Tool & Profile Grinding

Grinding & Surface Finishing n JUNE 2019 66

Over the years, the Rollomatic name hasbecome a byword for Swiss precisionengineering, accuracy and performance inthe grinding and surface finishing industries,as well as countless OEM businessesglobally. While reputation is an importantpart in any commercial environment, it’s theability to deliver results and meet customerexpectations that really matter in the fiercelycompetitive machine tool sector.

We take a detailed look at the recentinstallation of a Rollomatic NP3+ machineby Advanced Grinding Solutions at theCustom Tools Division of leadinghigh-performance tooling manufacturer,M.A. Ford Europe, to explore thebackground and the outcomes.

M.A. Ford Europe has been trading in theUK for just over 20 years and, likeRollomatic, has acquired a reputation forquality, precision and performance in hightechnology sectors. These includeautomotive, aerospace, medical andFormula 1 alongside general engineeringand subcontract manufacturing, where theobjectives are usually centred on improvingproductivity through high performancemachining.

At the heart of the company is itsextensive range of coated solid carbidetooling, including end mills, drills and specialtools, which achieve exceptional cuttingperformance on tough metals, such asInconel, titanium and other super alloys, aswell as less exotic materials.

While the majority of the tooling range ismanufactured at the expansive facilities atits US parent company in Davenport Iowa,which already operates around 20Rollomatic machines, during the last fiveyears there has been more than £5 million

investment in the company’s Custom ToolsDivision in Leeds, Yorkshire.

The Custom Tools Division was createdwhen tool manufacturer and remanu-facturer, Ashton Tools, was acquired byM.A. Ford Europe in 2012 with the intentionof expanding the custom tooling operationas well as designing and manufacturing‘standard’ tools in the UK for the home andEuropean market.

The challenge“To understand why we purchased theRollomatic NP3+, it’s necessary to havesome insight into our manufacturingprocess,” explains M.A. Ford Europe’smanufacturing director, Chris Wagstaff.

“By early 2018, our manufacturing facilityin Leeds had undergone a massivetransformation and expansion with thenumber of tool grinding machines morethan doubled from three years earlier, givingus increased capacity and greater flexibilityin the manufacturer of special and standardtools.

“However, in some respects we became avictim of our own success. We found that asour manufacturing volume and tool rangeexpanded, our high-performance tool cuttergrinders were being used increasingly toprepare the tool blank diameters, as part ofeach tool cutting programme. This waslimiting our production capacity andefficiency. We were already running a blankgrinding cell with a pre-owned machine tohelp alleviate some of the issues andalthough it proved that the principle wasworthwhile, the machine didn’t have theaccuracy or performance that we needed.”

The company had also achieved ISO9001:2015 by this time and with itsincreased focus on processing, proceduresand planning; one of the company’s riskassessments identified some importantissues. The volume of different pre-formedtooling blanks they stocked had reachedmore than 300 different diameters andlengths, which tied up financial resources instock. Even with this level of stock holding,they found that bars often needed cutting tolength or required the diameters to beground to meet special orders, whichincreased wastage and production time.They also identified that if their ageing blankgrinder was to fail, the impact would beconsiderable, as there was no ‘back-up’.

The solutionAs M.A. Ford in the US was already relyingon a range Rollomatic blank and toolgrinding machines as a core part of itsproduction, the UK management teamincluded Rollomatic alongside two othermanufacturers as part of the selectionprocess.

Rollomatic’s sole UK agent, AdvancedGrinding Solutions (AGS), evaluated M.A.Ford Europe’s specifications andrecommended the Rollomatic NP3+multi-axis CNC grinding machine.

AGS’s managing director, Chris Boraston,explains: “The initial contact from M.A. Fordwas made on our stand at MACH 2018, aswe were both exhibiting at the show. AsChris Wagstaff and MD David Ward outlinedthe issues they were facing and their futureproduction targets, the longer we talked,the more confident I was that the RollomaticNP3+ would be the best solution for them.”

After extensive detailed competitive trialsand proofing tests in the UK and atRollomatic’s Switzerland HQ, M.A. FordEurope agreed with Chris Boraston andordered the machine, which was deliveredand installed in February 2019.

A special ‘pinch/peel’ grinding process,pioneered by Rollomatic, is used by theNP3+, which allows blanks with lengths upto 400 times the diameter to be groundwithout deflection issues. It also has aworking range from 0.025 mm to 25 mmdiameter with the ability to grind steppeddiameters, angles, radii and chamfers. Anintegrated 3-axis robot loader providesauto-loading from pallets.

