in-house demonstrations and display the potential of both Micromatic, and now, Alex machines.
Alex Machine Tools, which is headquartered in India, offers a range of surface grinding machines, including a reciprocating hydraulically-operated model, a high-power rotary surface grinder, creep feed machines and a series of double-disk grinders. The machines can incorporate CNC, automatic in-process gauging and material handling automation, depending on the customer’s application and requirements.
Martin Stevens, Master Abrasives’ applications engineer, is fully conversant with the latest developments at Alex Machine Tools and the most recent progressions in technology. With a background in grinding applications engineering, Stevens has the technical expertise to help customers find the best solutions for their precision grinding needs.
Ian Meredith, applications engineering manager at Master Abrasives, says: “Now that the Alex surface grinder is installed, we are able to offer demonstrations and potentially grind customer parts when required. The demonstration machine will be a great aid in promoting Alex Machine Tools
across the UK.”
For further information www.master-abrasives.co.uk

A standard brush-based machine for the deburring of complex engine components such as crankshafts and camshafts has been introduced by Kadia.

EC-Brush has five programmable axes, each with a rotary drive providing right/left rotation for the brush and the workpiece. The component is clamped against a point in a three-jaw chuck, with the brush rotating at about 500 rpm, and the part at 30 rpm.
Kadia’s EC-Brush features linear axes that provide the brush’s back/forward and lateral oscillation movement, and a traversing range for the centre. The latter enables different crankshaft/camshaft lengths to be clamped, so that any variant for three- to six-cylinder engines (for passenger cars or small commercial vehicles) can be deburred in any desired succession. Loading and unloading can be carried out manually, semi-automatically or fully automatically to suit requirements.
The brush, which is at the heart of the machine, is equipped with long and short fibres made of abrasive nylon. Only one operation is required, as the shaft is completely immersed in the brush. The long fibres reach from the cheeks up to the connecting rod bearings, while the short fibres deburr the main bearings area. Particles and flaky burrs, which typically occur during drilling or grinding, are reliably removed, says Kadia. A choice of fibre type allows adaptation to the component material. EC-Brush also permits wet machining.
For further information https://kadia.de/