Fritz Studer AG has awarded its research prize, the Fritz Studer Award, for the seventh time. Applicants from several European countries submitted their work, with Dr Emil Sauter proving victorious and claiming the prize of CHF10,000 (approximately €10,500).

The Fritz Studer Award is aimed at graduates from European universities and technical colleges. Studer was looking for creative ideas and solutions that would benefit the machine tool industry.

“The objectives of the research prize are, on one hand, to boost innovation in the machine tool industry with feasible solutions, and on the other, to promote young technical and scientific talents,” says Dr Frank Fiebelkorn, head of research and technology at Fritz Studer AG.

The focus for entrants had to be on: innovative machine concepts or components for machine tools used in precision machining; alternative materials in the machine tool industry; simulation models for the dynamic and thermal behaviour of machine tools; control and sensor concepts for machine tools; or new or evolved manufacturing techniques.

The Fritz Studer Award 2023 was presented to Dr Emil Sauter from the Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Machine Tools at ETH Zurich. He impressed the entire jury with his topic ‘Detection and avoidance of thermal damage for high-performance metal grinding processes using hybrid machine learning models’.

His work focuses on the development of an innovative condition monitoring system for external cylindrical grinding with metal-bonded CBN tools. The system recognises thermal damage in situ and predicts the remaining useful life of grinding tools. Process parameters such as structure-borne noise, spindle current, force characteristics and the use of time-frequency transformations generate the process features of a grinding process to detect different stages of thermal damage to the workpiece.

For further information www.studer.com

Now available from Vollmer is the new ultraTEC ultrasonic A25 deburring machine. As part of the Vollmer Group, ultraTEC is a company that has won a number of awards for its patented new ultrasonic deburring method, which only uses water. This proprietary technology utilises an ultrasonic horn that oscillates to generate soundwaves and cavitation which clean and deburr external and internal edges reliably.

This environmentally friendly solution provides burr-free parts that alternative processes cannot process. It eliminates common challenges when deburring parts such as deformation, discolouring and changes to the oxide layer on the component.

The ultraTEC ultrasonic A25 creates a formation and dissolution/implosion of bubbles in water that release an intense energy during implosion. This effect arrives courtesy of an ultra-high oscillation of 20 kHz with an oscillation width of ±80-120 µm, which far exceeds the amplitude of ultrasonic cleaning, cutting and welding technologies.

An ultrasonic horn (fully submersed in water) is set into resonant vibration via mechanical oscillations to transmit the extremely high forces into the water tank. With diameters from 1.2 to 14 mm, the ultrasonic horn remains in position in the water tank while components move robotically around it. The horn creates a cavitation jet from 250 to 270 m/s that breaks burrs from the parts.

The ultraTEC ultrasonic A25 is configured with an ultrasonic stainless steel 40 litre basin that can accommodate parts up to 150 x 150 x 150 mm and weighing up to 1.5 kg. Once processed, parts are moved to a compressed air drying station. A six-axis ABB industrial robot collects components from an external pallet.

For further information www.vollmer-group.com

The precision honing of large components is a special challenge. In some cases, the bores are large enough to fit a ball or even a person, and the depth of the bores can be several metres. This is what the experts call tube honing. Gehring Technologies says it has optimised this technology with the company’s newly developed DH series of multi-strip honing tools.

With it Deephone series, Gehring offers special machines for honing large components. The machinable diameter range for these machines is between 37 and 600 mm, in special cases even larger. Typical applications include large hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders, precision tubes in general plant engineering, extruder housings, aircraft landing gear, and moulds. In this concept, the tool body mounts on a driveshaft matched to the machine spindle. The length of the driveshaft determines the drilling depth. As the driveshafts connect to the machine spindle via an adapter, the DH tool series has an extremely wide range of applications.

“We’re happy to help machining companies that have other, perhaps older machines to adapt them,” explains Holger Gehrung, sales manager for tools and cutting materials at Gehring. “The modular concept of our solution leaves many options open.”

Two features of the DH series are likely to be decisive for many users: the tools, including driveshafts, are optionally available with internal cooling and air metering. Internal cooling ensures that coolant arrives precisely at the point of machining, delivering higher performance and cutting capacity with better surface quality. Air measurement allows checking of the diameter during the process.

For further information www.gehring-group.com

For in-line dry component cleaning applications, ACP systems is releasing itsPowerSnow QuattroClean technology. The process compresses recycled liquid CO2 into cleaning granules using an integral unit. Compressed air then accelerates the granules, fed through a purpose-designed nozzle, for blasting on to surface that requires cleaning. Thanks to the elimination of the customary external pellet production and logistical effort associated with conventional dry ice cleaning, it is possible to realise a fully-automated and uninterrupted cleaning or deburring process.

The new cleaning process efficiently removes stubborn particulate and filmic contamination from virtually all materials and material combinations. Using cleaning granules made from recycled liquid CO2, the process can clean entire surfaces or selected areas in a reproducible manner. Applications range from surface finishing in body-in-white automotive processes and the removal of welding beads, to the fine deburring of medical instruments and fine-tolerance watch components.

Cylinders or tanks feed the mediato the QuattroClean PowerSnow system, thus offering unlimited shelf life.The jet of compressed air containing the granules has a temperature of around -78°C.

On impacting on the surface, four effects occur. A thermal effect leads to sudden local cooling, where the different expansion coefficients between the substrate and the contaminants cause cracks to form in the latter. A mechanical effect also takes place, where the transfer of momentum detaches impurities. When the snow granules impact on the surface, they undergo a transition from the solid to the gaseous phase, with an abrupt increase in volume of around 600 times. This so-called sublimation effect creates micro-pressure waves that also detach contaminants. In addition, during the transition phase, a solvent effect removes filmic/organic contamination.
For further information www.acp-systems.com