Universal Cylindrical Grinder

April 25, 2011

The new Studer S41 CNC universal cylindrical grinder from United Grinding Technologies (UGT) has electric direct drives on the longitudinal and cross slide, as well as the swivel axis for the wheelhead.

The new StuderGuide® guideway system ensures precision of the longitudinal and cross slides when moving, or while stationary, by using hydrostatic and hydrodynamic guide systems. Longitudinal and cross slides can achieve speeds up to 66 FPM with a system resolution of 10 nanometers. Also contributing to the machine’s precision is the fact that the solid gray cast-iron longitudinal and cross slides rest on the guideways over the entire travel.  The company guarantees a straightness deviation of less than 0.0001 in. over a measured length of 37.4 in.

The longitudinal slide (Z axis) has a ground worktable that carries the workhead and tailstock, as well as additional accessories and devices. 

The swivel movement of the turret wheelhead (B axis) is also powered by a direct drive. It swivels the turret wheelhead with a positioning resolution of 0.00005 degrees.

The machine’s bed is made from Granitan® S103, which creates a solid, rigid, and thermally stable machine that absorbs the forces that occur during grinding with high metal removal rates. It is the thermal stability that allows the machine to operate with consistently high precision even in changing ambient temperatures, the company states.

Workpieces weighing of up to 551 lbs. can be machined on this system.

Up to four external grinding wheels or three internal grinding spindles enable more than 30 grinding head combinations. The grinding wheels are driven by motor spindles, rather than belt drives. The machine can be equipped with motor spindles for high-speed grinding and also internal grinding spindles with speeds from 6,000 to 120,000 RPM.

Wheelhead variants are also available with a vertical spindle for grinding keyways or with a traverse grinding axis for traverse grinding of internal tapers.

Grinding wheel change is performed with a single Allen wrench, and a small crane is integrated into the machine for lifting heavy grinding wheels.

A Fanuc 31i-A machine control with integrated PC operates with the StuderGRIND software specially developed for the grinding processes and the StuderWIN operator interface. A 15-in. touchscreen and an additional manual control unit simplify the setup of the grinding processes.  A freestanding operating panel with adjustable height is also available.

For more information, visit www.grinding.com.