Jones & Shipman (JandS) has launched the next-generation Ultragrind CNC cylindrical grinding machine that is designed to offer more power & accuracy, plus increased component weight handling.
The Ultragrind CNC is designed for the precision production environment such as aerospace & higher volume manufacture including automotive, as well as high-precision sub-contract machining for biomedical, high-end method tool/die sets, F1 & motor sport engineering.
‘We will be demonstrating a working prototype at the CIMT event, so visitors to the show will be able to see all the machine’s advantages,’ said Mike Duignan, sales & marketing director of Jones & Shipman.
Built on a one-piece bed design, the machine combines rigidity, stability & stock removal rates while maintaining precision.
A modular wheelhead design ensures customers have a wide choice of external & internal grinding spindle combinations, effectively allowing the customer to specify a custom machine, but without the cost & build time associated with it.
The modular wheelhead design gives wheel sizes up to 500 x 100mm (diameter) & wheel spindle power up to 15kW, with ultra rigid spindles providing substantially increased metal removal rates & increased productivity.
Angular wheelhead positional accuracy & repeatability are assured by a high-precision 1deg Hirth coupling.
An optional true B-axis programmable to 0.001deg utilising feedback from a high-accuracy encoder mounted directly to the rotational spindle axis means infinitely variable positional resolution can be achieved.
The machine currently offers 650mm or 1000mm between centres (with larger machine length capacities planned) & centre heights of 180mm, 200mm & 250mm.
The increased diameter capacity (of up to 500mm) means there are options to cater for larger mass components up to 450kg, & odd-shaped components, which can result in high rotational inertia.
The program is built around a Fanuc 320i with touch-screen control technique.
The Ultragrind machine uses Jones & Shipman’s Windows-based graphical programming program suite, which further builds on the Easy program that removes the requirement for operators to input code, although ISO programming is fully supported & codes can be viewed & used if required.
A full suite of dressing & grinding programs are available for the operator.
This reduces the time needed for operator training, machining setup & changeover times.
A wide range of additional options including gauging & auto loading are also obtainable.
Jones & Shipman setup pages permit the operator to digitise diamond & wheel positions by means of a simple touch-screen interface.