q u a r t e r l y

2 MY THOUGHTS

4 GRINDING IN MOTION

38 A GLIMPSE INTO

40 ON TECH

44 LAST THOUGHT

CONTENTS

9 MEDICAL-DEVICE TAX IN ICU By Sarah A. Webster, Editor in Chief, MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING Magazine.

10 AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH... When it’s done right, preventive maintenance works really well and more than pays for itself.

12 DON’T LEAVE YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS HANGING! Don’t leave your website visitors hanging for more information or wondering what to do next when they are on your site.

14 DIVERSIFICATION OFTEN DELIVERS ULTRA PRECISION When you’re working with the best, why mess with it.

18 NEW LIFE FOR OLDER MACHINES Don’t think about cost; think about what it will do for you — open new opportunities, new markets, new customers, more profitability.

24 MEDICAL MANUFACTURING: The range of FDA-approved materials available for medical manufacturers is varied and growing.

30 PARADIGM® “IN GRINDING LESS IS MORE” Advances in machine tool technology require corresponding advances in the grinding wheel.

LAST THOUGHT

44 GQ/Q2 2013

continued on page 43

Machine tool accuracies get better every year. What seems like a tight tolerance today might be easily achievable with tomorrow’s machine tool. And if you’re trying to hold tight tolerances today, you’re probably considering high-end machinery like the STUDER S41, WALTER Helitronic Vision and BLOHM Profimat. But no matter how good the machine tool is, in order to achieve the highest accuracies the manufacturing environment needs to be constant as well. One of the main environmental factors is the thermal stability of the production process. And thermal stability is influenced by the room temperature, the coolant temperature, and the temperature of the coolant used to chill motors, spindles and machine structure.

A) ROOM TEMPERATUREThe room temperature is the first factor that comes to mind. Modern facilities have air condi-tioning and the temperature during the day can be kept fairly stable. Nevertheless, a 1 degree change in room temperature has an impact of up to 0.5μm (0.000,02”) on the machine axis as well the part. This means a 4 degree shift in temperature during a day can introduce a variance of 2.0μm (0.000,08”). Because room temperature usually changes slowly during the day, a built-in calibration system can maintain the needed accuracy. But if the building’s overhead door opens during the shift, or the operator opens the machine door during setup, ambient temperature can change suddenly. We can control the inside temperature of the machine by stabilizing the room tem-perature around it in a 24/7 production environment.

B) COOLANT TEMPERATUREFluctuations in coolant temperature are the real culprit in the thermal family. Its influence is 6 to 8 times larger than the room temperature, and its effect is fast and painful to any machine operator. Like with slow changes in room temperature, slow changes in the coolant temperature can be controlled by an internal measuring system. Unfortunately, coolant temperature changes during a grinding process are usually not slow. The diagram below shows one axis warming up over time. While the temperature in the system with a chiller stabilizes after 45 minutes, the coolant temperature in the “non-chilled” system rises constantly even after two and half hours.

C) MOTOR/SPINDLE AND STRUCTURAL COOLANT TEMPERATURE In the same way we splash water on our face in the summer to cool down, the coolant we use to cool the part has an influence on the machine tool. A human body can sweat and increase its heart rate to control its temperature. A machine tool can’t. In order to achieve temperature control in a machine tool we also use coolant to con-trol the temperature inside the motors, spindles, and even the machine structure. But just like you wouldn’t enjoy a shower that was a great deal hotter or colder than your body tem-perature, the difference between the outside (i.e. grinding zone) coolant temperature and the machine’s structural coolant temperature needs to be controlled. Should the temperature difference be too high, the size of machine components can “jump” uncontrollably. For example, when coolant flow to the part is turned off during a loading cycle, the coolant still flows through the structure and can change the temperature of a machine axis relative to components in the grinding area. A machine tool can be made from different materials like polymer concrete, cast iron, or

The Effect of Temperature on the Search for the Holy Grail of Accuracy

MARKUS STOLMARVice President Tool Division United Grinding Technologies

MY THOUGHTS

We’ve got your back

This is where the combined financial

strength, engineering and applica tions

resources, and de-sign experience of

the Körber Schleifring Group and its individual brands, including

United Grinding, play an important role.

MY THOUGHTS

Experience...such a simple word with so many different meanings depending upon the situation and context for which it is used. For example, we often hear people talk about a positive experience in their life or conversely a negative one. A learning experience can help advance a career, deepen a relationship, or avoid repeating a mistake. All of us have a lot of experience in doing certain things we enjoy in life and no experience at all with aspects of it yet to be discovered. Par-ents traditionally try to pass on their life experience to children who typically have a desire or need to experience life on their own. Experience...simply an intercon-nected cycle of events influencing our perspectives on life and work.

Not surprisingly, experience plays a huge role in successfully running a business, especially in the ways it comes into play at United Grinding. In this respect, the number one priority for the United Grinding Team has been, and will forever be, maximizing the opportunity for all of our customers to have a highly positive experience each and every time you come in contact with us. United Grinding decided many years ago that accomplishing this objective on a consistent basis meant we had to act and think strictly in a customer centric way.

Consequently, we implemented a Customer Experience Management business model that purposefully structured our processes to be customer oriented and value added. Voice of Customer feedback via Net Promoter Score surveys guides United Grinding in taking prioritized customer satisfaction enhancement actions. Plus, our recently formed Net Promoter Score business partnership with Satme-trix gives us even more ability to gather and respond to customer feedback faster and more efficiently. Satmetrix also provides us with a variety of powerful Voice of Customer analytical tools and other built-in features ensuring closed-loop, issue resolving communications between United Grinding and our customers. I would like to offer a personal thanks to our customers who have responded to one or more of our past surveys, and I definitely encourage all customers to do so in the future. United Grinding will then always know from your perspectives what we must do to keep your experiences with us the very best in the grinding business.

On a related subject, developing and implementing technological advancements is critical to evolving and maintaining a strong manufacturing base in North America. Grinding oriented manufacturing solutions are certainly no exception to this fact. This is where the combined financial strength, engineering and applica-tions resources, and design experience of the Körber Schleifring Group and its individual brands, including United Grinding, play an important role. Substantial technological advancement investments can be afforded year after year so our technology does not become outdated. The Group’s extensive design and ap-plications experience ensures future developments will be prioritized in favor of those having the most immediate, value added benefit for our global customers. Additionally, our past grinding solutions experience, coupled with a Körber Schlei-fring Group driven business philosophy emphasizing manufacturing solutions innovation, helps ensure our current industry leading grinding technology position is maintained.

2 GQ/Q2 2013

In North America, United Grinding is responsible for designing, customizing, automating, delivering, installing, and technically supporting manufacturing solutions we provide for our customers utilizing Körber Schleifring Group technologies. This automatically mandates that we maintain a highly competent, well trained, and motivated United Grinding Team encompass-ing all 152 employees currently with the company. We believe in listening carefully to Voice of Employee feedback on what must be done and changed so United Grinding is consistently tak-ing the best care of our Team. As for technical support experience, to say that United Grinding has a lot of it would be an understatement. As a few examples when counting only the time employed by United Grinding, our Applications Engineering Team has a total of 257 man-years of grinding solutions experience; our Field Service Technicians possess a combined total of 173 man-years of machine repair and maintenance experience; and our Regional Sales Managers all together have 127 man-years of manufacturing solutions consultation experience. This technical support experience and the competency levels coming along with it is what makes United Grinding unique…we can provide total lifecycle manufacturing solutions and comprehensive technical support as opposed to just selling and servicing grinding machines. Experience…we have tons of it at United Grinding as you will read in this edition of The Grind Quarterly. Customer experience and associated feedback challenges us, helps us get stronger, and reminds us there is always room for improvement. The Körber Schleifring Group’s advanced grinding solutions experience is the broadest and deepest of any company in the world. In North America, the United Grinding Team is second to none when it comes to grinding applications expertise and overall technical support experience, competency, and resources. The United Grinding Experience…an integral part of an interconnected cycle of events focused on positively influencing the lives of our customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and local communities.

RODGER PINNEYPresident & CEOUnited Grinding

“ CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND ASSOCIATED FEEDBACK CHALLENGES US, HELPS US GET STRONGER, AND REMINDS US THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT ”

MY THOUGHTS

We’ve got your back

This is where the combined financial

strength, engineering and applica tions

resources, and de-sign experience of

the Körber Schleifring Group and its individual brands, including

United Grinding, play an important role.

MY THOUGHTS

Experience...such a simple word with so many different meanings depending upon the situation and context for which it is used. For example, we often hear people talk about a positive experience in their life or conversely a negative one. A learning experience can help advance a career, deepen a relationship, or avoid repeating a mistake. All of us have a lot of experience in doing certain things we enjoy in life and no experience at all with aspects of it yet to be discovered. Par-ents traditionally try to pass on their life experience to children who typically have a desire or need to experience life on their own. Experience...simply an intercon-nected cycle of events influencing our perspectives on life and work.

Not surprisingly, experience plays a huge role in successfully running a business, especially in the ways it comes into play at United Grinding. In this respect, the number one priority for the United Grinding Team has been, and will forever be, maximizing the opportunity for all of our customers to have a highly positive experience each and every time you come in contact with us. United Grinding decided many years ago that accomplishing this objective on a consistent basis meant we had to act and think strictly in a customer centric way.

Consequently, we implemented a Customer Experience Management business model that purposefully structured our processes to be customer oriented and value added. Voice of Customer feedback via Net Promoter Score surveys guides United Grinding in taking prioritized customer satisfaction enhancement actions. Plus, our recently formed Net Promoter Score business partnership with Satme-trix gives us even more ability to gather and respond to customer feedback faster and more efficiently. Satmetrix also provides us with a variety of powerful Voice of Customer analytical tools and other built-in features ensuring closed-loop, issue resolving communications between United Grinding and our customers. I would like to offer a personal thanks to our customers who have responded to one or more of our past surveys, and I definitely encourage all customers to do so in the future. United Grinding will then always know from your perspectives what we must do to keep your experiences with us the very best in the grinding business.

On a related subject, developing and implementing technological advancements is critical to evolving and maintaining a strong manufacturing base in North America. Grinding oriented manufacturing solutions are certainly no exception to this fact. This is where the combined financial strength, engineering and applica-tions resources, and design experience of the Körber Schleifring Group and its individual brands, including United Grinding, play an important role. Substantial technological advancement investments can be afforded year after year so our technology does not become outdated. The Group’s extensive design and ap-plications experience ensures future developments will be prioritized in favor of those having the most immediate, value added benefit for our global customers. Additionally, our past grinding solutions experience, coupled with a Körber Schlei-fring Group driven business philosophy emphasizing manufacturing solutions innovation, helps ensure our current industry leading grinding technology position is maintained.

2 GQ/Q2 2013

In North America, United Grinding is responsible for designing, customizing, automating, delivering, installing, and technically supporting manufacturing solutions we provide for our customers utilizing Körber Schleifring Group technologies. This automatically mandates that we maintain a highly competent, well trained, and motivated United Grinding Team encompass-ing all 152 employees currently with the company. We believe in listening carefully to Voice of Employee feedback on what must be done and changed so United Grinding is consistently tak-ing the best care of our Team. As for technical support experience, to say that United Grinding has a lot of it would be an understatement. As a few examples when counting only the time employed by United Grinding, our Applications Engineering Team has a total of 257 man-years of grinding solutions experience; our Field Service Technicians possess a combined total of 173 man-years of machine repair and maintenance experience; and our Regional Sales Managers all together have 127 man-years of manufacturing solutions consultation experience. This technical support experience and the competency levels coming along with it is what makes United Grinding unique…we can provide total lifecycle manufacturing solutions and comprehensive technical support as opposed to just selling and servicing grinding machines. Experience…we have tons of it at United Grinding as you will read in this edition of The Grind Quarterly. Customer experience and associated feedback challenges us, helps us get stronger, and reminds us there is always room for improvement. The Körber Schleifring Group’s advanced grinding solutions experience is the broadest and deepest of any company in the world. In North America, the United Grinding Team is second to none when it comes to grinding applications expertise and overall technical support experience, competency, and resources. The United Grinding Experience…an integral part of an interconnected cycle of events focused on positively influencing the lives of our customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and local communities.

RODGER PINNEYPresident & CEOUnited Grinding

“ CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND ASSOCIATED FEEDBACK CHALLENGES US, HELPS US GET STRONGER, AND REMINDS US THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT ”

4 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 5

New Software Engineering Program Set To Open In Twenty Public Schools In New YorkThe New York Daily News reported, “It’s a big bet by the Bloomberg administration on the city’s high-tech future - the creation of a new software engineering program set to open in 20 public schools.” Starting this fall, “new classes on topics such as computer programming, Web design and robotics will be of-fered in middle schools and high schools across” New York City. “The new tech programs will be modeled after the Academy for Software Engineering in Manhattan, which opened last September.” The New York Post reports, “About 1,000 students in sixth and ninth grades will participate, expanding to 3,500 students by 2016. Bloomberg said the digital age is bringing changes so rapidly that every student should be taking courses in math and science.” Mike Nolet, founder of AppNexus, “who appeared at a press con-ference with the mayor at the HS of Telecommunica-tion Arts and Technology in Brooklyn, said “graduates of top college tech-engineering schools are being recruited at salaries of $100,000 and up.”

KUHF-FM Houston (TX) reports, “In the United States, about 14 percent of engineers are women, even though women make up half of the workforce.” Exxon “is trying to help close that gap and showed young girls what engineer-ing is all about.” At the company’s “office in north Houston middle school girls are working on a design competition: who can make the best oil rig platform.”

Company Gives Middle School Girls In Texas Closer Look At Engineering.

“ IT HAS BECOME APPALLINGLY OBVIOUS THAT OUR TECHNOLOGY HAS EXCEEDED OUR HUMANITY. ALBERT EINSTEIN”

Revolutionary Patent-Pending Abrasives Bond Technology Produces Improved Part Quality in Precision Grinding

NORTON ABRASIVES has devel-oped and launched Norton Vitrium3, the next generation of bonded abrasives products, engineered for maximum performance and cost savings in precision grinding. An entirely new abrasives platform, Nor-ton Vitrium3 features a patent-pending bond technology developed by the Saint-Gobain Abrasives R&D team. This revolutionary bond features an exclusive chemistry that promotes excellent grain adhesion, resulting in improved product versatility across a wide

range of applications. Substantial performance improvements with Norton Vit-rium3 are now attainable in all Norton abrasive grains, from proprietary Norton Quantum ceramic alumina to conventional aluminum oxide.Norton Vitrium3 has three major features and benefits over standard vitrified bonds: • A STRONGER BOND CONSTRUCTION allows superior form and cor-ner holding for improved part quality and higher tolerances, reduced dressing time and wear, as well as the ability to meet the higher wheel speeds de-manded of today’s equipment. • AN IMPROVED HOLDING POWER utilizing less bond-to-abrasive ratio. This allows increased exposure of the abrasive grains for an improved cut rate and significantly less burn, while reducing power consumption and grinding forces on the part. • AN INCREASED POROSITY improves coolant flow and chip clearance to eliminate burn or other part damage, especially on today’s tough-to-grind materials, such as high nickel alloys, tool steels and chrome. “Whether the goal is to reduce total cost per part, increase throughput, or improve work piece quality, Norton Vitrium3 is re-shaping the world of precision grinding to meet these needs,” said Mr. Scott Leonard, Director of Product Management at Norton Abrasives. “This new technology will allow significant increases in production and also introduces the possibility of grind-ing instead of conventional machining on some operations.”

TRUING AND DRESSING MACHINE INCREASES EFFICIENCY

The model FC-250W wheel truing and dressing machine from Rush Machinery is designed for turning and dressing flats, angles and radii on diamond and CBM single-wheel and multiple-wheel packs. The machine is said to increase efficiency and accuracy by profiling, modifying profiles and turning wheels offline from the production grinding machinery. A computer-driven vision system features software specifically designed for the FC-250W and its applications. The system is equipped with an auto-matic power zoom and a two-axis DRO for measurement. Slides and ways are fully enclosed for minimal wear and extended machine life. The heavy-duty, one-piece, cast iron base provides rigidity and minimizes vibration. Options include an automatic zoom positioning (AZP) computer-controlled two-axis slide for camera positioning, an automated version with PLC and servo control for truing wheel in-feed and pivot axes, a dust-collection system, and quick-change spindle adapters for most CNC and manual grinders.

The model FC-250W wheel truing and dressing machine from Rush Machinery is designed for turning and dressing flats, angles and radii on diamond and CBM single-wheel and multiple-wheel packs.

GENERATION NEXT

4 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 5

New Software Engineering Program Set To Open In Twenty Public Schools In New YorkThe New York Daily News reported, “It’s a big bet by the Bloomberg administration on the city’s high-tech future - the creation of a new software engineering program set to open in 20 public schools.” Starting this fall, “new classes on topics such as computer programming, Web design and robotics will be of-fered in middle schools and high schools across” New York City. “The new tech programs will be modeled after the Academy for Software Engineering in Manhattan, which opened last September.” The New York Post reports, “About 1,000 students in sixth and ninth grades will participate, expanding to 3,500 students by 2016. Bloomberg said the digital age is bringing changes so rapidly that every student should be taking courses in math and science.” Mike Nolet, founder of AppNexus, “who appeared at a press con-ference with the mayor at the HS of Telecommunica-tion Arts and Technology in Brooklyn, said “graduates of top college tech-engineering schools are being recruited at salaries of $100,000 and up.”

KUHF-FM Houston (TX) reports, “In the United States, about 14 percent of engineers are women, even though women make up half of the workforce.” Exxon “is trying to help close that gap and showed young girls what engineer-ing is all about.” At the company’s “office in north Houston middle school girls are working on a design competition: who can make the best oil rig platform.”

Company Gives Middle School Girls In Texas Closer Look At Engineering.