A number of other factors that influencedthe decision including its performance andexceptional accuracy. Chief among these isthe Rollomatic’s ability to produce toolblanks in a single automatic operation using

M.A. Ford Europe – on a Roll!

The new Rollomatic NP3+ installed at M.A. FordEurope

M.A. Ford Europe’s Manufacturing Director –Chris Wagstaff with the Rollomatic NP3+

GSF TOOL & PROFILE GRINDING 66-71_ES CONTENTS 4-5 29/05/2019 10:12 Page 66

Tool & Profile Grinding

Grinding & Surface Finishing n JUNE 2019

both roughing and finishing grinding wheelssimultaneously within very close tolerances.Cylindrical blanks are finished with length,diameter and concentricity tolerances of0.002 mm and even on the longest tools arun out concentricity of under 0.001 mm isachieved.

The immediate advantages of this ability,apart from the high precision, is that itremoves the need to replace grindingwheels and re-load tool blanks for finishing,which is the case on most other machines,which saves time and money. It alsoremoves the need to undertake cylindricalgrinding operations on 5- or 6-axis toolgrinding machines, which are usually lessaccurate than the Rollomatic NP3+ and takelonger. As a direct result, M.A. Ford cuttergrinding machines focus on manufacturingcutting tools rather than occupying valuableproduction time with cylindrical grindingoperations.

The daily grindAs the Rollomatic is performing a specificset of functions, its programming is alsoconsiderably simpler than that used on mostcutter grinders, which also has time and costbenefits. Rollomatic’s software is designedto work offline or directly on the machineand allows the most complex of tools to betypically programmed in 10-15 minutes. Thesoftware, in conjunction with the rough andfinish grinding wheels set up, allows users tospecify multi-pass grinding operations forroughing and/or finishing to achieve thehighest possible level of accuracy whilstcreating superior surface finishes on tapersand radii.

Chris Boraston added: “Accuracy is a keyfeature of Rollomatic machines and theintegral Movomatic and Marposs gaugesused at M.A. Ford Europe provide constantautomatic positioning and post-processgauging of ground diameters withautomatic feedback to the machine’sFANUC control. This maintains the highlevels of accuracy and quality demandedby their production team.”

The resultsAfter installing andcommissioning wascompleted, theRollomatic very quicklybegan making asignificant contribution totool production at M.A.Ford’s Custom ToolDivision, which delightedmanufacturing director,Chris Wagstaff: “We runan incredibly efficientmanufacturing operationwith ‘lights-out’ production, so it’simportant that we have reliable and robustmachining plant, such as the Rollomatic,which reduces the risk of interruptions inproduction,” he says. “Throughout theselection and testing procedure, we had aclear specification of what we wanted toachieve and even though the machine hasbeen operational for just a few months, ithas exceeded our expectations and made asignificant impact on our manufacturingprocess.”

For one of its customers, M.A. FordEurope manufactures a special multiplediameter end mill in batches of 1,500 andhas already seen a 30 percent reduction inthe cycle time for that tool. It’s a similar storyfor the other special products, as well asstandard tools, as the tool cutters have beenfreed up to concentrate on flute grindingand final production while the NP3+ dealswith the production of precision blanks.

The flexibility of the machine has also hada dramatic impact on M.A. Ford Europe’sblank stock. From stocking more than 300individual blanks, the company now onlyneeds 12 different stock items, which has

simplified inventory and stock ordering, aswell as reducing the financial commitmentto stock.

Chris Wagstaff concludes: “It’s probablyfair to say that, although we were expectingproduction and manufacturingimprovements, our investment in theRollomatic has also delivered tangiblebusiness benefits in areas that hadn’t beenidentified. Clearly, this is a significantachievement and we can understand whyour colleagues at M.A. Ford in the US ratethem so highly.”

Further information on M.A. Ford Europeand its manufacturing solutions can befound at www.mafordeurope.com or bycalling 01332 267960.

Advanced Grinding Solutions LtdTel: 024 76 226611Email: sales@advancedgrindingsolutions.co.ukwww.advancedgrindingsolutions.co.uk

67

Pictured left to right: Damien Wunderlin, sales director- Rollomatic, David Ward,managing director –M.A. Ford Europe, Chris Boraston, managing director – Advanced Grinding Solutions

The inside view – Setting up the Rollomatic NP3+

Simple programming of the Rollomatic NP3+

GSF TOOL & PROFILE GRINDING 66-71_ES CONTENTS 4-5 29/05/2019 11:40 Page 67