Feature on Grinding and Surface Finishing

ACE boosts export markets with new investment

Complex metal components manufactured in Telford are finding use in space exploration and the next generation of aircraft and cars thanks to the technical expertise of a fast-growing local manufacturer. Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE) has seen sales grow by 15% in the past year, with export orders increasing after the firm boosted capacity with the installation of two ‘Chemcut’ etching machines.

With a strong order pipeline and new opportunities in hydrogen fuel cell markets accelerating, the company has just agreed a deal on two further machines that will help it offer increased capacity and reduced lead times on parts. The machines should be operational by the end of the year and provide the platform required for ACE to secure £10m of sales by the middle of 2024.

Chris Ball, executive director at Advanced Chemical Etching, says: “Our ability to etch precision components quickly and in a range of materials is a big selling point, as is the way we control all the forming processes in-house. This makes us extremely competitive against the rest of the world and proves UK manufacturing can do battle on the global stage.”

ACE specialises in the development of precision components to customers in more than 35 countries, spanning aerospace, space, general engineering, automotive, electronics, medical, telecoms and renewables. The scope of its activities is far and wide and can include anything from safety-critical components for aircraft and Formula One cars, to meshes and electronic connectors, battery interconnectors, fuel cell bi-polar plates, cooling plates and heat exchangers.

All parts are developed and manufactured at its main site in Telford and at the company’s dedicated sister business, ACE Forming Ltd, in Kingswinford.
For further information www.ace-uk.net

Tooth-flank grinding for e-mobility sector

Gear grinding is currently attracting a lot of attention, especially in the production of components for electric drives. Production planners are demanding new solutions for a perfect surface that assures their smooth running at high speeds and heavy torque loads. To see how a niche machine tool builder implements these requirements, look no further than Emag SU and its tooth-flank grinding machines.

The gear grinding machine specialist’s G 160 model, for example, features a special ‘virtual’ axis concept for microscopically near-perfect surfaces. Simultaneously, the integrated material handling technology reduces cycle times to a minimum.

Emag SU says that its G 160 is the fastest machine on the market for components up to module 3 with a maximum outside diameter of 160 mm. The G 160’s speed is made possible by a special slide axis concept with two parallel workpiece tables that take turns moving at high speed (with the help of durable, high performance linear motors) towards the grinding wheel.

During the time that one component takes to machine, the loading robot inserts a blank into the other spindle, after first unloading the completed part, as needed. Self-centring alignment, or ‘meshing’, of the grinding wheel to the rough-cut gear component takes place directly on the workpiece spindle, at load position, in parallel with the main machining operation. This results in a chip-to-chip time between the grinding processes of only 1.6 seconds (a small value compared to grinding machines with turntables).

Here, it is important to note that the actual grinding time needed for a typical component such as a planetary gear wheel, is only about 10 seconds. The difference between the chip-to-chip times between grinding is therefore a real game changer.
For further information www.emag.com

E-mobility gearboxes are no grind with ETG

Gearboxes used in electric vehicles are not only designed for high speeds and high torques, they are also very compact. This fact is not only true for the automotive sector, but also innovative applications such as e-bikes. These small but high power and electrically driven gearboxes inspire design engineers to come up with more creative solutions. With gear manufacturing technology manufactured by Kapp Niles, the Engineering Technology Group (ETG) says it offers UK manufacturers an innovative solution for producing electric vehicle and e-bike gearboxes.

Through ETG, Kapp Niles offers two machine types for meeting customer requirements. Both series are equipped with high-efficiency drives for the tools (25,000 rpm) and the workpieces (5000rpm). The KNG350 flex HS has a conventional design featuring a single workpiece drive. This machine is available in two versions, one for small lot sizes with manual loading. For higher volumes, an automated version is available with an integrated ring loader. It is possible to process workpieces up to 350 mm in diameter using this machine.The machine offers short set-up times thanks to the use of intelligent components and innovative ergonomics.

For large-scale production, it is worth taking a closer look at the productivity times of machines pre-set by design. The KX TWIN series with two workpiece drives and a loading and unloading process performed in parallel to actual grinding offers further potential for the reduction of non-productive times. The in-line centrifugation of components directly in the machine enables compliance with the ‘clean factory’ approach across all known automation concepts.
For further information www.engtechgroup.com

Industry set to meet for deburring and finishing

The 5th edition of DeburringEXPO will present innovations and trends for deburring and surface finishing at the Karlsruhe Exhibition Centre on 10-12 October 2023. With its bilingual expert forum, this leading trade fair also hosts one of Europe’s most coveted sources of knowledge.

Outlining the potential of the event, Iris Münz, commercial director of Ultratec Anlagentechnik Münz GmbH, an exhibitor at the last event in 2021, says: “We were pleasantly surprised, not only by the number of leads, but by their quality as well. Visitors came to us with very precise requirements for specific components.”

Hartmut Herdin, managing director of promoter fairXperts GmbH & Co KG, adds: “Companies are being confronted with ever-stricter or modified and new requirements, where previously used processes and technologies are reaching their limits. For example, these include more demanding specifications for surface quality, more complex component geometries and a changing component spectrum, as well as new and modified materials and manufacturing processes.”

Based on existing bookings and enquiries, fairXperts is expecting around 150-180 exhibitors, which is a significant increase compared with the last event in 2021 and almost matches pre-Covid levels.

DeburringEXPO will also feature theme parks covering topics such ascomponent cleaning, quality control and automation, while an integrated three-day expert forum will see presentations delivered in both German and English. The forum is one of the most sought-after sources of knowledge anywhere in Europe. It enables visitors to enhance their know-how in the fields of deburring, rounding and component cleaning, as well as in the production of precision surface finishes, by presenting new solutions, research results and benchmark applications.
Further for information www.deburring-expo.de

ROS installs Rösler shot-blasting machine

Less weight, compact design and improved sustainability – a producer of injection-moulded components has proven that these goals are achievable economically with high-performance plastic materials. The company is increasingly producing previously metal workpieces from duroplast and thermoplast materials. Therefore, the capacity for de-
flashing these components requires increasing. For this purpose, the customer ROS GmbH & Co KG chose shot-blasting solutions from Rösler. An RSAB 470wire mesh belt machine ensures fast and efficient processing in continuous flow, while an RWS 1200swing satellite table machine is utilised for high-quality, consistent de-flashing of single workpieces. The special dual chamber design of this machine practically eliminates any unproductive idle equipment times.

Jürgen Bär, responsible for planning in the industrial engineering department at ROS in Coburg explains: “Deciding factors for choosing Rösler were our good experience with the
shot-blast machines we’ve been using for a long time, the compact, space-saving and sturdy equipment design, and Rösler’s comprehensive knowledge in the field of plastic de-flashing. Moreover, we needed the continuous flow shot-blast machine quickly. Rösler generously supplied a machine from their customer experience centre within a few days.”

The flexible, high-capacity RSAB 470 shot-blast machinede-flashes components made from duroplast and thermoplast PPS-GF materials, while the RWS 1200swing satellite table machine de-flashes components made from PPS-GF with outer dimensions of up to 163 mm.
In line with the production cycle of the injection moulding machine, up to four workpieces are de-flashed simultaneously within a processing time of 40 seconds.
For further information www.rosler.com