The grind for perfection

SBS grinding wheel balancing and acoustic emission monitoring systems from Schmitt Europe are key factors in the success of Rochester-based IMTS.

IMTS is a company that operates at the forefront of grinding technology.

No surprise then, that over the past 20 years, it has built an enviable reputation for solving even the most complex grinding problems.

At one end of the scale, that can involve upgrading or refurbishing virtually any type of existing grinding equipment.

At the other, it means IMTS is the place to go when purpose-designed machinery is needed to extend the boundaries of normal grinding practice - to meet extreme quality and/or throughput requirements.

Luckily, the company's founder, Charles Thurston, is one of that rare breed of engineers whose experience and problem-solving skills are backed be a genuine quest for perfection.

Put simply, it means that if a grinding problem has a solution, IMTS will find it.

The company strives to work closely with its customers in order to recommend sustainable solutions that produce measurable improvements in business performance.

And more often than not, SBS grinding wheel balancing and acoustic emission monitoring systems from Schmitt Europe are key elements in the achievement of this goal.

Founded in 1981, Rochester-based Industrial Machine Tool Services (IMTS) today has an eight-strong team of skilled technicians and software engineers specialising in rebuilding, retro-fitting, designing and building special purpose grinding machinery.

Customers' components typically range from fuel injection pumps and nozzles to tool grinding and intricate aerospace parts.

Invariably, the emphasis is on achieving close tolerances - often measured in microns - along with high throughput.

"Under such conditions, grinding wheel balancing is a must", says Thurston.

"Furthermore, acoustic emission monitoring is almost as essential.

It not only enables gap time in the grinding cycle to be minimised, but can be used as a diagnostic tool in its own right".

IMTS first began fitting Schmitt equipment when a US-based customer specified it on a machine rebuild.

"Up to that point, we had used a competitor's products.

However, these had caused some problems, as we noticed their readings would tend to drift during the course of a shift, making it difficult to ensure the production of in-tolerance parts over extended runs.

By contrast, the equivalent Schmitt systems have proved to be very much more stable and reliable in operation".

Consisting of a balancing head, a vibration sensor and a control unit, the SBS system employs the principle of mass compensation to correct grinding wheel unbalance.

The balance head is mounted on the wheel and incorporates two eccentric weights, each driven by motors through a precision gear train.

On initiation of the balance command - either through a machine-mounted push button or as part of the CNC cycle - the vibration sensor monitors the frequency of the spindle and out-of-balance forces.

The equipment automatically filters out the effects of vibrations from ancillary equipment such as motors, pumps or drives and sends a command to the balance head to advance each weight in the correct direction to minimise the amplitude of the input signal.

The system is suitable for grinding wheels up to 1220mm diameter and can be supplied both as a retrofit package or as an original equipment option on many grinding machines.

On the strength of his experience with Schmitt's automatic wheel balancing equipment, Thurston subsequently evaluated the company's AEMS acoustic emission monitoring system - and found it to be just as accurate and reliable as its sister product.

In operation, the machine-mounted AEMS sensor records the acoustic signature of the complete grinding process.

This is the key to minimising gap time in the production cycle, which in turn, enables productivity to be increased by around 20 per cent in most applications.

Equally, the system's response time of less than a millisecond means it can instantly detect machine crash conditions and halt component travel before significant damage can be caused.

"It also provides up-to-the-moment monitoring of the grinding wheel's condition, giving an accurate indication of when it requires dressing", says Thurston.

"But that's not all.

Schmitt's AEMS system allows all aspects of the process to be scrutinised in detail".

"With a little experience, operators should even be able to detect changes in material properties within a batch of components, for example".

"Overall, Schmitt's balancing and acoustic monitoring systems provide a highly cost-effective package of complementary capabilities", he notes.

But it's not just the technology that impresses Thurston.

He reports that Schmitt's backup and after sales support is equally dependable, citing the arrival of most spares the day after they have been ordered to illustrate his point.

"Schmitt's emphasis on providing customers with a complete solution closely matches our own", he adds.

"Their wheel balancing and gap control equipment is easy-to-install and simple-to-operate.

Both systems employ the company's state-of-the-art SB-4500 series control unit; both provide consistent, accurate results and both will operate day in and day out without a problem.

Quite simply, they are 'fit and forget' items", he maintains.

In today's competitive market place, the pressure to combine extreme accuracy and fast cycle times extends beyond the traditional high value, high volume component industries, such as the automotive and aerospace sectors.

In the search for perfection, even the smallest of process variables can cause significant quality issues.

"Schmitt's products certainly meet the performance criteria we are looking for", continues Thurston.

"But more than that, they provide powerful tools to help us isolate and identify the true source of any problem.

That's why they are our first choice for high precision wheel balancing and acoustic monitoring systems".

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