“ IT HAS BECOME APPALLINGLY OBVIOUS THAT OUR TECHNOLOGY HAS EXCEEDED OUR HUMANITY. ALBERT EINSTEIN”

Revolutionary Patent-Pending Abrasives Bond Technology Produces Improved Part Quality in Precision Grinding

NORTON ABRASIVES has devel-oped and launched Norton Vitrium3, the next generation of bonded abrasives products, engineered for maximum performance and cost savings in precision grinding. An entirely new abrasives platform, Nor-ton Vitrium3 features a patent-pending bond technology developed by the Saint-Gobain Abrasives R&D team. This revolutionary bond features an exclusive chemistry that promotes excellent grain adhesion, resulting in improved product versatility across a wide

range of applications. Substantial performance improvements with Norton Vit-rium3 are now attainable in all Norton abrasive grains, from proprietary Norton Quantum ceramic alumina to conventional aluminum oxide.Norton Vitrium3 has three major features and benefits over standard vitrified bonds: • A STRONGER BOND CONSTRUCTION allows superior form and cor-ner holding for improved part quality and higher tolerances, reduced dressing time and wear, as well as the ability to meet the higher wheel speeds de-manded of today’s equipment. • AN IMPROVED HOLDING POWER utilizing less bond-to-abrasive ratio. This allows increased exposure of the abrasive grains for an improved cut rate and significantly less burn, while reducing power consumption and grinding forces on the part. • AN INCREASED POROSITY improves coolant flow and chip clearance to eliminate burn or other part damage, especially on today’s tough-to-grind materials, such as high nickel alloys, tool steels and chrome. “Whether the goal is to reduce total cost per part, increase throughput, or improve work piece quality, Norton Vitrium3 is re-shaping the world of precision grinding to meet these needs,” said Mr. Scott Leonard, Director of Product Management at Norton Abrasives. “This new technology will allow significant increases in production and also introduces the possibility of grind-ing instead of conventional machining on some operations.”

TRUING AND DRESSING MACHINE INCREASES EFFICIENCY

The model FC-250W wheel truing and dressing machine from Rush Machinery is designed for turning and dressing flats, angles and radii on diamond and CBM single-wheel and multiple-wheel packs. The machine is said to increase efficiency and accuracy by profiling, modifying profiles and turning wheels offline from the production grinding machinery. A computer-driven vision system features software specifically designed for the FC-250W and its applications. The system is equipped with an auto-matic power zoom and a two-axis DRO for measurement. Slides and ways are fully enclosed for minimal wear and extended machine life. The heavy-duty, one-piece, cast iron base provides rigidity and minimizes vibration. Options include an automatic zoom positioning (AZP) computer-controlled two-axis slide for camera positioning, an automated version with PLC and servo control for truing wheel in-feed and pivot axes, a dust-collection system, and quick-change spindle adapters for most CNC and manual grinders.

The model FC-250W wheel truing and dressing machine from Rush Machinery is designed for turning and dressing flats, angles and radii on diamond and CBM single-wheel and multiple-wheel packs.

GENERATION NEXT

GRINDING IN MOTION MOST OF THE TIME SPENT WRESTLING WITH TECHNOLOGIES THAT DON’T QUITE WORK YET IS JUST NOT WORTH IT FOR END USERS, HOWEVER MUCH FUN IT IS FOR NERDS. DOUGLAS ADAMS, The Salmon of Doubt“

TRADE SHOWS AND EVENTS

6 GQ/Q2 2013

Others may try to “razzle dazzle” you, but when you need high-quality, reliable spindle repair,

there’s no illusion, rely on Fischer Precise USA.

Fischer Precise USA has over 70 years of experience in spindle manufacturing, maintenance and repair.

Our legacy has been built on the highest levels of customer service and support.

There’s nothing up our sleeves … Fischer Precise USA provides the ultimate in service and repair. Our skilled technicians

are familiar with all major brands.

We have the capabilities, capacity and expertise to restore your spindle to peak...

dare we say it… magical performance.

Visit www.fischerprecise.com to learn more about our repair services, technical support and capabilities.

Not Smoke & Mirrors

High Performance Spindle SolutionsFISCHER PRECISE U.S.A., RACINE, WI 53405 U.S.A.262.632.6173 800.333.6173 FAX: 262.632.6730Email:info@fischerprecise.com www.fischerprecise.com

” EASTEC STUDENT CHALLENGE

CHALLENGE 1 - “LEAN AND GREEN: THE 21ST CENTURY ADVANCED MANUFACTURING WORKPLACE” Student teams developed a workcell and/or factory floor model demonstrating a process improvement, or “Green” opportunity for their sponsor/manufacturer. WINNER: Larry Retelle, Shawsheen Valley Tech High School.

CHALLENGE 2 - “UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN: ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING” Student teams produced a final product representing the results of a reverse engineering process for a part made by their sponsor/manufacturer. The final presentation demonstrated an understanding of both the part and principles of the engineering design. WINNER: Jim Dirmaier, Center for Technology, Essex, VT.

SME Executive Director/CEO, Mark Tomlinson thanks United Grinding’s Andrew Osborn (Product Engineer) for being a judge in the Student challenge, and United Grinding’s Silver Sponsorship.

Below, Judges review one of the challenges.

GRINDING IN MOTION MOST OF THE TIME SPENT WRESTLING WITH TECHNOLOGIES THAT DON’T QUITE WORK YET IS JUST NOT WORTH IT FOR END USERS, HOWEVER MUCH FUN IT IS FOR NERDS. DOUGLAS ADAMS, The Salmon of Doubt“

TRADE SHOWS AND EVENTS

6 GQ/Q2 2013

Others may try to “razzle dazzle” you, but when you need high-quality, reliable spindle repair,

there’s no illusion, rely on Fischer Precise USA.

Fischer Precise USA has over 70 years of experience in spindle manufacturing, maintenance and repair.

Our legacy has been built on the highest levels of customer service and support.

There’s nothing up our sleeves … Fischer Precise USA provides the ultimate in service and repair. Our skilled technicians

are familiar with all major brands.

We have the capabilities, capacity and expertise to restore your spindle to peak...

dare we say it… magical performance.

Visit www.fischerprecise.com to learn more about our repair services, technical support and capabilities.

Not Smoke & Mirrors

High Performance Spindle SolutionsFISCHER PRECISE U.S.A., RACINE, WI 53405 U.S.A.262.632.6173 800.333.6173 FAX: 262.632.6730Email:info@fischerprecise.com www.fischerprecise.com

” EASTEC STUDENT CHALLENGE

CHALLENGE 1 - “LEAN AND GREEN: THE 21ST CENTURY ADVANCED MANUFACTURING WORKPLACE” Student teams developed a workcell and/or factory floor model demonstrating a process improvement, or “Green” opportunity for their sponsor/manufacturer. WINNER: Larry Retelle, Shawsheen Valley Tech High School.

CHALLENGE 2 - “UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN: ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING” Student teams produced a final product representing the results of a reverse engineering process for a part made by their sponsor/manufacturer. The final presentation demonstrated an understanding of both the part and principles of the engineering design. WINNER: Jim Dirmaier, Center for Technology, Essex, VT.

SME Executive Director/CEO, Mark Tomlinson thanks United Grinding’s Andrew Osborn (Product Engineer) for being a judge in the Student challenge, and United Grinding’s Silver Sponsorship.

Below, Judges review one of the challenges.

GRINDING IN MOTION

Specialist for CNC rotary tables

General importer for North America

Rotec Tools Ltd.5 Schuman Road, Millwood, NY 10546

Phone: (914) 941-7311Fax: (914) 941-0226

Email: info@rotectools.comwww.rotectools.com

Wanted: local representatives

New generation 500:• Modular design: 4 basic modules – over 170 variations• Up to 111 min-1 – clamp and release quickly – short cycle time• High degree of accuracy: concentricity, geometry and positioning • Compact and rigid construction – high spindle clamping torque• Fully impervious to IP67 as standard – IP68 optional (waterproof in bath)• Large workpiece clamp range• Competitive prices

Rotec Tools Ltd.

ww

w.le

hman

n-ro

tary

-tabl

es.c

om

8 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 9

The medical-device tax, which took effect Jan. 1, is clearly unpopular in medi-cal manufacturing circles, but whether it lives or dies depends on a lot of factors. With opponents of the measure spanning from former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain to US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA),

the medical-device industry believes it has bipartisan support to go in for the kill. On March 21, the US Senate voted, 79-20, to repeal the tax. While the vote was largely symbolic—it was an amendment to a Democratic budget that won’t pass the GOP House —nearly half of the votes against the tax, 34, came from Democrats, result-ing in a fairly even-handed rejection. So, a stand-alone bill to kill the tax is likely on its way.

The 2.3% excise tax is a critical revenue-generating component of ObamaCare, ex-pected to raise about $29 billion over 10 years—funds that are slated to help pay for the expansion of health care coverage to 30 million uninsured people. While that is laudable, it’s easy to understand the anti-tax argument.

The tax is based on total medical device revenues of a company, regardless of profitability. Many companies, the Medical Device Manufacturers Association and others argue, will owe more in taxes than they generate in profits. The result will be devastating to innovation, patient care and job creation. And this is a sector that already faces incredible cost hurdles tied to cumbersome regulations to get devices approved and to market in the first place.

Since the tax took effect, the industry has already paid $388 million, according to AdvaMed, an industry group. It says that money has been diverted from investment in R&D and job creation. “It keeps our companies from thriving and making a profit, exporting overseas,” said Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN), who predicted the tax would be repealed. The Obama administration envisioned it another way. On its side, sup-porters argue that the tax is small and that as more people receive health cover-age through ObamaCare that pays for the devices in the first place, the increased volume of sales will offset the tax.

The New York Times and some other outlets are blaming the medical-device lobby-ists for buying votes, but it would be hard to buy this wide bipartisan swath if the tax weren’t truly flawed. Getting rid of the medical-device tax, however, will likely require finding a new tax to take its place. And that is one devil of a detail that may keep the tax on life support.

www.MfgEngMedia.com

By SARAH A. WEBSTER Editor in Chief

MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING Magazine

Medical-Device Tax in

ICU Studer Wins Innovation Prize … AgainFRITZ STUDER AG (Bern, Switzerland) has won this year’s “intec prize 2013” for their unique StuderTechnology software at the intec production technology trade fair in Leipzig at the end of February. The renowned “intec prize” was awarded to Fritz STUDER for the first time this year, in the category of companies with over 100 employees. The prize was awarded to the STUDERTechnology software. In internal and external cylindrical grind-ing in particular an experienced machine operator was previously required in order to obtain optimal production results. The STUDERTechnology software automatically determines the most important process-relevant influencing variables and the relevant values for each machining step. This greatly simplifies the operation of cylindrical grinding machines. Better results can be achieved, in combination with shorter machining and setup times. The requirements on industrial production processes are increas-ingly enormous. Newly designed components are appearing in ever-faster succession, and at the same time the number of component variants is increasing. This has consequences for the machine opera-tor. He must set up the resulting changing production sequences as quickly as possible and without errors. When complex processes such as cylindrical grinding are involved this task is particularly demanding. More than 300 machine parameters determine the machining process. The operation of a STUDER cylindrical grinding machine is greatly simplified by using STUDERTechnology. Many of the usual settings are made for the operator. The basic principle of the program, which was developed jointly with the software specialists from MCS AG, is simply explained: STUDERTechnology independently determines the necessary central data in cylindrical grinding. “The principle can be compared to that of modern cameras. They determine many important values such as focal distance or exposure and automatically ensure a high image quality,” explains Erhard Kämpf, Head of the Form and Thread Grinding Depart-ment. “STUDERTechnology does a similar sort of thing.” How is this possible? For starters, the Swiss grinding specialists have amassed a large quantity of data – a sort of “Best of Cylindrical Grinding.” The program contains the figures and information from count-less grinding tests, in which the best machining strategy has been deter-mined for a wide variety of components. STUDERTechnology draws on these values depending on the specific application and precisely applies them. The user benefits directly from the machine manufacturer’s extensive know-how. It is also possible to expand this treasure trove of experience at any time. Users can, as it were, expand the database with their own individual “Best of” data.

GRINDING IN MOTION

Specialist for CNC rotary tables

General importer for North America

Rotec Tools Ltd.5 Schuman Road, Millwood, NY 10546

Phone: (914) 941-7311Fax: (914) 941-0226

Email: info@rotectools.comwww.rotectools.com

Wanted: local representatives

New generation 500:• Modular design: 4 basic modules – over 170 variations• Up to 111 min-1 – clamp and release quickly – short cycle time• High degree of accuracy: concentricity, geometry and positioning • Compact and rigid construction – high spindle clamping torque• Fully impervious to IP67 as standard – IP68 optional (waterproof in bath)• Large workpiece clamp range• Competitive prices

ww

w.le

hman

n-ro

tary

-tabl

es.c

om

8 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 9

The medical-device tax, which took effect Jan. 1, is clearly unpopular in medi-cal manufacturing circles, but whether it lives or dies depends on a lot of factors. With opponents of the measure spanning from former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain to US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA),

the medical-device industry believes it has bipartisan support to go in for the kill. On March 21, the US Senate voted, 79-20, to repeal the tax. While the vote was largely symbolic—it was an amendment to a Democratic budget that won’t pass the GOP House —nearly half of the votes against the tax, 34, came from Democrats, result-ing in a fairly even-handed rejection. So, a stand-alone bill to kill the tax is likely on its way.

The 2.3% excise tax is a critical revenue-generating component of ObamaCare, ex-pected to raise about $29 billion over 10 years—funds that are slated to help pay for the expansion of health care coverage to 30 million uninsured people. While that is laudable, it’s easy to understand the anti-tax argument.

The tax is based on total medical device revenues of a company, regardless of profitability. Many companies, the Medical Device Manufacturers Association and others argue, will owe more in taxes than they generate in profits. The result will be devastating to innovation, patient care and job creation. And this is a sector that already faces incredible cost hurdles tied to cumbersome regulations to get devices approved and to market in the first place.

Since the tax took effect, the industry has already paid $388 million, according to AdvaMed, an industry group. It says that money has been diverted from investment in R&D and job creation. “It keeps our companies from thriving and making a profit, exporting overseas,” said Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN), who predicted the tax would be repealed. The Obama administration envisioned it another way. On its side, sup-porters argue that the tax is small and that as more people receive health cover-age through ObamaCare that pays for the devices in the first place, the increased volume of sales will offset the tax.

The New York Times and some other outlets are blaming the medical-device lobby-ists for buying votes, but it would be hard to buy this wide bipartisan swath if the tax weren’t truly flawed. Getting rid of the medical-device tax, however, will likely require finding a new tax to take its place. And that is one devil of a detail that may keep the tax on life support.

www.MfgEngMedia.com

By SARAH A. WEBSTER Editor in Chief

MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING Magazine

Medical-Device Tax in

ICU Studer Wins Innovation Prize … AgainFRITZ STUDER AG (Bern, Switzerland) has won this year’s “intec prize 2013” for their unique StuderTechnology software at the intec production technology trade fair in Leipzig at the end of February. The renowned “intec prize” was awarded to Fritz STUDER for the first time this year, in the category of companies with over 100 employees. The prize was awarded to the STUDERTechnology software. In internal and external cylindrical grind-ing in particular an experienced machine operator was previously required in order to obtain optimal production results. The STUDERTechnology software automatically determines the most important process-relevant influencing variables and the relevant values for each machining step. This greatly simplifies the operation of cylindrical grinding machines. Better results can be achieved, in combination with shorter machining and setup times. The requirements on industrial production processes are increas-ingly enormous. Newly designed components are appearing in ever-faster succession, and at the same time the number of component variants is increasing. This has consequences for the machine opera-tor. He must set up the resulting changing production sequences as quickly as possible and without errors. When complex processes such as cylindrical grinding are involved this task is particularly demanding. More than 300 machine parameters determine the machining process. The operation of a STUDER cylindrical grinding machine is greatly simplified by using STUDERTechnology. Many of the usual settings are made for the operator. The basic principle of the program, which was developed jointly with the software specialists from MCS AG, is simply explained: STUDERTechnology independently determines the necessary central data in cylindrical grinding. “The principle can be compared to that of modern cameras. They determine many important values such as focal distance or exposure and automatically ensure a high image quality,” explains Erhard Kämpf, Head of the Form and Thread Grinding Depart-ment. “STUDERTechnology does a similar sort of thing.” How is this possible? For starters, the Swiss grinding specialists have amassed a large quantity of data – a sort of “Best of Cylindrical Grinding.” The program contains the figures and information from count-less grinding tests, in which the best machining strategy has been deter-mined for a wide variety of components. STUDERTechnology draws on these values depending on the specific application and precisely applies them. The user benefits directly from the machine manufacturer’s extensive know-how. It is also possible to expand this treasure trove of experience at any time. Users can, as it were, expand the database with their own individual “Best of” data.

10 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 11

IT’S TRUE, A REGULAR PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE (PM) PROGRAM CAN AVOID THE HEADACHE AND MISERY

OF MACHINE DOWNTIME

Managers and foremen know that down-time is the enemy on the shop floor and the best way to ensure against it is a regu-lar, well-planned preventive maintenance (PM) program. This is at the core of our Customer Care Division’s PM program, as big savings can be realized through maintenance efficiencies. Knowledge of the typical service life of various compo-nents and familiarity with the various ma-chine platforms sold by United Grinding Technologies are the strengths of our PM technicians. We consider PM to be planned downtime. Instead of allowing a break-down or other emergency which requires a service technician, it is much easier to say three months from now we’re go-ing to shut a machine down for 12 to 16 hours and do preventive maintenance.

We plan it, it’s all scheduled, the custom-ers have no disruption in their production schedule because it’s planned mainte-nance. They keep costs down and pro-ductivity high as a result of simple look-ahead planning. Large and small manufacturers have found it increasingly difficult to find the skill sets necessary to sustain world-class productivity and competitiveness. As manufacturers focus on core capa-bilities, machine maintenance is often considered a non-core function, and thus gets postponed or neglected all togeth-er, until a problem arises and a machine goes down. Which is not the time to be-gin thinking about a PM program. We have 22 technicians strategically placed across North America who per-form our Customer Care PM program,

and 90% are factory trained. We send a single technician to conduct preventive maintenance, and he’s always the clos-est one to the customer, which keeps costs down. We present the customer with a flat rate quote based on where the cus-tomer is located geographically and the parts that are needed for that specific machine. This covers all product lines sold by United Grinding, and we have a package that is in the customer’s hands before a technician arrives.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FACTORY SPEC When our technician arrives, the first thing he does is a rough cleanup of the machine which, if coordinated properly, can be done in advance by the custom-er, saving time, reducing costs and lost

cycle time. Then he perform a geometric inspection of the machine according to what was originally inspected at the fac-tory before it left Europe. So he verifies the machine is still within the DIN speci-fication (Standard 8630) as it was when originally shipped. We have specific tools for that, like alignment bars that are fac-tory made. Our technicians use those tools just as they would at the factory. This is good for the customer because if he has an ISO certification this inspec-tion re-certifies that the machine is to the original factory specification.

