Designed to the standards of the gear industry, a new cutter grinder from ANCA promises to reduce the cost of carbide and high-speed spiral gear cutter–or "stick"–blades and improve cutter quality while reducing grinding cycle times. Parts are consistently ground to +/- 5 microns (+/-.002"), eliminating the need to sort by accuracy classes. The consistency and precision of the blade grinding process may actually improve the quietness of the gear operation in the vehicle.
The new Stick Blade Grinder (SBG) features a powerful 24-horsepower, 10,000 rpm spindle, an automatic wheel changer for the large 200mm (8") wheels, a 3,000 rpm headstock, and high-volume "pick and place" type autoloader. A robot loader is optional. ANCA’s parameter-driven Stick Blade Development software uses industry standard gear blade summaries and runs on the powerful ANCA 3DX CNC. The software allows the user to input summary information from a remote workstation and to make geometry compensations locally. The flexibility of the machine control permits different stick geometries to be loaded into the pallet for random processing.
This new grinder includes a chuck and palletized auto-loader designed specifically to handle the gear-cutting blades and features tooling that avoids the traditional high cost of specially formed blade grinding wheels. Pre- and post-grind automatic probing assure that the blades are ground within specifications the first time. The autoloader unloads a finished tool and loads a new blank within eight seconds. The SBG grinder is extremely stable with a vibration dampening polymer-concrete base that is ideal for grinding the carbide blades required for dry cutting.
The direct drive, high speed (3,000 rpm compared to 200 rpm, typically) work head (A axis) means that tools can be produced complete in a single setup, and it helps to minimize production time for many tools that now require two operations to complete. The SBG is equipped with the patented Big Plus wheel mounting system to assure ultra-high precision running of the grinding wheel. The system, superior to a conventional tapered holder, provides a more complete and concentric contact plus flange contact. The resulting highly rigid assembly nearly eliminates runout and deflection and benefits wheel life, surface finish, and part tolerance.
The new SBG performs a complete changeover of wheel pack, coolant system, workholding collet, and pallet in less than three minutes. In addition to speed of changeover, the CNC wheel changer permits use of two wheel packs to one application, accomplishing more operations in a single setup. Mounted on a manifold, coolant piping changes with the wheel packs so that coolant flow is always tuned to the wheel in use for optimum coolant application.
A convenient new feature is in-process dressing. Mounted to the back of the chuck on the high-speed work head, the dresser roll is easily accessed or introduced to the wheels with minimal axis strokes. With increasing requirements for extended unmanned operation and higher quality tools, wheel dressing is a critical capability.
ANCA, Inc., of Farmington Hills, Michigan–and with sales engineering locations worldwide–is the world’s leader in tool and cutter grinding technology, producing advanced CNC tool and cutter grinding machine tools and software. For more information contact Russell Riddiford, vice president, at (248) 477-5588.
