Product category:
Abrasive machining - manual and CNC machines
News Release from: Koerber Schleifring UK | Subject: Prokos production profile grinding machine
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 24 January 2006
Profile grinder saves costs on
'difficult' metals
Profile grinding machine brings rapid stroke grinding and high-speed grinding to minimise heat input to the workpiece and lower grinding tool costs - particuarly for 'exotic' alloys.
Rapid stroke grinding and high-speed grinding are brought together for the first time in the Prokos, the new profile grinding machine from Blohm Raising productivity while reducing costs - this was the aim of Blohm when, under the terms of the AGNETA European research project, the company investigated the engineering and technological potential of using rapid stroke grinding for the turbine construction materials that are most difficult to machine
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 29 Sep 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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This technology has the advantages of minimising the transfer of heat in the workpiece, a low specific grinding power requirement, beneficial inherent stresses in the surface that has been ground and lower grinding tool costs with very short grinding times.
The new Prokos production profile grinding machine from Blohm is the first to combine the advantages of rapid stroke travel and the benefits of CBN high-speed grinding in a single machine.
The unique design of the Prokos, with its highly dynamic linear motors for the rotary and linear axes, now allows rapid stroke travel in a number of axes, (i e, in continuous path mode), and is ideally complimented by a high-speed grinding wheel spindle drive.
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With the Prokos, Blohm is for the first time bringing to the market an unparalleled implementation of rapid stroke and high-speed grinding technology for small and medium-sized components in heat-sensitive materials that are difficult to grind.
Naturally the machine is also suitable for conventional creep feed grinding.
* 'Cold grinding' for high-strength materials - the machine has been designed for workpieces measuring up to 300 x 300 x 300mm.
Drives with feed speeds of up to 120m/min at accelerations of up to 25m/s2 open up new machining possibilities for all high-strength materials and alloys that are highly heat-sensitive and difficult to grind, such as titanium and its alloys.
Because of its high feed rate, 'cold grinding' only gives rise to minimal transference of heat in the workpiece.
It is thus possible to achieve the highest metal removal rates with the lowest tool wear without damaging the surface-near zone of the workpiece.
Tests conducted by Blohm on the rapid-stroke grinding of materials, based on nickel, produced shorter grinding times and an 80% reduction in grinding wheel wear when compared with conventional optimised grinding processes.
The basic version of the Prokos machine is fitted with three axes.
It can easily be converted to a 5-axis machine by the addition of a high-speed workpiece table and a tilting grinding wheel drive.
BLOHM has submitted a patent application for the design of the PROKOS machine and the new combination of '5-axis continuous path machining with rapid stroke grinding'.
The grinding drive with an HSK 63 holding fixture, 30kW power and a spindle speed of up to 12,000 rev/min performs complex machining operations with a single clamping.
The drive is designed for working with conventional and extra-hard grinding materials in the speed range 30-160m/s.
The acceleration and machining forces are absorbed and damped by a stable machine bed of cast iron.
Dressing equipment is mounted on the machine bed, with diamond dressing rollers and/or discs that profile the grinding wheels with extreme accuracy.
The optional use of an automatic tool changing system with 24 tool positions (or 12 x 300mm diameter tools) enables complex workpieces to be completely machined using conventional, ceramic or galvanically bound CBN or diamond grinding wheels and also milling and drilling tools.
Rapid NC coolant nozzle positioning ensures optimum process cooling.
The special machine dynamics of the Blohm PRrokos support the optimisation of conventional processes.
In addition, the machine opens up a broad range of applications for precision machining in engineering, in the turbine industry, in tool manufacture and in the bearings industry.
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