ITEMS ON THE LISTThrough this entire process our techni-cian logs everything he does. We have full preventive maintenance checklists which are all designed by the factory. The technician checks:• every axis on the machine• all the hydraulic fluids, all the oils in the tail stocks, belts and filters• all motor cables• all bellows on the machine • all fans and motors• air pressures and the drip reservoirs

• guideways and grease points• changes the control backup battery• safety functions, like the emergency stop and the acknowledge buttons • the doors properly lock when the machine’s in cycle• the lights on the control panel, as well as the lights in machine. The geometric inspection — the set-ting up and making sure everything is parallel and square — takes the longest amount of time.

RECORD KEEPINGAll this information — the actual mea-sured information from the geometric inspection and the information the tech-nician has noted in the logbook for the machine — is recorded. Last, the field maintenance technician writes up recom-mendations and observations. He then signs the log, and the customer signs it, and then he moves on. THE USUAL/UNUSUALUsually we set aside Monday morning for travel and our technician will arrive on site by noon. He’ll work part of the day

on Monday, then all day on Tuesday, and by Wednesday the machine will be but-toned back up and running. Typically, when our technicians per-form preventive maintenance, they usu-ally don’t do repair work. If we know in advance that there are issues with the machine, customers will often ask us to come and spend a week, do the PM and fix whatever is wrong with the ma-chine. Generally we send our customers a reminder about 10 months after we’ve done a PM. This is to inform them that it’s coming up on a year, and would they like to schedule another PM. So our pro-gram serves as a kind of reminder ser-vice as well. So, as many manufacturing manag-ers will attest, if you want to keep down-time and related costs to a minimum and uptime and productivity to a maximum, all that’s required is a little look-ahead planning. When it’s done right, preventive maintenance works really well and more than pays for itself.

BY JOSEPH SZENAY Vice President Customer Care DivisionUnited Grinding Technologies

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH. . .

^A technician is geometrically inspecting the machine. Specifically, he is verifing the center height of the workhead to the tailstock to make sure they are within tolerance according to DIN Standard 8630.

10 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 11

IT’S TRUE, A REGULAR PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE (PM) PROGRAM CAN AVOID THE HEADACHE AND MISERY

OF MACHINE DOWNTIME

Managers and foremen know that down-time is the enemy on the shop floor and the best way to ensure against it is a regu-lar, well-planned preventive maintenance (PM) program. This is at the core of our Customer Care Division’s PM program, as big savings can be realized through maintenance efficiencies. Knowledge of the typical service life of various compo-nents and familiarity with the various ma-chine platforms sold by United Grinding Technologies are the strengths of our PM technicians. We consider PM to be planned downtime. Instead of allowing a break-down or other emergency which requires a service technician, it is much easier to say three months from now we’re go-ing to shut a machine down for 12 to 16 hours and do preventive maintenance.

We plan it, it’s all scheduled, the custom-ers have no disruption in their production schedule because it’s planned mainte-nance. They keep costs down and pro-ductivity high as a result of simple look-ahead planning. Large and small manufacturers have found it increasingly difficult to find the skill sets necessary to sustain world-class productivity and competitiveness. As manufacturers focus on core capa-bilities, machine maintenance is often considered a non-core function, and thus gets postponed or neglected all togeth-er, until a problem arises and a machine goes down. Which is not the time to be-gin thinking about a PM program. We have 22 technicians strategically placed across North America who per-form our Customer Care PM program,

and 90% are factory trained. We send a single technician to conduct preventive maintenance, and he’s always the clos-est one to the customer, which keeps costs down. We present the customer with a flat rate quote based on where the cus-tomer is located geographically and the parts that are needed for that specific machine. This covers all product lines sold by United Grinding, and we have a package that is in the customer’s hands before a technician arrives.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FACTORY SPEC When our technician arrives, the first thing he does is a rough cleanup of the machine which, if coordinated properly, can be done in advance by the custom-er, saving time, reducing costs and lost

cycle time. Then he perform a geometric inspection of the machine according to what was originally inspected at the fac-tory before it left Europe. So he verifies the machine is still within the DIN speci-fication (Standard 8630) as it was when originally shipped. We have specific tools for that, like alignment bars that are fac-tory made. Our technicians use those tools just as they would at the factory. This is good for the customer because if he has an ISO certification this inspec-tion re-certifies that the machine is to the original factory specification.

ITEMS ON THE LISTThrough this entire process our techni-cian logs everything he does. We have full preventive maintenance checklists which are all designed by the factory. The technician checks:• every axis on the machine• all the hydraulic fluids, all the oils in the tail stocks, belts and filters• all motor cables• all bellows on the machine • all fans and motors• air pressures and the drip reservoirs

• guideways and grease points• changes the control backup battery• safety functions, like the emergency stop and the acknowledge buttons • the doors properly lock when the machine’s in cycle• the lights on the control panel, as well as the lights in machine. The geometric inspection — the set-ting up and making sure everything is parallel and square — takes the longest amount of time.

RECORD KEEPINGAll this information — the actual mea-sured information from the geometric inspection and the information the tech-nician has noted in the logbook for the machine — is recorded. Last, the field maintenance technician writes up recom-mendations and observations. He then signs the log, and the customer signs it, and then he moves on. THE USUAL/UNUSUALUsually we set aside Monday morning for travel and our technician will arrive on site by noon. He’ll work part of the day

on Monday, then all day on Tuesday, and by Wednesday the machine will be but-toned back up and running. Typically, when our technicians per-form preventive maintenance, they usu-ally don’t do repair work. If we know in advance that there are issues with the machine, customers will often ask us to come and spend a week, do the PM and fix whatever is wrong with the ma-chine. Generally we send our customers a reminder about 10 months after we’ve done a PM. This is to inform them that it’s coming up on a year, and would they like to schedule another PM. So our pro-gram serves as a kind of reminder ser-vice as well. So, as many manufacturing manag-ers will attest, if you want to keep down-time and related costs to a minimum and uptime and productivity to a maximum, all that’s required is a little look-ahead planning. When it’s done right, preventive maintenance works really well and more than pays for itself.

BY JOSEPH SZENAY Vice President Customer Care DivisionUnited Grinding Technologies

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH. . .

^A technician is geometrically inspecting the machine. Specifically, he is verifing the center height of the workhead to the tailstock to make sure they are within tolerance according to DIN Standard 8630.

I remember being a teenager back in the 80s and watching TV with my grandmother one day when we happened to come across the tail end of the Hitchcock move “The Birds”. My grandmother then launched into a short, mild rant in which she complained about how

she hated Hitchcock movies because in her opinion they just seemed to end for no apparent reason, without a tidy resolu-tion or conclusion that ended the story in a neat, little package (in other words, a “happy ending”. My grandmother, may she rest in peace, would probably hate most of the business websites I see today. First, I see websites with no clear theme or overriding message of why customers should choose to work with them. I find myself asking questions like, “What are these guys all about?” or, “What is the story they are trying to tell me about why they went into business and how I as a potential customer would benefit from working with them?” Second, there may be a decent amount of informative content on each of the vari-ous pages that extols the virtues of the company and their products, but then after a few paragraphs or bullet points...it just stops. No link to relevant content on a following page that continues the sales pitch. No call to action to take the next step of requesting information by submitting the contact form or calling them. No special offer or promotion. Nothing. Just blank space at the bottom of the page. Don’t leave your website visitors hanging for more infor-mation or wondering what to do next when they are on your site. First, design the layout and write the information on your website in such a way that clearly outlines in a logical pattern what your company stands for and what differentiates you

from your competition, what we marketers call your “Unique Selling Proposition”. Next, make sure that each page quickly and succinctly tells the next “chapter of the story” and then at the end of the page direct them where you want them to go next or to do what it is you want them to do. If you want them to a read another page that is the next logical for your story, i.e. your sales pitch, put a link to that page. If you made all of your key points and next want people to pick up the phone and call you, then put your phone number along with the name and extension or email address of the person they should ask for at the bottom of the page along with a link to your website’s contact form so people can submit it after busi-ness hours. In other words, “Ask for the sale” and in doing so make it as easy as possible for folks to take the next step to becoming a customer. Take a look at EVERY webpage and see if it resembles a Hitchcock movie by lacking a clear, easy-to-understand mes-sage or a simple call to action. If it does, make changes to it so people will be more likely to take that next step. Your business website should not be a Hitchcock movie that leaves people lost and confused, it should effectively answer the key questions they have about working with you and generate well-qualified sales leads, and ultimately have a “happy ending” by improving your bottom line.

Rob Bunting is Czar of the Cincinnati I-marketing Group, an Internet marketing agency in Ohio serving manufacturing, B2B & B2C clients. Learn more at http://CallTheCzar.com or contact Rob at 937-312-1400

BLAH…BLAH…BLAH…THE END:

DON’T LEAVE YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS HANGING!

BY ROB BUNTING

I

12 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 13

THE END.

I remember being a teenager back in the 80s and watching TV with my grandmother one day when we happened to come across the tail end of the Hitchcock move “The Birds”. My grandmother then launched into a short, mild rant in which she complained about how

she hated Hitchcock movies because in her opinion they just seemed to end for no apparent reason, without a tidy resolu-tion or conclusion that ended the story in a neat, little package (in other words, a “happy ending”. My grandmother, may she rest in peace, would probably hate most of the business websites I see today. First, I see websites with no clear theme or overriding message of why customers should choose to work with them. I find myself asking questions like, “What are these guys all about?” or, “What is the story they are trying to tell me about why they went into business and how I as a potential customer would benefit from working with them?” Second, there may be a decent amount of informative content on each of the vari-ous pages that extols the virtues of the company and their products, but then after a few paragraphs or bullet points...it just stops. No link to relevant content on a following page that continues the sales pitch. No call to action to take the next step of requesting information by submitting the contact form or calling them. No special offer or promotion. Nothing. Just blank space at the bottom of the page. Don’t leave your website visitors hanging for more infor-mation or wondering what to do next when they are on your site. First, design the layout and write the information on your website in such a way that clearly outlines in a logical pattern what your company stands for and what differentiates you

from your competition, what we marketers call your “Unique Selling Proposition”. Next, make sure that each page quickly and succinctly tells the next “chapter of the story” and then at the end of the page direct them where you want them to go next or to do what it is you want them to do. If you want them to a read another page that is the next logical for your story, i.e. your sales pitch, put a link to that page. If you made all of your key points and next want people to pick up the phone and call you, then put your phone number along with the name and extension or email address of the person they should ask for at the bottom of the page along with a link to your website’s contact form so people can submit it after busi-ness hours. In other words, “Ask for the sale” and in doing so make it as easy as possible for folks to take the next step to becoming a customer. Take a look at EVERY webpage and see if it resembles a Hitchcock movie by lacking a clear, easy-to-understand mes-sage or a simple call to action. If it does, make changes to it so people will be more likely to take that next step. Your business website should not be a Hitchcock movie that leaves people lost and confused, it should effectively answer the key questions they have about working with you and generate well-qualified sales leads, and ultimately have a “happy ending” by improving your bottom line.

Rob Bunting is Czar of the Cincinnati I-marketing Group, an Internet marketing agency in Ohio serving manufacturing, B2B & B2C clients. Learn more at http://CallTheCzar.com or contact Rob at 937-312-1400

BLAH…BLAH…BLAH…THE END:

DON’T LEAVE YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS HANGING!

BY ROB BUNTING

I

12 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 13

THE END.

NEARLY EVERY HIGHLY DIVERSIFIED GLOBAL COMPANY MAKES A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS FOR A SLEW OF DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES. IT’S WHAT DIVERSIFICATION IS ALL ABOUT, RIGHT? NOT IN THIS CASE. THIS GLOBAL HOLDING COMPANY MAKES A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS FOR A SINGLE INDUSTRY: MACHINE TOOLS.

14 GQ/ Premiere Issue GQ/Q2 2013 15

By Robin Yale Bergstrom

ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO. is a global manufacturer and distributor of precision machine tool components and metal cutting solutions. AME’s product lines include production carbide saws and blades, workholding, safety and position holding devices, as well as power drawbars and spindle interface components, and other precision machine components such as bushings, sleeves and clamping disks. The company also designs and builds special machines for a variety of industries and provides machine rebuilding, retrofit-ting and contract manufacturing services. Advanced Machine & Engineering has been a supplier of machine components in the US for 48 years and is the North American pioneer in carbide sawing. AME has partners and customers around the world and across the US. German and Swiss partners, such as OTT-Jakob, Sitema, Spieth and Triag, are joined by AME’s sister company, Hennig, Inc. AME and Hennig both belong to the Goellner, Inc. holding company. Hennig has been designing and producing custom machine and power equipment protection, as well as chip/coolant man-agement products for state-of-the-art machine tools, for more than 50 years. Hennig’s products include telescoping steel way covers, way cover repair services, X-Y shields, folded bellows, roll-up and apron covers, way wipers and wiper systems, tele-scoping springs, chip conveyors and filtration systems and ma-chine enclosures.

So there you have it: a widely diverse range of companies making a great variety of products targeted at a single industry — machinery, machine tools and metalworking.

SPINDLE SHAFTS“When we bought the STUDER (United Grinding Technologies, Miamisburg, OH) in 2006 we were looking at two machines: a Kellenberger and the STUDER. Rumor had it that both ma-chines were very good,” says Sam Schubert, grinding supervi-sor. “However, if you bought either one you’d probably want to buy a second machine because of the commonality in con-trols and training issues, the ability to cross train, for example; whereas if you have a variety of machines, with a variety of different controls you tend to have operators who don’t want to leave a particular machine because they’re familiar with that specific control. “We had an opportunity to visit Ingersoll Cutting Tools, and they had one of each, a Kellenberger and a STUDER S40. I asked the operator if he were to buy one of those machines — and it wasn’t his money — which would he buy. The answer was quick and unequivocal: the STUDER. He said this without hesitation.” AME has recently taken delivery of a STUDER favoritCNC cylindrical grinder, also to grind spindle shafts. Lately AME has been grinding an increasing number of spindle shafts, a job they hope customers will place them on their supplier short list for. They have the technology to get them there in the STUDER S40

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAGDIVERSIFICATION OFTEN DELIVERS ULTRA PRECISION

Sample of AME spindle shafts demonstrating super finishes, multiple OD diameters and thread grinding.

An operator programs the STUDER favoritCNC. This machine, plus a STUDER S40, grinds spindle shafts.

NEARLY EVERY HIGHLY DIVERSIFIED GLOBAL COMPANY MAKES A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS FOR A SLEW OF DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES. IT’S WHAT DIVERSIFICATION IS ALL ABOUT, RIGHT? NOT IN THIS CASE. THIS GLOBAL HOLDING COMPANY MAKES A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS FOR A SINGLE INDUSTRY: MACHINE TOOLS.

14 GQ/ Premiere Issue GQ/Q2 2013 15

By Robin Yale Bergstrom

ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO. is a global manufacturer and distributor of precision machine tool components and metal cutting solutions. AME’s product lines include production carbide saws and blades, workholding, safety and position holding devices, as well as power drawbars and spindle interface components, and other precision machine components such as bushings, sleeves and clamping disks. The company also designs and builds special machines for a variety of industries and provides machine rebuilding, retrofit-ting and contract manufacturing services. Advanced Machine & Engineering has been a supplier of machine components in the US for 48 years and is the North American pioneer in carbide sawing. AME has partners and customers around the world and across the US. German and Swiss partners, such as OTT-Jakob, Sitema, Spieth and Triag, are joined by AME’s sister company, Hennig, Inc. AME and Hennig both belong to the Goellner, Inc. holding company. Hennig has been designing and producing custom machine and power equipment protection, as well as chip/coolant man-agement products for state-of-the-art machine tools, for more than 50 years. Hennig’s products include telescoping steel way covers, way cover repair services, X-Y shields, folded bellows, roll-up and apron covers, way wipers and wiper systems, tele-scoping springs, chip conveyors and filtration systems and ma-chine enclosures.

So there you have it: a widely diverse range of companies making a great variety of products targeted at a single industry — machinery, machine tools and metalworking.

SPINDLE SHAFTS“When we bought the STUDER (United Grinding Technologies, Miamisburg, OH) in 2006 we were looking at two machines: a Kellenberger and the STUDER. Rumor had it that both ma-chines were very good,” says Sam Schubert, grinding supervi-sor. “However, if you bought either one you’d probably want to buy a second machine because of the commonality in con-trols and training issues, the ability to cross train, for example; whereas if you have a variety of machines, with a variety of different controls you tend to have operators who don’t want to leave a particular machine because they’re familiar with that specific control. “We had an opportunity to visit Ingersoll Cutting Tools, and they had one of each, a Kellenberger and a STUDER S40. I asked the operator if he were to buy one of those machines — and it wasn’t his money — which would he buy. The answer was quick and unequivocal: the STUDER. He said this without hesitation.” AME has recently taken delivery of a STUDER favoritCNC cylindrical grinder, also to grind spindle shafts. Lately AME has been grinding an increasing number of spindle shafts, a job they hope customers will place them on their supplier short list for. They have the technology to get them there in the STUDER S40

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAGDIVERSIFICATION OFTEN DELIVERS ULTRA PRECISION

Sample of AME spindle shafts demonstrating super finishes, multiple OD diameters and thread grinding.

An operator programs the STUDER favoritCNC. This machine, plus a STUDER S40, grinds spindle shafts.

CERAMIC BANDSOccasionally some of the spindle shafts will come in with diameters that include a band of ceramic that the customer uses as a seal. What AME did in the past was to do all the normal OD grinding and then send the part out for someone else to grind the ceramic, with perhaps CBN wheels. Now, however, with the STUDER the operator roughs the shaft down with the big wheel, then brings the smaller wheel over, and he can hold a 4 microfinish on the ceramic with the same exact tooling that’s on there to grind regular steel. “This means we don’t have to send parts out, which often takes forever and costs a considerable amount,” Schubert says. “It just kills us every time we have to farm parts out. If the STUDER will hold the weight and the part fits between cen-ters, we always want to be able to do all operations here. So it’s huge for us not having to send parts out.”

HOW TO MEASURESchubert notes that since they acquired the STUDERS, for the first time they have a machine that grinds more accurately than they can check. Measuring tight tol-erance OD grinding accurately is a costly process. To address this issue, they ac-

quired master setting disks of virtually every bearing diameter size that they do.

