ÜMACHINING | Grinding

The Problem Inability to quote on complex, Grinding Work tighter tolerance work rinding shop owners Goods Program approved company Tim and Wendy Middlehurst specializes in the production of carbide G have a wish list of machines they tooling for cold forming, fastener and would like to purchase for their newly spring industries. The fast-growing expanded 8,000 sq ft Orangeville, ON, company expanded its facility last year, The Solution shop, Hi-Quality Carbide Tooling Inc. adding 4,400 sq ft to an existing 3,600 Internal cylindrical grinder “There are currently eight items on sq ft and set up a new quality inspection for complete ID forms the wish list,” says Wendy, vice president department featuring a Mitutoyo Crysta- and secretary/treasurer of the company. Apex S544 full contact CMM. Today,

ID cylindrical grinder rounds out full service grinding for tooling shop

by Mary Scianna

Hi-Quality Carbide Tooling owners Wendy and Tim Middlehurst with the new Studer grinder, the CT960, the number one item on their machine "wish list."

The new Studer CT960 grinder from the shop offers OD, ID and surface United Grinding is number one on that grinding services, as well as vertical and list. The grinder was purchased through horizontal honing, polishing, wire EDM United Grinding’s distributor Machine cutting (the company just purchased and Tools Systems, Toronto, and installed installed a new Sodick wire EDM) and this past August. CNC turning. The new machine is a dream that The new Studer ID cylindrical grinder took four years to turn into a reality. The is the second Studer in the company’s Studer ID grinder is the latest in a line- shop. Hi-Quality purchased the first up of more than 25 machines, of which Studer, the S33 CNC OD cylindrical nine are cylindrical or surface grinders. grinder, in 2007. Founded in 1980 by Tim “It was the top of its class for the A close up view of the interior of the Studer Middlehurst’s father Dennis, the ISO application we required, which was CT960 grinder. 9001:2008 certified and Controlled grinding carbide extrusion pins. The

28 www.shopmetaltech.com SEPTEMBER 2013 The Equipment

Flexibility, versatility an d automatic finishing are key characteristics of the Studer CT960 internal cylindrical grinding machine that helped make the decision to purchase it an easy one for Hi-Quality Carbide Tooling owners Tim and Wendy Middlehurst. The compact grinder can perform internal, external and form grinding, and polishing of a range of parts in a single clamping.

The first Studer grinder in the shop, the S33 CNC OD cylindrical grinder. Impressed with the performance of this Studer, Tim and Wendy Middlehurst decided to purchase a second Studer. first Studer opened up a new market for back then, but it didn’t exist.” us and brought more customers to our Before purchasing the machine, Tim shop,” explains Tim. and Wendy attended IMTS 2012 to Indeed, in 2009, the company research other similar grinders. produced its first set of solid carbide feed “It was our first time going to IMTS rolls for the spring industry and solid and that show sealed it for us because carbide edge rolls for the magnetic wire after seeing similar machines made by shaping industry using the first Studer other manufacturers, we came back CNC cylindrical grinder. home with a list of machines that we Impressed with the performance of didn’t want to buy,” says Tim. “When its first Studer, the machine tool builder we compared the Studer to these and the service, Tim and Wendy went other machines, there really was no The machine offers complete to Switzerland in 2009 to see the Studer comparison.” finishing of ground parts with up to CT960 in action. Although Tim and Wendy knew the four grinding spindles on the turret. “I had never seen or heard of a Studer CT960 was the right machine The spindle turret is equipped with a direct drive motor with a resolution machine like it,” recalls Tim. “It was for their shop, it took close to four years of 0.00005°. The integrated swivel able to grind complete ID forms without to make the purchase and to justify the axis (B1) on the spindle turret is key having to specifically dress the form into almost one million dollar investment. to the complete machining concept of the grinder as it swivels automatically, the wheel. You can use a simple wheel “Back in 2009, the economy was enabling the use of up to four grinding profile to grind a very complex form, still unpredictable and we were already spindles. The workhead’s swivelling go in with another wheel, since it has managing a lot of work,” says Wendy. automatic B axis, also equipped with a direct drive motor, has a swiveling multiple wheel heads, and finish and “Tim wanted the machine and we range of 61° to 91°. The B axis is polish it in the same chucking.” knew it could bring in more work but it sealed off, requiring no maintenance. Tim was especially impressed with was a significant investment. I needed Sensors and a measuring probe on the machine help maintain grinding the machine’s ability to eliminate time- to evaluate the potential revenue in accuracies and tolerances. The consuming manual hand dressing and order to see if it would offset the cost sensors monitor processes during polishing. of the machine. We needed to do a lot grinding and dressing, while the probe is used for such functions as length “Years ago, my father and I would of number-crunching to justify the positioning, measuring non-interrupted have to hand dress the form onto the investment.” inner and outer diameters, optimizing wheel and plunge in, and we’d be there By 2012, existing customers were grinding cycles and detecting thread positioning. for hours. Then we’d have to take the asking for more grinding services from The machine is equipped with a part out and hand polish it. The CT960 Hi-Quality Carbide. Customers wanted 31i-/A series Fanuc control. is the machine we always dreamt about a turnkey grinding operation. The

SEPTEMBER 2013 www.shopmetaltech.com 29 MACHINING | Grinding A view of Hi-Quality Carbide Tooling's shop in Ü Orangeville,ON.

better quality part all because of the new www.hiqualitycarbide.com grinder,” adds Tim. www.grinding.com The future is looking bright for Hi- www.machinetoolsystems.com Quality Carbide Tooling. Although the company has just expanded its existing grinding.” operation, Tim and Wendy estimate demand from existing customers, and In fact, Tim estimates that 85 to 95 they’ll outgrow it within the next three the potential to grow the business with per cent of the work the shop does will to five years and will need to expand new customers, spurred Tim and Wendy end up going through the new machine further. to purchase the machine. It’s already at some stage. More importantly, it will As for the machine wish list, Tim and beginning to pay for itself and they eliminate much of the honing and hand Wendy are looking at purchasing another forecast a return on investment (ROI) of polishing they used to have to perform Studer grinder. “This new grinder can approximately three years. by hand on the parts. handle very complex parts. I’d like “We have existing customers that “We’re streamlining the operations, another Studer like it, but a simpler have work we’ve never quoted on reducing manual processes and getting a version to handle less complex parts.” SMT because we didn’t have the grinding capabilities,” says Tim. “Now we can For more information on machining technologies, visit Shop Metalworking quote on that work because this machine Technology’s Machining Zone online at www.shopmetaltech.com. can do out of round grinding and thread