Ultragrind CNC Has Modular Wheelhead Design
Jones and Shipman has revealed that the first order for its Ultragrind CNC cylindrical grinding machine has been despatched to a precision component manufacturer based in France. The machine features a modular wheelhead design and multiple wheel spindles, allowing the high-precision mould and mechanical component manufacturer to perform both internal and external grinding operations to fine tolerances in one grinding cycle.
Jones and Shipman said overall, the Ultragrind will provide reductions in set-up time and machining costs. The Ultragrind CNC is said to be ideal for precision production environments including aerospace, defence, medical, tool room, Formula One motorsport, automotive volume production and engineering applications. Built on a one-piece bed design, the machine combines rigidity, stability and stock removal rates while maintaining high precision.
It incorporates many mechanical, electrical and software features, including the Easy handset control, which provides the precision of a full CNC with the practicality of a handheld indexing wheel and trigger controls, ensuring it is easy to operate and changeover in demanding production environments. An intelligent layout ensures there is a larger working area around each wheel, improving flexibility for all workpieces while enabling improved coolant flow and operator access. Jones and Shipman said the modular wheelhead design ensures customers have a wide choice of external and internal grinding-spindle combinations, effectively creating a custom machine, but without the cost and build time associated with it.
The modular wheelhead design gives wheel sizes up to AE500 x 100mm and wheel spindle power up to 15kW. Angular wheelhead positional accuracy and repeatability are ensured via a high-precision 1deg Hirth coupling. An optional true 'B' axis programmable to 0.0001deg utilising feedback from a high-accuracy encoder mounted directly to the rotational spindle axis enables infinitely variable positional resolution to be achieved. The machine offers 1000mm or 2000mm between centres and centre heights of 180mm, 200mm and 250mm.
The increased diameter capacity (of up to 500mm) means there are options to cater for larger mass components up to 450kg, and odd-shaped components, which can result in high rotational inertia. The Ultragrind incorporates Fanuc's flagship 320i touch-screen CNC control with a Windows XP embedded system. The machine uses Jones and Shipman's proprietary Windows-based graphical programming software suite, which removes the requirement for operators to input code, although ISO programming is fully supported and codes can be viewed and used if that is the customer's preference.
This reduces the time needed for operator training, machining set-up and changeover times. A full suite of dressing and grinding programs are available for the operator. Easy-to-follow Jones and Shipman set-up pages allow the operator to digitise diamond and wheel positions by means of a user-friendly touch-screen interface. A range of additional options, including diameter gauging, shoulder probing, auto loading and wheel balancing, are also available.
Jones and Shipman said overall, the Ultragrind will provide reductions in set-up time and machining costs. The Ultragrind CNC is said to be ideal for precision production environments including aerospace, defence, medical, tool room, Formula One motorsport, automotive volume production and engineering applications. Built on a one-piece bed design, the machine combines rigidity, stability and stock removal rates while maintaining high precision.
It incorporates many mechanical, electrical and software features, including the Easy handset control, which provides the precision of a full CNC with the practicality of a handheld indexing wheel and trigger controls, ensuring it is easy to operate and changeover in demanding production environments. An intelligent layout ensures there is a larger working area around each wheel, improving flexibility for all workpieces while enabling improved coolant flow and operator access. Jones and Shipman said the modular wheelhead design ensures customers have a wide choice of external and internal grinding-spindle combinations, effectively creating a custom machine, but without the cost and build time associated with it.
The modular wheelhead design gives wheel sizes up to AE500 x 100mm and wheel spindle power up to 15kW. Angular wheelhead positional accuracy and repeatability are ensured via a high-precision 1deg Hirth coupling. An optional true 'B' axis programmable to 0.0001deg utilising feedback from a high-accuracy encoder mounted directly to the rotational spindle axis enables infinitely variable positional resolution to be achieved. The machine offers 1000mm or 2000mm between centres and centre heights of 180mm, 200mm and 250mm.
The increased diameter capacity (of up to 500mm) means there are options to cater for larger mass components up to 450kg, and odd-shaped components, which can result in high rotational inertia. The Ultragrind incorporates Fanuc's flagship 320i touch-screen CNC control with a Windows XP embedded system. The machine uses Jones and Shipman's proprietary Windows-based graphical programming software suite, which removes the requirement for operators to input code, although ISO programming is fully supported and codes can be viewed and used if that is the customer's preference.
This reduces the time needed for operator training, machining set-up and changeover times. A full suite of dressing and grinding programs are available for the operator. Easy-to-follow Jones and Shipman set-up pages allow the operator to digitise diamond and wheel positions by means of a user-friendly touch-screen interface. A range of additional options, including diameter gauging, shoulder probing, auto loading and wheel balancing, are also available.
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