TOOLING & AIR GAGINGAME grinds IDs on each shaft as well. “We OD grind the tapered tools that go inside the spindles,” Schubert adds. “So we have acquired virtually every size CAT taper to grind CT tools, plus we do HSK tools. We have air gaging made by STOTZ, so we have a proven process on the diameters, on the bores, and diam-eters of the tools that are going in our bores. Some of these tolerances are in the millionths. The tighter tolerances are on the HSK tools, and some of the smaller ones are +/- 60 millionths in di-ameter. The industry calls these ‘simulta-neous fits’. Right now on my floor I have a couple of shafts with HSK 125 tapered tools. These shafts have a 14” diameter and weigh 400 pounds. The HSK in this case is going to be about four inches in diameter on the taper.”

A REMARKABLE PARTNERSHIP“What can I say?” asks Schubert of his relationship with both United Grinding (UGT) and Integrated Machinery Servic-es (IMS). “On the one hand you have a builder, UGT, who provides you with a stellar cylindrical STUDER grinders that

will do everything you want and more, and on the other you have a distributor who takes care of you with industry-best service and attention. “We’ve bought a considerable amount of machinery from Chris Tauber and IMS. Chris has sold us much of our turning and milling equipment as well as the STUDERS. We’ve been able to rely on Chris and IMS for services as a kind of intermediary between machine builder and customer. We have developed ex-traordinary partnerships with both UGT and IMS — UGT for parts and IMS for services. Both these organizations are the best at being customer driven and customer centric. It’s these kind of rela-tionships that make customers very loyal to the machine builder and the machinery distributor — to the point that if someone were to ask me if I would buy a different machine through a different distributor, I would say absolutely ‘no’. No, under no circumstances, and this is primarily due to the level of professionalism on the parts of builder and distributor. When you’re working with the best, why mess with it.”

For more information, contactAdvanced Machine & Engineering, 815/962-6076, www.ame.com

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

and the STUDER favoritCNC. “I consider what we do to be small volume work,” Schubert says. “One to five shafts, and then every once in a while a 20 to 30 piece spindle shaft order. Nothing in the hundreds. Normally the spindle shafts are 8620 carburized and hardened steel. The shafts are from 6” long to 50” long, and almost all of them are going to have OD bearing diameters that will be ground on the STUDER. The shaft diameters can be straight or they can be tapered. The tolerances on the shafts come from the bearing manufac-turers. If it’s 100 mm diameter, we’re go-ing to be held to 0.0003” total tolerance on bearing diameters. Some shafts are going to have three, four, five, six or more diameters, plus some shoulders. Basical-ly what we do since all of them are heat treated, is prep them, meaning we will grind the centers. Then we rough grind and grind thread diameters. What we’ve found is through rough grinding we take some of the tension out of the shafts, especially the longer, thinner ones. After rough grinding, the shafts leave our de-partment and get threaded on the lathes and possibly milled to cut keyways. Then they come back and we do our finish OD grinding, and at that time the tight toler-ance ODs are going to have much less

grinding stock. We will have somewhere between 0.005” and 0.010” stock on the bearing diameters for finish grind. “Whenever we steer away from our standard spindle shaft — perhaps a 55” long stainless steel shaft, three inches in diameter and we’re basically running the whole thing, multiple diameters — al-though this is quite a different setup, we don’t need to change wheels. Everything is the same, the same abrasives, same diamond, same coolant, so we never have to do much tear down.”

THE S40Schubert says anyone who’s ever had an S40 knows you can get anything on the machine you can possibly want: two OD wheels, two ID wheels, a Y-axis that allows you to install an ID spindle in a vertical orientation so that you can grind slots and keyways. It also has a C-axis for out-of-round grinding. The C-axis also provides thread grinding. It can also do spline grinding as well. The turret wheel-head can be swiveled automatically and up to four grinding wheels can be used. The S40 also has a high-resolution B-axis which allows infinite movements on an-gle. The gear which produces the angles is notched every 1°. The controller can automatically move in-between each 1°,

so virtually any angle that you want, the head can do. All that capability is truly amazing, but Schubert cautions thinking your long-term needs carefully. For example, if you’re a job shop you hope the configu-rations you chose at the buying decision are such that the machine can handle the majority of what you do for a long period of time. You want to tool it up for the range of what you’re doing currently and then hope you haven’t made a mis-take when a few years down the road your work starts to change, and you wish you had bigger or smaller wheel or an ID head instead of two OD heads. “We have one large angle head and then we have what we call our second-ary wheel, which is a smaller, narrower wheel, and what we found is that it works just incredibly well on chamfers, radii, getting into tight spots and reverse grinding, and we are really glad that we made the decision to have that configura-tion,” Schubert says. “This configuration really has paid off. I can buy inexpensive conventional aluminum oxide wheels be-cause we know we’re going to do a large amount of that kind of work. Our dress-ers will last at least the lifetime of two wheels.”

16 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 17

Tolerances on spindle shafts come from the bearing manufacturers. Some shafts have three, four, five, six or more diameters, plus some shoulders.Setting the tailstock on

the STUDER favoritCNC.

The turret wheelhead can be used for both external and internal grinding. It can be equipped with an external grinding wheel (right) and an internal grinding spindle for this purpose

CERAMIC BANDSOccasionally some of the spindle shafts will come in with diameters that include a band of ceramic that the customer uses as a seal. What AME did in the past was to do all the normal OD grinding and then send the part out for someone else to grind the ceramic, with perhaps CBN wheels. Now, however, with the STUDER the operator roughs the shaft down with the big wheel, then brings the smaller wheel over, and he can hold a 4 microfinish on the ceramic with the same exact tooling that’s on there to grind regular steel. “This means we don’t have to send parts out, which often takes forever and costs a considerable amount,” Schubert says. “It just kills us every time we have to farm parts out. If the STUDER will hold the weight and the part fits between cen-ters, we always want to be able to do all operations here. So it’s huge for us not having to send parts out.”

HOW TO MEASURESchubert notes that since they acquired the STUDERS, for the first time they have a machine that grinds more accurately than they can check. Measuring tight tol-erance OD grinding accurately is a costly process. To address this issue, they ac-

quired master setting disks of virtually every bearing diameter size that they do.

TOOLING & AIR GAGINGAME grinds IDs on each shaft as well. “We OD grind the tapered tools that go inside the spindles,” Schubert adds. “So we have acquired virtually every size CAT taper to grind CT tools, plus we do HSK tools. We have air gaging made by STOTZ, so we have a proven process on the diameters, on the bores, and diam-eters of the tools that are going in our bores. Some of these tolerances are in the millionths. The tighter tolerances are on the HSK tools, and some of the smaller ones are +/- 60 millionths in di-ameter. The industry calls these ‘simulta-neous fits’. Right now on my floor I have a couple of shafts with HSK 125 tapered tools. These shafts have a 14” diameter and weigh 400 pounds. The HSK in this case is going to be about four inches in diameter on the taper.”

A REMARKABLE PARTNERSHIP“What can I say?” asks Schubert of his relationship with both United Grinding (UGT) and Integrated Machinery Servic-es (IMS). “On the one hand you have a builder, UGT, who provides you with a stellar cylindrical STUDER grinders that

will do everything you want and more, and on the other you have a distributor who takes care of you with industry-best service and attention. “We’ve bought a considerable amount of machinery from Chris Tauber and IMS. Chris has sold us much of our turning and milling equipment as well as the STUDERS. We’ve been able to rely on Chris and IMS for services as a kind of intermediary between machine builder and customer. We have developed ex-traordinary partnerships with both UGT and IMS — UGT for parts and IMS for services. Both these organizations are the best at being customer driven and customer centric. It’s these kind of rela-tionships that make customers very loyal to the machine builder and the machinery distributor — to the point that if someone were to ask me if I would buy a different machine through a different distributor, I would say absolutely ‘no’. No, under no circumstances, and this is primarily due to the level of professionalism on the parts of builder and distributor. When you’re working with the best, why mess with it.”

For more information, contactAdvanced Machine & Engineering, 815/962-6076, www.ame.com

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

and the STUDER favoritCNC. “I consider what we do to be small volume work,” Schubert says. “One to five shafts, and then every once in a while a 20 to 30 piece spindle shaft order. Nothing in the hundreds. Normally the spindle shafts are 8620 carburized and hardened steel. The shafts are from 6” long to 50” long, and almost all of them are going to have OD bearing diameters that will be ground on the STUDER. The shaft diameters can be straight or they can be tapered. The tolerances on the shafts come from the bearing manufac-turers. If it’s 100 mm diameter, we’re go-ing to be held to 0.0003” total tolerance on bearing diameters. Some shafts are going to have three, four, five, six or more diameters, plus some shoulders. Basical-ly what we do since all of them are heat treated, is prep them, meaning we will grind the centers. Then we rough grind and grind thread diameters. What we’ve found is through rough grinding we take some of the tension out of the shafts, especially the longer, thinner ones. After rough grinding, the shafts leave our de-partment and get threaded on the lathes and possibly milled to cut keyways. Then they come back and we do our finish OD grinding, and at that time the tight toler-ance ODs are going to have much less

grinding stock. We will have somewhere between 0.005” and 0.010” stock on the bearing diameters for finish grind. “Whenever we steer away from our standard spindle shaft — perhaps a 55” long stainless steel shaft, three inches in diameter and we’re basically running the whole thing, multiple diameters — al-though this is quite a different setup, we don’t need to change wheels. Everything is the same, the same abrasives, same diamond, same coolant, so we never have to do much tear down.”

THE S40Schubert says anyone who’s ever had an S40 knows you can get anything on the machine you can possibly want: two OD wheels, two ID wheels, a Y-axis that allows you to install an ID spindle in a vertical orientation so that you can grind slots and keyways. It also has a C-axis for out-of-round grinding. The C-axis also provides thread grinding. It can also do spline grinding as well. The turret wheel-head can be swiveled automatically and up to four grinding wheels can be used. The S40 also has a high-resolution B-axis which allows infinite movements on an-gle. The gear which produces the angles is notched every 1°. The controller can automatically move in-between each 1°,

so virtually any angle that you want, the head can do. All that capability is truly amazing, but Schubert cautions thinking your long-term needs carefully. For example, if you’re a job shop you hope the configu-rations you chose at the buying decision are such that the machine can handle the majority of what you do for a long period of time. You want to tool it up for the range of what you’re doing currently and then hope you haven’t made a mis-take when a few years down the road your work starts to change, and you wish you had bigger or smaller wheel or an ID head instead of two OD heads. “We have one large angle head and then we have what we call our second-ary wheel, which is a smaller, narrower wheel, and what we found is that it works just incredibly well on chamfers, radii, getting into tight spots and reverse grinding, and we are really glad that we made the decision to have that configura-tion,” Schubert says. “This configuration really has paid off. I can buy inexpensive conventional aluminum oxide wheels be-cause we know we’re going to do a large amount of that kind of work. Our dress-ers will last at least the lifetime of two wheels.”

16 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 17

Tolerances on spindle shafts come from the bearing manufacturers. Some shafts have three, four, five, six or more diameters, plus some shoulders.Setting the tailstock on

the STUDER favoritCNC.

The turret wheelhead can be used for both external and internal grinding. It can be equipped with an external grinding wheel (right) and an internal grinding spindle for this purpose

THE FORTE AT LAKES PRECISION is creep feed grinding, specifically CDCF (continuous dress creep feed) grind-ing to very precise tolerances (0.0002” to 0.0005”), with sur-face finishes of at least 8 Ra, out of some very tough materials (A2, M2, S7 tool steels and the odd lot of customer-requested aluminum and cold rolled steel). Lakes started some 25 years ago. It currently occupies 25,000 ft.² and runs two shifts, five days a week. CDCF tech-nology comes from three MÄGERLE and three BLOHM creep feed grinders from United Grinding Technologies (Miamisburg, OH). Throw in several horizontal CNC machining centers, a couple belt-driven vertical thru-feed grinders, some surface

grinding, EDM and other things to supplement the manufac-turer of their products, and you’ve got a pretty good snapshot of Lakes’ capabilities. The core business is manufacturing per-ishable tooling for wire stripping and wire crimping (termina-tion) machines. Their market is everywhere wire stripping or crimping is needed (automotive, aerospace, “white goods”, electronics, medical — everywhere wire needs to be stripped or cut, Lakes can supply the tooling).

A LITTLE PRIMER ON GRINDINGCreep feed, or profile/form grinding is a process that allows a high rate of stock removal in a single pass. This grinding tech-

18 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 19

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

SURE, THERE’S BEEN ENDLESS TALK ABOUT “BREATHING NEW LIFE” INTO OLD IRON — E.G., REBUILDING FROM THE GROUND UP, REPLACING EVERYTHING OLD WITH EVERYTHING NEW AND ON AND ON, ETC. BUT, WHY? THERE’S NO SHORTAGE OF NEW MACHINES ON THE MARKET. SOME PRETTY GOOD BARGAINS, TOO. PLUS, THERE’S PLENTY OF MONEY AVAILABLE. SO, AGAIN, WHY? BECAUSE WITH THE RIGHT OLD MACHINE IT’S OFTEN THE SMARTEST THING TO DO

nique is often applied to high performance alloys or hardened materials. Each CNC machine is capable of either single pass or reciprocating process which yields extremely consistent toler-ances to 0.0002”. Thru-feed grinding is a flat production machining process utilizing a belt-feed system. Parts, hardened or soft, are passed under a vertical spindle wheel at varying speed rates and grind-ing pressures for precise stock removal.This process yields high production, single pass flat grinding for, but not exclusive to, stampings, fine blanked parts, or bar stock material removal. Stock removal rates up to 0.100” and +/- 0.0005” tolerances for finished parts.

Continuous dress creep feed (CDCF) technology utilizes a constantly in-feeding rotary diamond dresser that dresses the wheel continuously during the grinding cycle at a pre-pro-grammed infeed rate. The initial CDCF process relied on heavy dressing rates up to 40 mils/ per wheel revolution (0.00004”) that resulted in high wheel consumption, measured as G ratio (volume of material removed in cubic inch per volume of grind-ing wheel consumption in cubic inch). Designed for high stock removal of difficult-to-grind mate-rial, CDCF provides productivity improvements of 20 times that of conventional grinding and EDM processes. The unique ele-ment of CDCF is the rotary driven dresser unit situated above

NEW LIFE FOR OLDER MACHINES An operator sets up one of the three vintage MÄGERLES

that received new Siemens 840D controls.

Below, an aisle of BLOHM and MÄGERLE creep feed grinders from United Grinding Technologies line an entire wall at Lakes Precision.

THE FORTE AT LAKES PRECISION is creep feed grinding, specifically CDCF (continuous dress creep feed) grind-ing to very precise tolerances (0.0002” to 0.0005”), with sur-face finishes of at least 8 Ra, out of some very tough materials (A2, M2, S7 tool steels and the odd lot of customer-requested aluminum and cold rolled steel). Lakes started some 25 years ago. It currently occupies 25,000 ft.² and runs two shifts, five days a week. CDCF tech-nology comes from three MÄGERLE and three BLOHM creep feed grinders from United Grinding Technologies (Miamisburg, OH). Throw in several horizontal CNC machining centers, a couple belt-driven vertical thru-feed grinders, some surface

grinding, EDM and other things to supplement the manufac-turer of their products, and you’ve got a pretty good snapshot of Lakes’ capabilities. The core business is manufacturing per-ishable tooling for wire stripping and wire crimping (termina-tion) machines. Their market is everywhere wire stripping or crimping is needed (automotive, aerospace, “white goods”, electronics, medical — everywhere wire needs to be stripped or cut, Lakes can supply the tooling).

A LITTLE PRIMER ON GRINDINGCreep feed, or profile/form grinding is a process that allows a high rate of stock removal in a single pass. This grinding tech-

18 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 19

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

SURE, THERE’S BEEN ENDLESS TALK ABOUT “BREATHING NEW LIFE” INTO OLD IRON — E.G., REBUILDING FROM THE GROUND UP, REPLACING EVERYTHING OLD WITH EVERYTHING NEW AND ON AND ON, ETC. BUT, WHY? THERE’S NO SHORTAGE OF NEW MACHINES ON THE MARKET. SOME PRETTY GOOD BARGAINS, TOO. PLUS, THERE’S PLENTY OF MONEY AVAILABLE. SO, AGAIN, WHY? BECAUSE WITH THE RIGHT OLD MACHINE IT’S OFTEN THE SMARTEST THING TO DO

nique is often applied to high performance alloys or hardened materials. Each CNC machine is capable of either single pass or reciprocating process which yields extremely consistent toler-ances to 0.0002”. Thru-feed grinding is a flat production machining process utilizing a belt-feed system. Parts, hardened or soft, are passed under a vertical spindle wheel at varying speed rates and grind-ing pressures for precise stock removal.This process yields high production, single pass flat grinding for, but not exclusive to, stampings, fine blanked parts, or bar stock material removal. Stock removal rates up to 0.100” and +/- 0.0005” tolerances for finished parts.

Continuous dress creep feed (CDCF) technology utilizes a constantly in-feeding rotary diamond dresser that dresses the wheel continuously during the grinding cycle at a pre-pro-grammed infeed rate. The initial CDCF process relied on heavy dressing rates up to 40 mils/ per wheel revolution (0.00004”) that resulted in high wheel consumption, measured as G ratio (volume of material removed in cubic inch per volume of grind-ing wheel consumption in cubic inch). Designed for high stock removal of difficult-to-grind mate-rial, CDCF provides productivity improvements of 20 times that of conventional grinding and EDM processes. The unique ele-ment of CDCF is the rotary driven dresser unit situated above

NEW LIFE FOR OLDER MACHINES An operator sets up one of the three vintage MÄGERLES

that received new Siemens 840D controls.

Below, an aisle of BLOHM and MÄGERLE creep feed grinders from United Grinding Technologies line an entire wall at Lakes Precision.

the wheel, with a separate CNC axis dressing into the wheel simultaneous to the grinding process. This is controlled via spe-cial grinding macro programs to maintain programmed infeed dress rates at a constant rotation speed that is matched to an ever-changing wheel diameter. One item of particular interest is that with the CNC control, the wheel is constantly getting smaller as you grind across the work part, and the CNC control is calculating and compensating this ever-changing wheel di-ameter to produce a flat or radial surface.

