Feature on Grinding and Surface Finishing

GrindingHub debut a resounding success

GrindingHub 2022, a new biennial four-day exhibition in Stuttgart, concluded last month with organisers heralding the event a major success. Under the banner of ‘Brings Solutions to the Surface’, more than 370 exhibitors showcased their latest grinding technology innovations, products and solutions across almost 18,000 sq m of exhibition space. A total of 9500 visitors crowded into the three fully booked halls, with around 40% coming from abroad.

Manufacturers from 23 countries pulled out all the stops for the debut event. They exhibited numerous grinding-related innovations, everything from new tool concepts through to advanced processes, procedures and interface technologies. An impressive sight was the total of more than 240 machines that worked live at the exhibition ground, many of them on large and prestigious stands.

GrindingHub attracted visitors from all over the world, with a focus on other European countries, but also from South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, the USA and many more. Roland Bleinroth, managing director of Messe Stuttgart, welcomed the international popularity and sees further growth potential: “We had people from 56 countries as guests at the exhibition centre; a really great result,” he says. “There were also visitors from Asia. We see great potential for the next events in the Asian and American markets. We’re now tackling these in partnership with the VDW.”

Looking ahead to 2024, VDW executive director Wilfried Schäfer says: “GrindingHub is here to stay. We want to improve the trade fair and make it even better for our exhibitors, to raise its international profile and position GrindingHub as the number one event for the sector in the world.”

The next GrindingHub will take place on 14-17 May 2024 in Stuttgart.
For further information www.grindinghub.de

Automated blasting for e-transmission parts

For the expansion of its transmission production facility for electric vehicles (EVs), a German automotive supplier has purchased a new continuous-feed blast machine from Rösler that includes fully automatic workpiece handling. The customer chose the Rösler equipment, because it offered high productivity, is easy to maintain and has a long service life.

The workpieces in question consist of various toothed EV transmission components that are deburred using the Rösler continuous feed-wire mesh belt-blast machine. At the start of the deburring operation the workpieces are placed manually on two storage units, which are part of the component transport system. After an integrated camera system has confirmed the correct transport position, the parts are positioned precisely on the wire mesh belt in lots of three and continuously transported through the shot-blast machine. Upon completion of the shot-blast process, a powerful blow-off system completely removes any residual blast media from the workpieces.

In the next step, the now deburred components are transferred to a buffering station consisting of a conveyor belt. Here, the workpieces are precisely repositioned so that a robot can pick up four parts at a time and place them in layers into suitably staged workpiece bins. Whenever a layer is complete, the robot picks up an intermediate cardboard sheet and places it in the bin. Completely filled or, in case of a workpiece change, partially filled bins are automatically removed from the robot working area. This allows the operator to safely remove them from the manufacturing cell with a lift cart.

The shot-blasting machine was designed for three-shift operation allowing cycle times of less than eight seconds per workpiece.
For further information www.rosler.com

Intelligent workflows for gear grinding

Cost savings in high-volume production are today found within upstream and downstream process stages such as set-up, measurement and communication between machine and measurement equipment. Here, the Engineering Technology Group (ETG) puts forward the Kapp Niles platform, which can tie together and automate these processes to streamline productivity further thanks to open standards such as umati and GDE.

“Instead of integrated machines, we rather envision integrated production chains with as little manual handling between individual chain links as possible,” says Konstantin Schäfer, head of product management at Kapp Niles.

This ethos becomes apparent in the growing measurement technology sector, Kapp Niles Metrology. What’s more, the existing portfolio is being optimised for production systems to communicate with each other. In particular, through the new KN assist platform, Kapp Niles and ETG can support the user from project planning through to production with KN grind control system software.

As part of the project-related configuration, all required processing options are combined in one workpiece project. With the step-by-step intuitive user interface, concrete project data is collected. In a virtual set-up process, the user selects the gear type and suitable tools from a component set. Upon request, KN grind also offers technological suggestions.

Another factor has been the lack of consistent data transmission standards to allow for secure data integration. For this reason, Kapp Niles has developed solutions that no longer require the installation of invasive software and thus allow users to retain control over their data at all times. The result is the KN assist platform. Thanks to HTML5 programming, KN assist runs without any further software requirements on a PC and mobile devices alike. The only requirement for the user is to call up a single address on the Intranet, after which access is granted to the system through a browser or app.
For further information www.engtechgroup.com