HOW LAKES DOES WHAT IT DOESA family of parts of one particular part might range from 25 to 50 different items, different radii, starting at 0.0005” up to 0.500” diameter. Parts may be a 0.250” square, 0.00030” thick to 36” long. “A typical part would start with material procurement, usu-ally bar stock,” says Herb Stuckart, vice president, manufac-

turing. “We cut it, grind it, drill holes, tap and mill to bring the material to the required form. We send the parts out to heat treatment, and after they comes back, Quality Control releases them for manufacturing. We then run the part through the ver-tical thru-feed grinders and grind flats, edges and ends. This will prepare the part for the MÄGERLES or the BLOHMS. Then we will grind the profiles to size. Most of our requirements are repeatability from part to part and a finish of at least an 8 Ra.”

THE SECRET IS IN THE CONTROLLakes purchased its first MÄGERLES around 1988, and the Blohms followed shortly thereafter. It’s an understatement to say these machines are “vintage” (“old” by any measure). Stuckart says Lakes is today thinking of acquiring a new CDCF machine, probably a MÄGERLE. What he likes about his MÄGERLES and BLOHMS is their rigidity, repeatability, ability to hold size and the way CD maintains the wheel form continu-

20 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 21

HERB STUCKART, Vice President, Manufacturing, Lakes Precision

(Three Lakes, WI), admits he’s an unabashed advocate of retrofitting,

providing the machine is worthy of the investment, meaning the ma-

chine still holds tight tolerances and repeatedly produces top quality

parts, which was precisely the case with the three MÄGERLES in his

shop from United Grinding Technologies (Miamisburg, OH).

However, when opportunity recently knocked on Stuckart’s door (in

the form of increased demand for wire stripping and terminating tool-

ing) he knew immediately that he needed additional creep feed grind-

ing technology. He carefully considered his options. Should he buy

another MÄGERLE? a new BLOHM? or retrofit/rebuild one of his vin-

tage (circa 1988) BLOHM machines?

When he looked at the new BLOHM Profimat MT 408, he noted there

were considerable changes in this Blohm opposed to his vintage ma-

chines. For example, the new Profimat boasted a big 60 Kw, 8000 rpm

motor with a guaranteed maximum cutting speed of 170 m/s using con-

ventional, CD or IPD as well as all CBN grinding methods.

“This new BLOHM has a large horsepower motor, which is something

I don’t have on my other machines. This gives me an new added ad-

vantage,” says Stuckart.” “In the past, there were jobs I could not do

because I didn’t have adequate horsepower. Now, even though I don’t

often use it, I know the horsepower is there should I need it. I’m not

limited in any way. We have looked at jobs that required the additional

horsepower, but we backed away, knowing that if we tried to run the

job on the older machines, the project would prove less than profit-

able. Now, we don’t hesitate.”

Another feature that caught Stuckart’s attention was the larger cool-

ant tank and the automatic coolant tracing system. With the older

machines he was limited in the amount of coolant he could flood the

material with. The result had been that he couldn’t grind material like

M2 tool steel with-

out burning it. With

the new machine,

Stuckart no longer

faces that limitation.

“The reason we

bought the new machine is because business was turning up and

growing, and we felt that we were approaching full capacity,” Stuck-

art says, “and if there were increased orders next year, we could be

in real trouble, knowing that our other two Profitmats were reaching

the end of their lifecycle. In this way, we have already purchased a

replacement for those machines — which are currently running fine.

However, acquiring the new BLOHM has ensured us against a pos-

sible blip in our production schedule. Tomorrow, if one of the older ma-

chines goes down, I can move the product over to the new machine

with no problems.

“When we purchased the new machine as a addition to capacity, I’d

been told that we could retrofit the older BLOHMS just as we did with

the three MÄGERLES. This time, all things being equal financially, it

just seemed best to buy a new BLOHM machine.

“Of great importance here is the fact that now all of my machines have

the Siemens 840D control, not an Allen Bradley, not Fanuc, but all Sie-

mens. Which does not mean I am not a retrofit advocate, because I

admittedly am — given the machine and the circumstances. The con-

trol commonality is a great selling point in itself. The same control on

all our creep feed grinders only makes it easier for operators to move

from one machine to another.

“Overall,” concludes Stuckert, “the new BLOHM MT has more in com-

mon with the MÄGERLE machines than the earlier BLOHM machines.

It’s bigger, beefier, more powerful and has a greater array of standard

and optional features.”

WHEN NEW IS THE BEST PATHWAY

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

ously, part after part. However, vintage machines begin to have aches and pains (known as downtime) as their productive life goes on. “The rea-son we went to the retrofits was because we were having too much downtime” says Stuckart. “Customer satisfaction and timely delivery is so very important to us, with good reason: if we don’t do it right and on time, somebody else will. “We decided to retrofit our three MÄGERLES with new Siemens 840D controls,” says Stuckart. “All three were about the same era, circa 1988, and the result has been amazing. We’ve had no down time all this summer, which is unheard of because I used to have two to three machines down a week. These machines mechanically were very sound — the bones, the internal organs and such — because we meticulously main-tained them for all this time, nearly 25 years, and we never abused them; if anything, we babied them. However, because of the age of the electronics, we simply could not get a part to

fix the controls, even if we knew what was wrong. We might get replacement parts, but the drives, things like that, were just no longer available because of the changes in control technol-ogy. Our problems — all that downtime — were strictly elec-tronic problems and not mechanical problems at all.”

THE RETROFIT TEAM ARRIVESAccording to Stuckart, the technicians and engineers from UGT’s Total Lifecycle Solutions Group came in and did an initial survey of everything on the three Mägerles: all the geometrics, the tables, the runouts on the spindles, and they couldn’t find anything that couldn’t be tweaked in. They came in and did this preliminary inspection and machine review before they even began the retrofits. The first retrofit took three weeks, while the other two took about two weeks, and this is from the time the team walked into the plant until the time they walked out. This was great

MÄGERLE circa 1988 (left), still running strongafter retrofit of new Siemens 840D control

the wheel, with a separate CNC axis dressing into the wheel simultaneous to the grinding process. This is controlled via spe-cial grinding macro programs to maintain programmed infeed dress rates at a constant rotation speed that is matched to an ever-changing wheel diameter. One item of particular interest is that with the CNC control, the wheel is constantly getting smaller as you grind across the work part, and the CNC control is calculating and compensating this ever-changing wheel di-ameter to produce a flat or radial surface.

HOW LAKES DOES WHAT IT DOESA family of parts of one particular part might range from 25 to 50 different items, different radii, starting at 0.0005” up to 0.500” diameter. Parts may be a 0.250” square, 0.00030” thick to 36” long. “A typical part would start with material procurement, usu-ally bar stock,” says Herb Stuckart, vice president, manufac-

turing. “We cut it, grind it, drill holes, tap and mill to bring the material to the required form. We send the parts out to heat treatment, and after they comes back, Quality Control releases them for manufacturing. We then run the part through the ver-tical thru-feed grinders and grind flats, edges and ends. This will prepare the part for the MÄGERLES or the BLOHMS. Then we will grind the profiles to size. Most of our requirements are repeatability from part to part and a finish of at least an 8 Ra.”

THE SECRET IS IN THE CONTROLLakes purchased its first MÄGERLES around 1988, and the Blohms followed shortly thereafter. It’s an understatement to say these machines are “vintage” (“old” by any measure). Stuckart says Lakes is today thinking of acquiring a new CDCF machine, probably a MÄGERLE. What he likes about his MÄGERLES and BLOHMS is their rigidity, repeatability, ability to hold size and the way CD maintains the wheel form continu-

20 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 21

HERB STUCKART, Vice President, Manufacturing, Lakes Precision

(Three Lakes, WI), admits he’s an unabashed advocate of retrofitting,

providing the machine is worthy of the investment, meaning the ma-

chine still holds tight tolerances and repeatedly produces top quality

parts, which was precisely the case with the three MÄGERLES in his

shop from United Grinding Technologies (Miamisburg, OH).

However, when opportunity recently knocked on Stuckart’s door (in

the form of increased demand for wire stripping and terminating tool-

ing) he knew immediately that he needed additional creep feed grind-

ing technology. He carefully considered his options. Should he buy

another MÄGERLE? a new BLOHM? or retrofit/rebuild one of his vin-

tage (circa 1988) BLOHM machines?

When he looked at the new BLOHM Profimat MT 408, he noted there

were considerable changes in this Blohm opposed to his vintage ma-

chines. For example, the new Profimat boasted a big 60 Kw, 8000 rpm

motor with a guaranteed maximum cutting speed of 170 m/s using con-

ventional, CD or IPD as well as all CBN grinding methods.

“This new BLOHM has a large horsepower motor, which is something

I don’t have on my other machines. This gives me an new added ad-

vantage,” says Stuckart.” “In the past, there were jobs I could not do

because I didn’t have adequate horsepower. Now, even though I don’t

often use it, I know the horsepower is there should I need it. I’m not

limited in any way. We have looked at jobs that required the additional

horsepower, but we backed away, knowing that if we tried to run the

job on the older machines, the project would prove less than profit-

able. Now, we don’t hesitate.”

Another feature that caught Stuckart’s attention was the larger cool-

ant tank and the automatic coolant tracing system. With the older

machines he was limited in the amount of coolant he could flood the

material with. The result had been that he couldn’t grind material like

M2 tool steel with-

out burning it. With

the new machine,

Stuckart no longer

faces that limitation.

“The reason we

bought the new machine is because business was turning up and

growing, and we felt that we were approaching full capacity,” Stuck-

art says, “and if there were increased orders next year, we could be

in real trouble, knowing that our other two Profitmats were reaching

the end of their lifecycle. In this way, we have already purchased a

replacement for those machines — which are currently running fine.

However, acquiring the new BLOHM has ensured us against a pos-

sible blip in our production schedule. Tomorrow, if one of the older ma-

chines goes down, I can move the product over to the new machine

with no problems.

“When we purchased the new machine as a addition to capacity, I’d

been told that we could retrofit the older BLOHMS just as we did with

the three MÄGERLES. This time, all things being equal financially, it

just seemed best to buy a new BLOHM machine.

“Of great importance here is the fact that now all of my machines have

the Siemens 840D control, not an Allen Bradley, not Fanuc, but all Sie-

mens. Which does not mean I am not a retrofit advocate, because I

admittedly am — given the machine and the circumstances. The con-

trol commonality is a great selling point in itself. The same control on

all our creep feed grinders only makes it easier for operators to move

from one machine to another.

“Overall,” concludes Stuckert, “the new BLOHM MT has more in com-

mon with the MÄGERLE machines than the earlier BLOHM machines.

It’s bigger, beefier, more powerful and has a greater array of standard

and optional features.”

WHEN NEW IS THE BEST PATHWAY

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

ously, part after part. However, vintage machines begin to have aches and pains (known as downtime) as their productive life goes on. “The rea-son we went to the retrofits was because we were having too much downtime” says Stuckart. “Customer satisfaction and timely delivery is so very important to us, with good reason: if we don’t do it right and on time, somebody else will. “We decided to retrofit our three MÄGERLES with new Siemens 840D controls,” says Stuckart. “All three were about the same era, circa 1988, and the result has been amazing. We’ve had no down time all this summer, which is unheard of because I used to have two to three machines down a week. These machines mechanically were very sound — the bones, the internal organs and such — because we meticulously main-tained them for all this time, nearly 25 years, and we never abused them; if anything, we babied them. However, because of the age of the electronics, we simply could not get a part to

fix the controls, even if we knew what was wrong. We might get replacement parts, but the drives, things like that, were just no longer available because of the changes in control technol-ogy. Our problems — all that downtime — were strictly elec-tronic problems and not mechanical problems at all.”

THE RETROFIT TEAM ARRIVESAccording to Stuckart, the technicians and engineers from UGT’s Total Lifecycle Solutions Group came in and did an initial survey of everything on the three Mägerles: all the geometrics, the tables, the runouts on the spindles, and they couldn’t find anything that couldn’t be tweaked in. They came in and did this preliminary inspection and machine review before they even began the retrofits. The first retrofit took three weeks, while the other two took about two weeks, and this is from the time the team walked into the plant until the time they walked out. This was great

MÄGERLE circa 1988 (left), still running strongafter retrofit of new Siemens 840D control

22 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/ Premiere Issue 23

CyClotron ProduCts, InC.

Visit our website: www.cyclotronproducts.com

Cyclotron Products, Inc. offers a complete line of filtration systems designed to remove solid particles from water soluble and synthetic industrial fluids using the most economical and efficient methods.

Leaders in Filtration Systems

CYCL

ONIC FILTRATION

ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE

Economical Efficient•Extendscoolantlife.•Upto30%longer grinding wheel life.•Nopurchaseof replaceable filter media.•Lowmaintenancecosts.•Smallfootprint.

•Morepartsperdressingcycle.•Lessmachinedowntime.•Eliminatesamountof liquid waste.•Consistentcoolantaeration eliminates bacteria problems.•Closertoleranceson critical parts.

Enviromentally ResponsibleCyclonic filtration benefits the environment as

no disposable media is used in the process. This saves petroleum, preserves countless trees, and eliminates the associated environmental

impact created by the disposal of spent filter media.

Contact us to discuss all of your filtration needs. (262)898-0710•Fax(262)898-0748•1509RapidsDrive•Racine,WI53404

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

because Stuckart was expecting a longer period of downtime, and that did not happen. “That in itself is something almost unheard of,” he says. “Which for us is one heck of a plus. Since the retrofits the ma-chines have been running like new. If anyone were to ask me about doing a retrofit on an old yet sound machine, I would tell them to go ahead. Our experience is going to lead to additional profitability and less downtime, and downtime is one thing that you can’t afford in today’s market. Being down does not satisfy customers. It does not allow you to deliver on time. Prolonged, this will begin to bite you and really hurt your reputation.” Stuckart reports that if he were to buy a new MÄGERLE to-day, decked out with everything he wanted, it would cost about $998,000, which is as close as one can get to $1 million. For all three retrofits he did not spend in excess of $250,000 a piece. You can’t buy a creep feed machine for $250,000 that’s rigid, reliable, repeatable with highly precise accuracy Plus, you’ll not get the kind of support you get from a supplier like UGT.

THE OPERATOR’S REACTION?“Our operators have been very open to the new controls, be-

cause the Siemens 840D is very user-friendly,” says Stuckart. “They say the conversational control is simple to use, the pro-grammed cycles make programming as easy as selecting items on a menu. Should they have a problem, they just call UGT, and UGT will have a solution in a very short time. But, again, my op-erators are quite happy and in some cases have become stron-ger operators than before the retrofits. The controls are highly intuitive: you see the picture, you know the diameter, you just plug in numbers, and you’re not guessing at different codes. Everything is right there on the screen for the operator see. The 840D conversational controls are so much easier and result in quicker setups and complete repeatability. I have one control now instead of three different controls. As a result I can move my people to where I need them, the setups are all the same, there is no difference from one setup to another, and I don’t have an operator saying, ‘Gee, I don’t understand that code.’”

CONTINUED GROWTH Stuckart reports that business is very good, and that they are attracting more subcontracting work. They’re doing more grind-ing for others, for example, hydraulic vanes and parts of that nature. “Generally, we feel we are growing and will continue to grow,” Stuckart says. “Actually, we have not had a slow down. This year has been phenomenal. Our core business is still the blades for the wire stripping business for automotive and wire processing, no matter where it is. We have a complete ma-chine shop with capabilities to meet the needs of new markets and new customers. It’s true, we have one eye on our core business and the other looking into new business opportunities

that will flow well with our current processes, something that stays within the current scope of what we do. Jet engines and power generation, blades and vanes, would fit nicely within the scope of what we do and the machines we have. “It’s word of mouth, quality and your ability to deliver that’s going to make you grow. Those are the main things, but don’t overlook the role of technology in growth. Buy the absolute best technology. Don’t think about cost; think about what it will do for you — open new opportunities, new markets, new cus-tomers, more profitability. Then respect the technology. Treat it well, maintain it. Then, say in 25 years or so, you can upgrade to the latest control technology, and you’ll have a machine that runs like new — not just like it ran new when it was originally purchased, but new for a time 25 years hence.”

In the grinding zone: CDCF grinding a blade for wire stripping/crimping for automotive and other industries where wire needs stripping.

Close up shot of continuous dress creep feed grinding (CDCF). In this arrangement the dresser is mounted above the wheel for continuous dressing of the wheel.

22 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/ Premiere Issue 23

CyClotron ProduCts, InC.

Visit our website: www.cyclotronproducts.com

Cyclotron Products, Inc. offers a complete line of filtration systems designed to remove solid particles from water soluble and synthetic industrial fluids using the most economical and efficient methods.

Leaders in Filtration Systems

CYCL

ONIC FILTRATION

ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE

Economical Efficient•Extendscoolantlife.•Upto30%longer grinding wheel life.•Nopurchaseof replaceable filter media.•Lowmaintenancecosts.•Smallfootprint.

•Morepartsperdressingcycle.•Lessmachinedowntime.•Eliminatesamountof liquid waste.•Consistentcoolantaeration eliminates bacteria problems.•Closertoleranceson critical parts.

Enviromentally ResponsibleCyclonic filtration benefits the environment as

no disposable media is used in the process. This saves petroleum, preserves countless trees, and eliminates the associated environmental

impact created by the disposal of spent filter media.

Contact us to discuss all of your filtration needs. (262)898-0710•Fax(262)898-0748•1509RapidsDrive•Racine,WI53404

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

because Stuckart was expecting a longer period of downtime, and that did not happen. “That in itself is something almost unheard of,” he says. “Which for us is one heck of a plus. Since the retrofits the ma-chines have been running like new. If anyone were to ask me about doing a retrofit on an old yet sound machine, I would tell them to go ahead. Our experience is going to lead to additional profitability and less downtime, and downtime is one thing that you can’t afford in today’s market. Being down does not satisfy customers. It does not allow you to deliver on time. Prolonged, this will begin to bite you and really hurt your reputation.” Stuckart reports that if he were to buy a new MÄGERLE to-day, decked out with everything he wanted, it would cost about $998,000, which is as close as one can get to $1 million. For all three retrofits he did not spend in excess of $250,000 a piece. You can’t buy a creep feed machine for $250,000 that’s rigid, reliable, repeatable with highly precise accuracy Plus, you’ll not get the kind of support you get from a supplier like UGT.

THE OPERATOR’S REACTION?“Our operators have been very open to the new controls, be-

cause the Siemens 840D is very user-friendly,” says Stuckart. “They say the conversational control is simple to use, the pro-grammed cycles make programming as easy as selecting items on a menu. Should they have a problem, they just call UGT, and UGT will have a solution in a very short time. But, again, my op-erators are quite happy and in some cases have become stron-ger operators than before the retrofits. The controls are highly intuitive: you see the picture, you know the diameter, you just plug in numbers, and you’re not guessing at different codes. Everything is right there on the screen for the operator see. The 840D conversational controls are so much easier and result in quicker setups and complete repeatability. I have one control now instead of three different controls. As a result I can move my people to where I need them, the setups are all the same, there is no difference from one setup to another, and I don’t have an operator saying, ‘Gee, I don’t understand that code.’”

CONTINUED GROWTH Stuckart reports that business is very good, and that they are attracting more subcontracting work. They’re doing more grind-ing for others, for example, hydraulic vanes and parts of that nature. “Generally, we feel we are growing and will continue to grow,” Stuckart says. “Actually, we have not had a slow down. This year has been phenomenal. Our core business is still the blades for the wire stripping business for automotive and wire processing, no matter where it is. We have a complete ma-chine shop with capabilities to meet the needs of new markets and new customers. It’s true, we have one eye on our core business and the other looking into new business opportunities

that will flow well with our current processes, something that stays within the current scope of what we do. Jet engines and power generation, blades and vanes, would fit nicely within the scope of what we do and the machines we have. “It’s word of mouth, quality and your ability to deliver that’s going to make you grow. Those are the main things, but don’t overlook the role of technology in growth. Buy the absolute best technology. Don’t think about cost; think about what it will do for you — open new opportunities, new markets, new cus-tomers, more profitability. Then respect the technology. Treat it well, maintain it. Then, say in 25 years or so, you can upgrade to the latest control technology, and you’ll have a machine that runs like new — not just like it ran new when it was originally purchased, but new for a time 25 years hence.”

In the grinding zone: CDCF grinding a blade for wire stripping/crimping for automotive and other industries where wire needs stripping.

Close up shot of continuous dress creep feed grinding (CDCF). In this arrangement the dresser is mounted above the wheel for continuous dressing of the wheel.

MY THOUGHTS

The North American medical device industry has been growing at a healthy clip for years, but is facing more pressure to create high-quality products at lower costs than ever

before. Health care reform and FDA stringen-cy in the US along with the need to compete for market share in the developing world are the pincers squeezing medical device OEMs to find ways to retain quality, increase innova-tion, and reduce product cost all at the same time. For any manufacturer in the industry, an important area where these concerns come together is that of materials choice. The range of FDA-approved materials available for medical manufacturers is varied and growing. Tracy MacNeal, chief strategy officer at ATW Companies (Warwick, RI), a provider of highly engineered metal solutions to the metal com-ponent marketplace, expects growth in the medical industry, which currently accounts for 40% of its manufacturing. MacNeal’s entire career has been in FDA-regulated industries; she kindly walked ME Media through a virtu-al bazaar of medical materials and discussed their strengths and challenges.

IMPLANTS: BIOCOMPATIBILITY AND WEAR ISSUESImplants, orthopedic and otherwise, are all FDA Class Two and Class Three devices, with stringent requirements, the foremost of which is biocompatibility, MacNeal said. “Of the ma-terials that are favored from a biocompatibility standpoint in metals, titanium would be the number one choice for implants—it’s basically inert in the body. There are also some alloys of stainless steel—people talk about ‘surgical stainless steel’ and those two would be the two big ones.” But as manufacturers in other industries know, titanium has its challenges: “Titanium is difficult to work with because it does catch fire. When you’re machining it, you really have to control your feeds and speeds. Its ratio of hardness to brittleness is not great, and it doesn’t have good wear properties—it abrades. In an articulating joint like a knee or hip, you can’t have metal-on-metal there, it’s much too soft.” Cobalt chrome, another popular medical metal, has been used as a wear surface in or-thopedic implants, but, as has been widely re-ported, it’s under fire right now: “People who have cobalt chrome metal-on-metal interfaces

in their orthopedic joints get wear debris re-sulting in much higher than average levels of chromium ions in their body,” MacNeal not-ed. “Those higher levels weren’t planned for and weren’t in the original filing data, so even though they haven’t been linked to any health problems, they’re an unexpected outcome, and the FDA is asking questions. So orthope-dics companies are trying to get away from cobalt chrome for such applications. “Instead of a metal-on-metal wear surface, companies typically will have a HDPE—high-density poly-ethylene wear surface, which simulates carti-lage. In an actual hip joint, the bone is covered with cartilage, which when lubricated with synovial fluid is essentially friction-free. Inside the orthopedic joint, a biocompatible metal is coated with HDPE to mimic the cartilage role. But HDPE too can abrade, and in this case, the wear debris—inert polyethylene particles—builds up behind the metal, and as the body at-tempts to clean up these wear particles it can trigger an autoimmune reaction which causes resorption of bone tissue—a condition called osteolysis. The bone pulls away from the met-al joint that had been screwed into it, and the joint can start to become loose. That’s usually

why some patients need revision surgery—and why people who are, say, 65 years old may elect to put off having replacement surgery, in order to not need to replace the joint at age 75. “So the hunt has been on for a better wear surface. Enter ceramics. Ceramics are super-hard and are great wear surfaces. They don’t abrade so you don’t have the wear debris is-sues. There have been two issues with ceram-ics, however. The first is that if the clearance isn’t completely and totally perfect, you end up with ceramic squeaking against ceramic: As people were taking steps, their joints were literally squeaking—loudly!—and these are permanent implants, so there’s no easy way to minimize the sound. The other challenge with ceramics is that they’re comparatively brittle—if they receive the wrong impact, they break, creating a problem much worse than noisy joints.” While the squeaking is a quality of life problem, it is not much of a wear problem. Ceramics are essentially self-lubricating. But there are also serious machining issues with ceramics. They are extremely hard, so shaping them is a problem—especially when you need such a perfect fit.

24 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 25

A look at the qualities and challenges of some medical metals with ATW Companies’ Tracy MacNeal

MEDICAL MANUFACTURING:

By MICHAEL C. ANDERSON Senior EditorManufacturing Engineering Magazine

LIVING IN THE MATERIALS WORLD

Tracy MacNeal, chief strategy officer at ATW Companies.

MY THOUGHTS

The North American medical device industry has been growing at a healthy clip for years, but is facing more pressure to create high-quality products at lower costs than ever

before. Health care reform and FDA stringen-cy in the US along with the need to compete for market share in the developing world are the pincers squeezing medical device OEMs to find ways to retain quality, increase innova-tion, and reduce product cost all at the same time. For any manufacturer in the industry, an important area where these concerns come together is that of materials choice. The range of FDA-approved materials available for medical manufacturers is varied and growing. Tracy MacNeal, chief strategy officer at ATW Companies (Warwick, RI), a provider of highly engineered metal solutions to the metal com-ponent marketplace, expects growth in the medical industry, which currently accounts for 40% of its manufacturing. MacNeal’s entire career has been in FDA-regulated industries; she kindly walked ME Media through a virtu-al bazaar of medical materials and discussed their strengths and challenges.

IMPLANTS: BIOCOMPATIBILITY AND WEAR ISSUESImplants, orthopedic and otherwise, are all FDA Class Two and Class Three devices, with stringent requirements, the foremost of which is biocompatibility, MacNeal said. “Of the ma-terials that are favored from a biocompatibility standpoint in metals, titanium would be the number one choice for implants—it’s basically inert in the body. There are also some alloys of stainless steel—people talk about ‘surgical stainless steel’ and those two would be the two big ones.” But as manufacturers in other industries know, titanium has its challenges: “Titanium is difficult to work with because it does catch fire. When you’re machining it, you really have to control your feeds and speeds. Its ratio of hardness to brittleness is not great, and it doesn’t have good wear properties—it abrades. In an articulating joint like a knee or hip, you can’t have metal-on-metal there, it’s much too soft.” Cobalt chrome, another popular medical metal, has been used as a wear surface in or-thopedic implants, but, as has been widely re-ported, it’s under fire right now: “People who have cobalt chrome metal-on-metal interfaces

in their orthopedic joints get wear debris re-sulting in much higher than average levels of chromium ions in their body,” MacNeal not-ed. “Those higher levels weren’t planned for and weren’t in the original filing data, so even though they haven’t been linked to any health problems, they’re an unexpected outcome, and the FDA is asking questions. So orthope-dics companies are trying to get away from cobalt chrome for such applications. “Instead of a metal-on-metal wear surface, companies typically will have a HDPE—high-density poly-ethylene wear surface, which simulates carti-lage. In an actual hip joint, the bone is covered with cartilage, which when lubricated with synovial fluid is essentially friction-free. Inside the orthopedic joint, a biocompatible metal is coated with HDPE to mimic the cartilage role. But HDPE too can abrade, and in this case, the wear debris—inert polyethylene particles—builds up behind the metal, and as the body at-tempts to clean up these wear particles it can trigger an autoimmune reaction which causes resorption of bone tissue—a condition called osteolysis. The bone pulls away from the met-al joint that had been screwed into it, and the joint can start to become loose. That’s usually

why some patients need revision surgery—and why people who are, say, 65 years old may elect to put off having replacement surgery, in order to not need to replace the joint at age 75. “So the hunt has been on for a better wear surface. Enter ceramics. Ceramics are super-hard and are great wear surfaces. They don’t abrade so you don’t have the wear debris is-sues. There have been two issues with ceram-ics, however. The first is that if the clearance isn’t completely and totally perfect, you end up with ceramic squeaking against ceramic: As people were taking steps, their joints were literally squeaking—loudly!—and these are permanent implants, so there’s no easy way to minimize the sound. The other challenge with ceramics is that they’re comparatively brittle—if they receive the wrong impact, they break, creating a problem much worse than noisy joints.” While the squeaking is a quality of life problem, it is not much of a wear problem. Ceramics are essentially self-lubricating. But there are also serious machining issues with ceramics. They are extremely hard, so shaping them is a problem—especially when you need such a perfect fit.

24 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 25

A look at the qualities and challenges of some medical metals with ATW Companies’ Tracy MacNeal

MEDICAL MANUFACTURING:

By MICHAEL C. ANDERSON Senior EditorManufacturing Engineering Magazine

LIVING IN THE MATERIALS WORLD

Tracy MacNeal, chief strategy officer at ATW Companies.

NITINOL: THANKS FOR THE MEMORYA material that is growing in popularity for certain applications is the titanium/nickel alloy nitinol, which has shape-memory capabilities that make it ex-ceptional, MacNeal says, and there are players in the industry that specialize in making devices that take advantage of that ability. “A common example would be nitinol stents,” she notes, “which can be manufactured in a shape needed to rebuild a blood vessel, then collapsed to a much narrower diameter for easier insertion into the vessel, and finally al-lowed to resume its ‘remembered’ origi-nal shape as a scaffold to support the blood vessel.” Shape-memory nitinol is also used for filters deployed in the aorta—if a blood clot gets through the aorta into the heart, it can mean instant death for the patient. MacNeal is impressed with the nitinol-based solution. “These filters are amazing—shape memory allows them to be inserted in a compact form, but when they deploy, they look like fishing

lures, with tiny prickers or barbs that ex-tend out to catch clots before they can enter the heart.” Nitinol is also a metal popular in angioplasty applications: “The cardiac sector of the medical device in-dustry is huge—second in size only to orthopedics. Cardiac applications call for companies that are good with wires; pull-ing wires and forming wires ... nitinol use is at the forefront of much of that.” COMPETING IN THE DISPOSABLES SECTORPlastics are playing an important role in the disposables market. For hospitals, one-use products such as syringes and IV bags are easier to deal with, in terms of quality and sterilization concerns, said MacNeal. “If it’s a single-use throw-away, you know that unless there was a problem at the manufacturer’s steriliza-tion facility, the product can be trusted. On the other hand, disposables are cost-ly. And in particular, how are you going to enter the emerging markets where a lot of industry growth is happening, when

these products are so expensive? While a single disposable product itself may be cheap, the number needed can make them an expensive choice. “Some hos-pitals are looking at reclaim and reuse, and considering investing in metal ver-sions of the products and sterilization processes and reuse instead of dispos-ables. Our company is working with an OEM to develop a disposable metal suturing device. In this case metal is de-sirable for its strength. There’s a cantile-vering action involved for which plastic just isn’t strong enough in the size the company is looking at. But machining the piece from metal would be prohibitively expensive, so they’re looking at manu-facturing the device through the use of metal injection molding—MIM, one of our company’s primary technologies.

MIM: SINTER OF EXCELLENCE“With MIM, you start with powdered metal with a consistency similar to flour, and mix it with a binder—usually a poly-mer—and heat it so that the binder can

flow but the metal itself hasn’t melted. The mixture is then injected into a mold, resulting in what we term a green part: the mixture has been shaped by the mold but the metal content is still solid—it’s just held in place by the binder. The green part is then put into a sintering fur-nace and the binder bakes off, while the metal particles are heated just enough to touch and adhere directly to each other. If the furnace gets too hot, the metal would melt and the part would lose its shape, but with precise heating, the par-ticles touch and sinter together to create a net-shape part. “There’s a shrinkage factor because of the binder removal—the part will be 15–25% smaller than when it went into the furnace. Maximiz-ing the metal-to-binder ratio, controlling flow and finessing the amount of shrink-age are areas that call for expertise. The benefits over machining a part include saving time and saving raw material be-cause you’re creating a net-shape part. In the sweet-spot of using MIM, the process is 50% of the cost of creating

26 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 27

the same part through machining raw metal. “MIM is playing a role in keep-ing some medical devices relevant in the current trend toward disposables. Our MIM technology is a runaway train right now, in terms of demand, because the whole industry is looking to MIM to try to wring cost out of the system. Both health care reform in the US and Europe and the need to compete on cost in the develop-ing world are forcing the OEMs to find ways to dramatically reduce costs. They know they’ve got to start looking at more innovative technologies, and MIM is on the list.”

THE ADVANCE OF ADDITIVE“Additive manufacturing is another in-novative technology that has been inter-esting to see being developed. They’ve come a long way—I think they initially had strength issues—a laser-sintered part would be less strong than its ma-chined counterpart—but I understand that they’ve come a long way. A process such as direct metal sintering could be considered a rival to MIM if it was be-ing used for product runs of say 5000–15,000/year range. “I see additive right now as being used for lower-volume, mass-customization niches; it offers the flexibility of making 3000 of something this year and 2000 of something dif-ferent the next year. Right now, we’re a high-volume player—we’re involved with major companies needing higher volumes.”

www.MfgEngMedia.com

“THE CARDIAC SECTOR OF THE MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRY IS HUGE —SECOND IN SIZE ONLY TO ORTHOPEDICS”

Hip implants made from Ti-64.

Stainless steel surgical scissors component made via metal injection molding—MIM —at Parmatech.

NITINOL: THANKS FOR THE MEMORYA material that is growing in popularity for certain applications is the titanium/nickel alloy nitinol, which has shape-memory capabilities that make it ex-ceptional, MacNeal says, and there are players in the industry that specialize in making devices that take advantage of that ability. “A common example would be nitinol stents,” she notes, “which can be manufactured in a shape needed to rebuild a blood vessel, then collapsed to a much narrower diameter for easier insertion into the vessel, and finally al-lowed to resume its ‘remembered’ origi-nal shape as a scaffold to support the blood vessel.” Shape-memory nitinol is also used for filters deployed in the aorta—if a blood clot gets through the aorta into the heart, it can mean instant death for the patient. MacNeal is impressed with the nitinol-based solution. “These filters are amazing—shape memory allows them to be inserted in a compact form, but when they deploy, they look like fishing

lures, with tiny prickers or barbs that ex-tend out to catch clots before they can enter the heart.” Nitinol is also a metal popular in angioplasty applications: “The cardiac sector of the medical device in-dustry is huge—second in size only to orthopedics. Cardiac applications call for companies that are good with wires; pull-ing wires and forming wires ... nitinol use is at the forefront of much of that.” COMPETING IN THE DISPOSABLES SECTORPlastics are playing an important role in the disposables market. For hospitals, one-use products such as syringes and IV bags are easier to deal with, in terms of quality and sterilization concerns, said MacNeal. “If it’s a single-use throw-away, you know that unless there was a problem at the manufacturer’s steriliza-tion facility, the product can be trusted. On the other hand, disposables are cost-ly. And in particular, how are you going to enter the emerging markets where a lot of industry growth is happening, when

these products are so expensive? While a single disposable product itself may be cheap, the number needed can make them an expensive choice. “Some hos-pitals are looking at reclaim and reuse, and considering investing in metal ver-sions of the products and sterilization processes and reuse instead of dispos-ables. Our company is working with an OEM to develop a disposable metal suturing device. In this case metal is de-sirable for its strength. There’s a cantile-vering action involved for which plastic just isn’t strong enough in the size the company is looking at. But machining the piece from metal would be prohibitively expensive, so they’re looking at manu-facturing the device through the use of metal injection molding—MIM, one of our company’s primary technologies.

MIM: SINTER OF EXCELLENCE“With MIM, you start with powdered metal with a consistency similar to flour, and mix it with a binder—usually a poly-mer—and heat it so that the binder can

flow but the metal itself hasn’t melted. The mixture is then injected into a mold, resulting in what we term a green part: the mixture has been shaped by the mold but the metal content is still solid—it’s just held in place by the binder. The green part is then put into a sintering fur-nace and the binder bakes off, while the metal particles are heated just enough to touch and adhere directly to each other. If the furnace gets too hot, the metal would melt and the part would lose its shape, but with precise heating, the par-ticles touch and sinter together to create a net-shape part. “There’s a shrinkage factor because of the binder removal—the part will be 15–25% smaller than when it went into the furnace. Maximiz-ing the metal-to-binder ratio, controlling flow and finessing the amount of shrink-age are areas that call for expertise. The benefits over machining a part include saving time and saving raw material be-cause you’re creating a net-shape part. In the sweet-spot of using MIM, the process is 50% of the cost of creating

26 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 27

the same part through machining raw metal. “MIM is playing a role in keep-ing some medical devices relevant in the current trend toward disposables. Our MIM technology is a runaway train right now, in terms of demand, because the whole industry is looking to MIM to try to wring cost out of the system. Both health care reform in the US and Europe and the need to compete on cost in the develop-ing world are forcing the OEMs to find ways to dramatically reduce costs. They know they’ve got to start looking at more innovative technologies, and MIM is on the list.”

THE ADVANCE OF ADDITIVE“Additive manufacturing is another in-novative technology that has been inter-esting to see being developed. They’ve come a long way—I think they initially had strength issues—a laser-sintered part would be less strong than its ma-chined counterpart—but I understand that they’ve come a long way. A process such as direct metal sintering could be considered a rival to MIM if it was be-ing used for product runs of say 5000–15,000/year range. “I see additive right now as being used for lower-volume, mass-customization niches; it offers the flexibility of making 3000 of something this year and 2000 of something dif-ferent the next year. Right now, we’re a high-volume player—we’re involved with major companies needing higher volumes.”

www.MfgEngMedia.com

“THE CARDIAC SECTOR OF THE MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRY IS HUGE —SECOND IN SIZE ONLY TO ORTHOPEDICS”

Hip implants made from Ti-64.

Stainless steel surgical scissors component made via metal injection molding—MIM —at Parmatech.

28 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 29

A line of limousines awaited the United Grinding Distributors as they

exited their hotel for the short trip to the United Grinding Headquarters. As they pulled up to the building they noticed something at United Grinding was different.

United Grinding calls it “Generation Next”. A “New Age” of marketing that proves to be “ready to rock you”. Over the next 2 days, the distributors of United Grinding had an amazing red carpet experience, while they

learned about the newest marketing tools, customer care solutions, and machine upgrades for 2013. Big things are happening at United Grinding.

28 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 29

A line of limousines awaited the United Grinding Distributors as they

exited their hotel for the short trip to the United Grinding Headquarters. As they pulled up to the building they noticed something at United Grinding was different.

United Grinding calls it “Generation Next”. A “New Age” of marketing that proves to be “ready to rock you”. Over the next 2 days, the distributors of United Grinding had an amazing red carpet experience, while they

learned about the newest marketing tools, customer care solutions, and machine upgrades for 2013. Big things are happening at United Grinding.

“IN GRINDING,

30 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 31

By: KENNETH SAUCIER - Sr. Application Engineer& MATTHEW SIMMERS - Associate Product ManagerSaint-Gobain Abrasives

PARADIGM®

In the world of industrial manufacturing your customers continue to demand tighter tolerances, better finishes and shorter lead times all at a lower cost than ever be-fore. To help you conquer these seemingly insurmountable requirements, modern machine tools offer enhanced rigidity, increased horsepower and better coolant delivery among other improvements. Whether you have already purchased or are

looking to acquire one new machine tool, or ten, your goals are the same: • Higher productivity • Improved quality • Tighter tolerances

• LOWER COSTS Advances in machine tool technology require corresponding advances in the grinding wheel. A generic resin bonded super abrasive wheel may have worked OK on that old grinder in the corner of the shop making 5 piece orders here and there but the new material your customer is demanding in 500 pieces per month is going to sink you. The future of grinding wheel technology is designed to take advantage of the improvements in machine tools to maximize your grinding performance. Existing super abrasive grinding wheels use a fully dense bonding system. The result is a grinding wheel with excellent abrasive retention but zero porosity. The abrasive retention allows the super abrasive wheel to maintain form longer, increase the truing interval and increase the total life of the wheel life. However it also means that all of the benefits of porosity are lost on the grinding system.

Paradigm® has solved this problem with a new bonding technology that enables high levels of controlled porosity while still maintaining high grain retention. The com-bination of grain retention and controlled porosity result in a product that can be fine-tuned to specifically meet the needs of your application. Customers using this new bond technology have noticed a great deal of ease in profile truing on or off the machine! Paradigm® has the ability to profile online using diamond rolls and trues much like a vitrified CBN or vitrified diamond product. Due to its porous nature, this technology does not require stick dressing on tools less than ¾ inch diameter. On the larger tools, stick dressing may be required but the interval between dressing can be increased by 2X. Following are some examples of the suc-cess this new bond technology has had across many different diamond applications.

BENEFITS OF POROSITY: lowers cutting forces, lowers chip to bond and bond to work piece forces, efficient chip removal from the grind zone, reduces loading, brings coolant into the grind zone, reduces or eliminates stick dressing, Online true-able

LESS IS MORE”

“IN GRINDING,

30 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 31

By: KENNETH SAUCIER - Sr. Application Engineer& MATTHEW SIMMERS - Associate Product ManagerSaint-Gobain Abrasives

PARADIGM®

In the world of industrial manufacturing your customers continue to demand tighter tolerances, better finishes and shorter lead times all at a lower cost than ever be-fore. To help you conquer these seemingly insurmountable requirements, modern machine tools offer enhanced rigidity, increased horsepower and better coolant delivery among other improvements. Whether you have already purchased or are

looking to acquire one new machine tool, or ten, your goals are the same: • Higher productivity • Improved quality • Tighter tolerances

• LOWER COSTS Advances in machine tool technology require corresponding advances in the grinding wheel. A generic resin bonded super abrasive wheel may have worked OK on that old grinder in the corner of the shop making 5 piece orders here and there but the new material your customer is demanding in 500 pieces per month is going to sink you. The future of grinding wheel technology is designed to take advantage of the improvements in machine tools to maximize your grinding performance. Existing super abrasive grinding wheels use a fully dense bonding system. The result is a grinding wheel with excellent abrasive retention but zero porosity. The abrasive retention allows the super abrasive wheel to maintain form longer, increase the truing interval and increase the total life of the wheel life. However it also means that all of the benefits of porosity are lost on the grinding system.

Paradigm® has solved this problem with a new bonding technology that enables high levels of controlled porosity while still maintaining high grain retention. The com-bination of grain retention and controlled porosity result in a product that can be fine-tuned to specifically meet the needs of your application. Customers using this new bond technology have noticed a great deal of ease in profile truing on or off the machine! Paradigm® has the ability to profile online using diamond rolls and trues much like a vitrified CBN or vitrified diamond product. Due to its porous nature, this technology does not require stick dressing on tools less than ¾ inch diameter. On the larger tools, stick dressing may be required but the interval between dressing can be increased by 2X. Following are some examples of the suc-cess this new bond technology has had across many different diamond applications.

BENEFITS OF POROSITY: lowers cutting forces, lowers chip to bond and bond to work piece forces, efficient chip removal from the grind zone, reduces loading, brings coolant into the grind zone, reduces or eliminates stick dressing, Online true-able

LESS IS MORE”

32 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 33

CASE STUDY 1: PERFORMANCE FLUTING ON 6% COBALT ENDMILLS

FIGURE 1 illustrates how effec-tively it is able to grind 6% cobalt round tools. In this test, ½”- four flute tools were ground in both 6 % and 10% cobalt. The 6% co-balt material tends to embed itself onto the wheel causing a loading effect. This is why the spindle load increases by 2X for the incum-bent product. Paradigm® not only grinds this material without loading but is also able to do it 25% faster!

FIGURE 1

CASE STUDY 2: PERFORMANCE FLUTING ON 10% COBALT ENDMILLS

FIGURE 2

FIGURE 2 is a head to head test on a typical 10% cobalt 20mm carbide end mill. Based on the spindle load, it is evident that Paradigm® is much more efficient and free cutting than the in-cumbent wheel as it grinds at approximately 57% lower spindle load!

IN FIGURE 3 the test was continued. Paradigm® was able to grind 66% faster and still retain spindle power lower than the incumbent.

CASE STUDY 3: PERFORMANCE GASHING ON 10% COBALT ENDMILLS

FIGURE 4

IN FIGURE 4, the incumbent data se-ries represents the 5th tool without stick dressing while the Paradigm® data se-ries represents the 10th tool. Testing has shown that on ¾” end mills and smaller, Paradigm® does not need to be stick dressed when Gash grinding. As seen in fluting, Paradigm® resists loading due to its porous structure.

CASE STUDY 4: PERFORMANCE FLUTING ON 10% COBALT DRILLS

FIGURE 5

FIGURE 6

In this drill flute grinding test, adaptive grind mode was used on a 5-axis CNC machine. This feature monitors the spindle load and maintains a spindle load percentage specified by the customer by slowing the feed rate thus increasing cycle times. As seen in figure 5, the incumbent wheel acti-vates the adaptive grind mode after the first flute of the tool. By the 4th tool ground, the cycle time increased by approximately 60%! Figure 6 shows tools 4 through 7 ground with Paradigm®. The 7th tool is at 125.7 seconds/flute which is better than the incumbent wheel’s cycle time on the 3rd tool. With Paradigm® the cycle time has changed only 38% after 7 tools and was able to grind maintain-ing this rate through the night completing the job!

FIGURE 3

32 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 33

CASE STUDY 1: PERFORMANCE FLUTING ON 6% COBALT ENDMILLS

FIGURE 1 illustrates how effec-tively it is able to grind 6% cobalt round tools. In this test, ½”- four flute tools were ground in both 6 % and 10% cobalt. The 6% co-balt material tends to embed itself onto the wheel causing a loading effect. This is why the spindle load increases by 2X for the incum-bent product. Paradigm® not only grinds this material without loading but is also able to do it 25% faster!

FIGURE 1

CASE STUDY 2: PERFORMANCE FLUTING ON 10% COBALT ENDMILLS

FIGURE 2

FIGURE 2 is a head to head test on a typical 10% cobalt 20mm carbide end mill. Based on the spindle load, it is evident that Paradigm® is much more efficient and free cutting than the in-cumbent wheel as it grinds at approximately 57% lower spindle load!

IN FIGURE 3 the test was continued. Paradigm® was able to grind 66% faster and still retain spindle power lower than the incumbent.

CASE STUDY 3: PERFORMANCE GASHING ON 10% COBALT ENDMILLS

FIGURE 4

IN FIGURE 4, the incumbent data se-ries represents the 5th tool without stick dressing while the Paradigm® data se-ries represents the 10th tool. Testing has shown that on ¾” end mills and smaller, Paradigm® does not need to be stick dressed when Gash grinding. As seen in fluting, Paradigm® resists loading due to its porous structure.

CASE STUDY 4: PERFORMANCE FLUTING ON 10% COBALT DRILLS

FIGURE 5

FIGURE 6

In this drill flute grinding test, adaptive grind mode was used on a 5-axis CNC machine. This feature monitors the spindle load and maintains a spindle load percentage specified by the customer by slowing the feed rate thus increasing cycle times. As seen in figure 5, the incumbent wheel acti-vates the adaptive grind mode after the first flute of the tool. By the 4th tool ground, the cycle time increased by approximately 60%! Figure 6 shows tools 4 through 7 ground with Paradigm®. The 7th tool is at 125.7 seconds/flute which is better than the incumbent wheel’s cycle time on the 3rd tool. With Paradigm® the cycle time has changed only 38% after 7 tools and was able to grind maintain-ing this rate through the night completing the job!

FIGURE 3

My wife Amy and I concentrate on utilizing the resources of the natural world to help enrich our family and our community. Our approach to life is to

look at the big picture, determine inefficiencies and redundan-cies, then streamline those processes to provide the maxi-mum benefit. This approach is better known as Permaculture, a design science focusing on the interconnectedness of every piece in a system. Take care of the Earth, the people, then reinvest that care to provide even greater surplus.

A GLIMPSE INTO

We are strengthening our global community through one common project

36 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 37

STROSS’LIFERich Soil….Rich Community

I carryover this same approach at UGT. One of my main proj-ects for 2013 is implementing a Global Data Software system called SAP. SAP will touch every aspect of our business – from making quotations to follow-up customer care and warranty work. Therefore, implementing this system for United Grind-ing in North America is a perfect fit for me. I am able to look at every process we do, and see opportunities to streamline the system to harmonize the business globally. In the end, MAGERLE, BLOHM, JUNG, STUDER, SCHAUDT, MIKROSA, WALTER, EWAG and United Grinding will be working as one community, just like we do at home. Not only will this affect our business globally, but changes will have to be made lo-cally. To sum it up, we are strengthening our global commu-nity through one common project – SAP.

We call it Social Security 2.0

Amy is spearheading this vision at home, while I conquer the 9 to 5 at United Grinding. In our 10th of an acre yard she is able to grow 80% of our produce, therefore utilizing this resource as a place to produce something as opposed to just a place to live, sleep, and cut the grass. From herbs and spices to vegetables and small fruits like strawberries, we can actu-ally harvest more food than we can eat!

VINCE STROSS joined the United Grinding Team in October of 2012. While taking a “Glimpse into Stross’ Life” you will discover why it is a perfect fit for both parties.

My wife Amy and I concentrate on utilizing the resources of the natural world to help enrich our family and our community. Our approach to life is to

look at the big picture, determine inefficiencies and redundan-cies, then streamline those processes to provide the maxi-mum benefit. This approach is better known as Permaculture, a design science focusing on the interconnectedness of every piece in a system. Take care of the Earth, the people, then reinvest that care to provide even greater surplus.

A GLIMPSE INTO

We are strengthening our global community through one common project

36 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 37

STROSS’LIFERich Soil….Rich Community

I carryover this same approach at UGT. One of my main proj-ects for 2013 is implementing a Global Data Software system called SAP. SAP will touch every aspect of our business – from making quotations to follow-up customer care and warranty work. Therefore, implementing this system for United Grind-ing in North America is a perfect fit for me. I am able to look at every process we do, and see opportunities to streamline the system to harmonize the business globally. In the end, MAGERLE, BLOHM, JUNG, STUDER, SCHAUDT, MIKROSA, WALTER, EWAG and United Grinding will be working as one community, just like we do at home. Not only will this affect our business globally, but changes will have to be made lo-cally. To sum it up, we are strengthening our global commu-nity through one common project – SAP.

We call it Social Security 2.0

Amy is spearheading this vision at home, while I conquer the 9 to 5 at United Grinding. In our 10th of an acre yard she is able to grow 80% of our produce, therefore utilizing this resource as a place to produce something as opposed to just a place to live, sleep, and cut the grass. From herbs and spices to vegetables and small fruits like strawberries, we can actu-ally harvest more food than we can eat!

VINCE STROSS joined the United Grinding Team in October of 2012. While taking a “Glimpse into Stross’ Life” you will discover why it is a perfect fit for both parties.

38 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 39

So it’s kind of funny how the community at work is digitally enhanced, while the community at home is developed through our common interest in Rich Soil. After receiving about a half an acre from the Delhi community and the College of Mount St. Joe, my wife and I were able to develop the “Hillside Community Project”. For Amy, this is a full time job cultivat-ing the land to produce valuable resources for the people in our surrounding communities. Although, we have found that it is more than just a resource for food, we tend to develop stronger roots in our relationships than our produce. We get

We have found that it is more than just a resource for food, we tend to develop stronger roots in our relationships than our produce

together two times a week, and do everything from building terraces, weeding garden beds and building self sustaining wa-ter resources to holding community workshops. It has become a facility to cultivate relationships amongst the members of the community while cultivating the resources provided to us by the land.

Through the simple steps of taking care of the earth, taking care of the people, and reinvesting those processes, we have been able to develop richer relationships in our community at home and at work. We call it Social Security 2.0. I believe that in the future this is the only way to a true Social Security for my generation and younger, having real roots in your community, knowing your neighbors and having common tasks that you can work on together.

38 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 39

So it’s kind of funny how the community at work is digitally enhanced, while the community at home is developed through our common interest in Rich Soil. After receiving about a half an acre from the Delhi community and the College of Mount St. Joe, my wife and I were able to develop the “Hillside Community Project”. For Amy, this is a full time job cultivat-ing the land to produce valuable resources for the people in our surrounding communities. Although, we have found that it is more than just a resource for food, we tend to develop stronger roots in our relationships than our produce. We get

We have found that it is more than just a resource for food, we tend to develop stronger roots in our relationships than our produce

together two times a week, and do everything from building terraces, weeding garden beds and building self sustaining wa-ter resources to holding community workshops. It has become a facility to cultivate relationships amongst the members of the community while cultivating the resources provided to us by the land.

Through the simple steps of taking care of the earth, taking care of the people, and reinvesting those processes, we have been able to develop richer relationships in our community at home and at work. We call it Social Security 2.0. I believe that in the future this is the only way to a true Social Security for my generation and younger, having real roots in your community, knowing your neighbors and having common tasks that you can work on together.

ON TECH

Helitronic Micro CNC Focuses on Complex Micro Tools

FEATURES of the HELITRONIC MICRO CNC Include:

• A mineral casting bed and column that has

been especially designed for micro tools and

offers optimum vibration damping and insensitiv-

ity to temperature fluctuations for the highest

grinding precision

• Long workpieces are guided on a hydraulic

shank steadyrest with fine adjustment, enabling 1

micron concentricity during the grinding process

• Active Adaptive Control automatically adjusts

the feed rate to maintain optimum load on the

wheel without sacrificing quality, finish or wheel

life

• FANUC controls and drives have the lowest

failure rates in the world with precision is in the

nanometer range

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

THE WALTER HELITRONIC MICRO CNC grinder is for the small tools needed for machining the new micro parts and features in medicine, electronics, aerospace, automotive and more. The Helitronic Micro features the same linear motor/torque drive technology in all axes resulting in incredible accuracy, acceleration and speed (up to 2,000 imp). Further, the Micro has a radically new seven axes layout optimized for grinding micro tools. For example, the Micro has an X2 axis that automatically moves the tool to center during a grind, thereby achieving better accuracy on corner radii and ballnose forms on even the tiniest tools. The machine also boasts a three-spindle grinding head for

up to 12 wheels and the Micro’s new tilting B-axis positions the wheel to grind clearance angles with the same point on the wheel throughout the entire grind. The result? 30 percent faster speeds and 50 percent better surface finishes than machines with conventional ballscrew technology. The optimal range for high precision production is from 0.50 mm to12.7 mm in diameter, though the machine is capable of handling both smaller and larger tools. The Micro also features a FANUC 6-axis robot loader for fast automatic changes of up to 1,500 tools. Plus the 1,000 rpm A-axis workhead can handle precise cylindrical grinds — particularly helpful when making step tools.

40 GQ/Q2 2013

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

• One spindle produces 6.7 HP for fluting while the other two offer 2 HP

• Axes travels: X, 400 mm; X2, 110 mm; Y, 320 mm; Z, 320 mm; A, ∞; B,

280˚; C rotary table, 200˚

• Accuracy: linear resolution, 0.0001 mm; radial resolution, 0.0001˚

• 3-spindle grinding head: maximum grinding wheel diameter, 15 mm

• Spindle speed, 0-10,000 rpm; A-axis maximum, 1,000 rpm

•Tool data: diameter for production, 0.5 to 12.7 mm; diameter for regrinding,

2.5 to 12.7 mm; length, 150 mm; cutting length, 70 mm

WITH THREE GRINDING SPINDLES AND

UP TO 12 GRINDING WHEELS, THE

HELITRONIC MICRO HAS THE FLEXIBILITY

NEEDED FOR MICRO TOOLS WITH

COMPLEX GEOMETRIES

ON TECH

Helitronic Micro CNC Focuses on Complex Micro Tools

FEATURES of the HELITRONIC MICRO CNC Include:

• A mineral casting bed and column that has

been especially designed for micro tools and

offers optimum vibration damping and insensitiv-

ity to temperature fluctuations for the highest

grinding precision

• Long workpieces are guided on a hydraulic

shank steadyrest with fine adjustment, enabling 1

micron concentricity during the grinding process

• Active Adaptive Control automatically adjusts

the feed rate to maintain optimum load on the

wheel without sacrificing quality, finish or wheel

life

• FANUC controls and drives have the lowest

failure rates in the world with precision is in the

nanometer range

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

THE WALTER HELITRONIC MICRO CNC grinder is for the small tools needed for machining the new micro parts and features in medicine, electronics, aerospace, automotive and more. The Helitronic Micro features the same linear motor/torque drive technology in all axes resulting in incredible accuracy, acceleration and speed (up to 2,000 imp). Further, the Micro has a radically new seven axes layout optimized for grinding micro tools. For example, the Micro has an X2 axis that automatically moves the tool to center during a grind, thereby achieving better accuracy on corner radii and ballnose forms on even the tiniest tools. The machine also boasts a three-spindle grinding head for

up to 12 wheels and the Micro’s new tilting B-axis positions the wheel to grind clearance angles with the same point on the wheel throughout the entire grind. The result? 30 percent faster speeds and 50 percent better surface finishes than machines with conventional ballscrew technology. The optimal range for high precision production is from 0.50 mm to12.7 mm in diameter, though the machine is capable of handling both smaller and larger tools. The Micro also features a FANUC 6-axis robot loader for fast automatic changes of up to 1,500 tools. Plus the 1,000 rpm A-axis workhead can handle precise cylindrical grinds — particularly helpful when making step tools.

40 GQ/Q2 2013

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

• One spindle produces 6.7 HP for fluting while the other two offer 2 HP

• Axes travels: X, 400 mm; X2, 110 mm; Y, 320 mm; Z, 320 mm; A, ∞; B,

280˚; C rotary table, 200˚

• Accuracy: linear resolution, 0.0001 mm; radial resolution, 0.0001˚

• 3-spindle grinding head: maximum grinding wheel diameter, 15 mm

• Spindle speed, 0-10,000 rpm; A-axis maximum, 1,000 rpm

•Tool data: diameter for production, 0.5 to 12.7 mm; diameter for regrinding,

2.5 to 12.7 mm; length, 150 mm; cutting length, 70 mm

WITH THREE GRINDING SPINDLES AND

UP TO 12 GRINDING WHEELS, THE

HELITRONIC MICRO HAS THE FLEXIBILITY

NEEDED FOR MICRO TOOLS WITH

COMPLEX GEOMETRIES

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

EWAG Compact Line — Flexible, Precise, Economical

FEATURES Include:

• Five axes assure complete geometric flexibility

• The critical X and Z axes use linear motors

and the B-axis employs a torque motor for the

ultimate in precision

• The integrated 6-axis Fanuc robot makes it pos-

sible to run multiple shifts untended because the

pallets hold hundreds of inserts

• Every move is optimized, minimizing load time

• Automatic 3D probing measures all workpiece

features in one clamping

• X-axis travel: 450 mm. Rapid traverse: 15m/

min. Resolution: 0.0001 mm

• Y-axis travel: 180 mm. Rapid traverse: 10m/

min. Resolution: 0.0001 mm

•Z-axis travel: 150 mm. Rapid traverse: 10 m/

min. Resolution: 0.0001 mm

• Swivel B-axis travel: 0.0001˚. Resolution:

18,000

• A-axis travel: -15˚ to +25˚. Resolution: 2000˚

• Spindle power: 5.5 kW/ 20,000 N/m; speed

adjustable to 10,000 rpm

With a direct drive spindle, the latest linear motor technology and five CNC axes, the Compact Line can grind all indexable inserts, including carbide, CBN and PCD. What’s more, it can do that unmanned over several shifts thanks to an integrated 6-axis FANUC 200i-C robot and a “three-in-one” dressing, regeneration, and crush-ing unit that assures the grinding wheel is always perfect. The compact design and linear motors also minimize non-grinding times and ensure the shortest possible cycle times. The “plug and play” clamping systems enable quick changeover be-tween insert types. An operator can reach the entire machine interior and all controls from one ergonomic position; further, he can change the grinding wheels with a touch of a button. The HSK-E 50 clamping system makes wheel change both fast and precise. An automatic clamping station offers fast, automatic change for grooving inserts and similar tools. The “plug & play” clamping stations cut changeover time in half — change from one clamping station to a completely different type in minutes. All Compact Line clamping stations use the same mechanical connection to the B-axis for maximum part flexibility in the shortest possible time. The p.n. clamping system uses a tension pin to secure inserts through their center hole, guaranteeing the greatest possible accessibility for the grinding wheel.

FEATURES Include:

• Length measuring capability: E1 = 2.0 + L/300 μm. (Optional camera: E1 =

1.4 + L/300 μm)

•Maximum part diameter: 320 mm

• Maximum part length: 420 mm

•Repeatability: <1.5 μm (optionally, <1.0 μm)

THE WALTER HELICHECK BASIC 2 measures complex profiles and control measurements like step lengths and diameters to within 1.5 microns. This makes it the ideal machine for controlling form accuracy and speeding setup by measuring grinding wheels. The Helicheck Basic 2 is also perfect for WALTER’S Form Tool Compensation (FTC), which automatically corrects errors in tool profiles, thereby setting up on even tight tolerance tools like “Christmas tree” root form cutters within minutes. In addition to FTC, the Basic 2 is fully compatible with all of WALTER’S measuring software, including QCM. Easy QCM software requires no special measuring expertise, and 3-D views — without moving the optional camera — are much more accurate. Further, QCM provides highly precise wheel measuring, including contact point.

42 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 43

Helicheck Basic 2 for Complex Profiles, Control Measurements

some other carbon or alloy steel. For example, while the ma-chine base might be mineral casting, an axis slide would almost certainly be cast iron. And because the coefficient of thermal expansion can be quite different for different materials, the influ-ence of temperature is often different for different machine tool components (see Figure 2). Cast iron machines warm up faster but also react faster to temperature changes. While mineral cast machines react slowly and are the right choice for 24/7 operation, cast iron has its ad-vantages if the machine is powered up every morning, because it reaches its “operating temperature” faster. Some modern manufacturing facilities use outdoor condens-ing units that not only control the room temperature, but also the temperature of the coolant used for both the structure of the ma-chine and the part being ground. Done right, such a system makes the search for the holy grail of accuracy a lot easier. Whatever your approach, remember that achieving quality parts requires more than good grinding machine, wheels, and work holding. It requires a stable temperature inside and outside the machine.

Figure 2: Thermal Expansion of Cast Iron vs. Mineral Cast

TEM

PERA

TURE

MINERAL CAST

TIME

CAST IRON

ROOM TEMPERATURE

LAST THOUGHTcontinued from page 44

Figure 1: Influence of a chiller on the Thermal Expansion

TIME (Minutes)

TEM

PERA

TURE

0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 150

0.1

0.09

0.08

0.07

0.06

0.05

0.04

0.03

0.02

0.01

0

No Coolant

Coolant No Chiller

Coolant With Chiller

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

EWAG Compact Line — Flexible, Precise, Economical

FEATURES Include:

• Five axes assure complete geometric flexibility

• The critical X and Z axes use linear motors

and the B-axis employs a torque motor for the

ultimate in precision

• The integrated 6-axis Fanuc robot makes it pos-

sible to run multiple shifts untended because the

pallets hold hundreds of inserts

• Every move is optimized, minimizing load time

• Automatic 3D probing measures all workpiece

features in one clamping

• X-axis travel: 450 mm. Rapid traverse: 15m/

min. Resolution: 0.0001 mm

• Y-axis travel: 180 mm. Rapid traverse: 10m/

min. Resolution: 0.0001 mm

•Z-axis travel: 150 mm. Rapid traverse: 10 m/

min. Resolution: 0.0001 mm

• Swivel B-axis travel: 0.0001˚. Resolution:

18,000

• A-axis travel: -15˚ to +25˚. Resolution: 2000˚

• Spindle power: 5.5 kW/ 20,000 N/m; speed

adjustable to 10,000 rpm

With a direct drive spindle, the latest linear motor technology and five CNC axes, the Compact Line can grind all indexable inserts, including carbide, CBN and PCD. What’s more, it can do that unmanned over several shifts thanks to an integrated 6-axis FANUC 200i-C robot and a “three-in-one” dressing, regeneration, and crush-ing unit that assures the grinding wheel is always perfect. The compact design and linear motors also minimize non-grinding times and ensure the shortest possible cycle times. The “plug and play” clamping systems enable quick changeover be-tween insert types. An operator can reach the entire machine interior and all controls from one ergonomic position; further, he can change the grinding wheels with a touch of a button. The HSK-E 50 clamping system makes wheel change both fast and precise. An automatic clamping station offers fast, automatic change for grooving inserts and similar tools. The “plug & play” clamping stations cut changeover time in half — change from one clamping station to a completely different type in minutes. All Compact Line clamping stations use the same mechanical connection to the B-axis for maximum part flexibility in the shortest possible time. The p.n. clamping system uses a tension pin to secure inserts through their center hole, guaranteeing the greatest possible accessibility for the grinding wheel.

FEATURES Include:

• Length measuring capability: E1 = 2.0 + L/300 μm. (Optional camera: E1 =

1.4 + L/300 μm)

•Maximum part diameter: 320 mm

• Maximum part length: 420 mm

•Repeatability: <1.5 μm (optionally, <1.0 μm)

THE WALTER HELICHECK BASIC 2 measures complex profiles and control measurements like step lengths and diameters to within 1.5 microns. This makes it the ideal machine for controlling form accuracy and speeding setup by measuring grinding wheels. The Helicheck Basic 2 is also perfect for WALTER’S Form Tool Compensation (FTC), which automatically corrects errors in tool profiles, thereby setting up on even tight tolerance tools like “Christmas tree” root form cutters within minutes. In addition to FTC, the Basic 2 is fully compatible with all of WALTER’S measuring software, including QCM. Easy QCM software requires no special measuring expertise, and 3-D views — without moving the optional camera — are much more accurate. Further, QCM provides highly precise wheel measuring, including contact point.

42 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 43

Helicheck Basic 2 for Complex Profiles, Control Measurements

some other carbon or alloy steel. For example, while the ma-chine base might be mineral casting, an axis slide would almost certainly be cast iron. And because the coefficient of thermal expansion can be quite different for different materials, the influ-ence of temperature is often different for different machine tool components (see Figure 2). Cast iron machines warm up faster but also react faster to temperature changes. While mineral cast machines react slowly and are the right choice for 24/7 operation, cast iron has its ad-vantages if the machine is powered up every morning, because it reaches its “operating temperature” faster. Some modern manufacturing facilities use outdoor condens-ing units that not only control the room temperature, but also the temperature of the coolant used for both the structure of the ma-chine and the part being ground. Done right, such a system makes the search for the holy grail of accuracy a lot easier. Whatever your approach, remember that achieving quality parts requires more than good grinding machine, wheels, and work holding. It requires a stable temperature inside and outside the machine.

Figure 2: Thermal Expansion of Cast Iron vs. Mineral Cast

TEM

PERA

TURE

MINERAL CAST

TIME

CAST IRON

ROOM TEMPERATURE

LAST THOUGHTcontinued from page 44

Figure 1: Influence of a chiller on the Thermal Expansion

TIME (Minutes)TE

MPE

RATU

RE

0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 150

0.1

0.09

0.08

0.07

0.06

0.05

0.04

0.03

0.02

0.01

0

No Coolant

Coolant No Chiller

Coolant With Chiller

34 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 35

Paradigm® is available in all standard sizes and shapes for the manufacture of carbide and ceramic round tool and cutting inserts. Additional applications include gear hobb grinding, HVOF spray coating, punch and die grinding. Materials include tungsten carbide, aluminum oxide, silicon nitride and other ceramics and cermets.

CASE STUDY 5: PERFORMANCE CARBIDE INSERT GRINDING

FIGURE 7 FIGURE 8

FIGURE 9

In the grinding of carbide inserts and thanks to the porosity of this bond technology, customers have seen parts per dress increase by as much as 330% (figure 7). Increased stock removal rates are also possible by as much as 44% (figure 8). Grinding power on carbide inserts is also very stable and consistent and in return produces consistent size control and finish. Figure 9 is shows that consistent power and high feed rate are obtainable.

FEATURED SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE OF THE QUARTER

CONNECT WITH UNITED GRINDING - Social - @UnitedGrinding

34 GQ/Q2 2013 GQ/Q2 2013 35

Paradigm® is available in all standard sizes and shapes for the manufacture of carbide and ceramic round tool and cutting inserts. Additional applications include gear hobb grinding, HVOF spray coating, punch and die grinding. Materials include tungsten carbide, aluminum oxide, silicon nitride and other ceramics and cermets.

CASE STUDY 5: PERFORMANCE CARBIDE INSERT GRINDING

FIGURE 7 FIGURE 8

FIGURE 9

In the grinding of carbide inserts and thanks to the porosity of this bond technology, customers have seen parts per dress increase by as much as 330% (figure 7). Increased stock removal rates are also possible by as much as 44% (figure 8). Grinding power on carbide inserts is also very stable and consistent and in return produces consistent size control and finish. Figure 9 is shows that consistent power and high feed rate are obtainable.

FEATURED SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE OF THE QUARTER

CONNECT WITH UNITED GRINDING - Social - @UnitedGrinding

United Grinding Technologies Inc.510 Earl Blvd.Miamisburg, OH 45342 USAinfo@grinding.com

CYLINDRICAL GRINDINGHans UeltschiVice President, SalesUnited GrindingTechnologies Inc.510 Earl Blvd.MiamisburgOH 45342, USAPhone +1-937-859-1975Fax +1-937-859-1115info@grinding.com

SURFACE & PROFILE GRINDINGLarry MarchandVice President, SalesUnited GrindingTechnologies Inc.510 Earl Blvd.MiamisburgOH 45342, USAPhone +1-937-859-1975Fax +1-937-859-1115info@grinding.com

THE SCHLEIFRING GROUP WORLDWIDEKörber Schleifring Machinery(Shanghai) Co. Ltd.1128, Tai Shun RoadAnting TownShanghai Jiading District201814, ChinaPhone +86-21-395873-33Fax +86-21-395873-38info@schleifring.cn

Körber Schleifring Machinery(Shanghai) Co. Ltd.Beijing Branch OfficeRoom 202, Building 18Tower B, Universal Business ParkNo.10 Jiuxianqiao RoadChaoyang DistrictBeijing 100015, ChinaPhone +86-10-659318-31Fax +86-10-659318-35info@schleifring.cn

Körber Schleifring Machinery(Shanghai) Co. Ltd.Wuxi Branch OfficeA-096 YangmingHi-Tech Industrial ParkWuxi Jiangsu 214024, ChinaPhone +86-510-854206-66Fax +86-510-854248-38info@schleifring.cn

Körber Schleifring Machinery(Shanghai) Co. Ltd.Chongqing Branch OfficeRoom 17-03 AMetropolitan Tower 68Zou Rong Lu, Central DistrictChongqing 400010, ChinaPhone +86-23-63 70-36 00Fax +86 23 637 4-10 55info@schleifring.cn

Körber Schleifring Machinery(Shanghai) Co. Ltd.Guangzhou Branch OfficeRoom 2003, 20/FCenter Plaza Tower B161 Linhexi Rd.Tianhe District GuangzhouGuangdong Province 510620,ChinaPhone +86-20-38 62-12 41Fax +86-20-38 62-12 70info@schleifring.cn

Körber Schleifring GmbHIndia Branch Office99 Spencer Road, 1st FloorFrazer TownBangalore 560 005, IndiaPhone +91-80-41554-601/602Fax +91-80-41554-603sales@schleifring.in

United GrindingTechnologies Inc.510 Earl Blvd.MiamisburgOH 45342, USAPhone +1-937-859-1975Fax +1-937-859-1115info@grinding.com

United GrindingTechnologies Inc.5160 Lad Land DriveFrederiksburgVA 22407, USAPhone +1-540-898-3700Fax +1-540-898-6819info@grinding.com

TOOL GRINDINGMarkus StolmarVice President, Sales United GrindingTechnologies Inc.5160 Lad Land DriveFrederiksburgVA 22407, USAPhone +1-540-898-3700Fax +1-540-898-6819info@grinding.com

the GRINDPublisherTED NECKELDirector of Corporate Marketingted.neckel@grinding.com

Layout & DesignRYB Communications

© 2013.All Rights Reserved.

MÄGERLE l BLOHM l JUNG l STUDER l SCHAUDT l MIKROSA l WALTER l EWAG

q u a r t e r l y

• • • • • • also in this issue

LIVING IN THE MATERIALS WORLD

A NEW LIFE FOR OLDER MACHINES

DIVERSIFICATION OFTEN DELIVERS ULTRA PRECISION

A United Grinding Technologies Inc. Publication

medicalINDUSTRY FEATURE

Meister AbrasivesInternationalwww.meister-abrasives-usa.com

Make A Quality Decision

Meister Abrasives USA Inc.

201 Circuit Drive

NORTH KINGSTOWN RI 02852 USA

Phone 401 294 2530

Fax 401 294 7326

sales@meister-abrasives-usa.com 1525 Holmes Rd. Elgin, IL 60123 -- tel.847.841.8260 -- fax.847.841.8264 -- http://www.getmatrixed.com -- info@getmatrixed.com1525 Holmes Rd. Elgin, IL 60123 -- tel.847.841.8260 -- fax.847.841.8264 -- http://www.getmatrixed.com -- info@getmatrixed.com

Lights-Out Manufacturing brings down piece-part costs and enables you to compete with low-cost countries.

There are 24 hours in a day.Are you using al l of them ?

There are 24 hours in a day.Are you using al l of them ?