CUSTOMIZED TWO-AXIS INTERNAL GRINDER
CNC North, Inc. unveils a two-axis internal grinder customized for an aerospace landing gear manufacturing application.
Posted: July 30, 2010
Marking their expansion from machine tool rebuilder to original equipment manufacturer, CNC North, Inc. (Springfield, VT) recently unveiled a two-axis internal grinder customized for an aerospace landing gear manufacturing application.
Key features of the grinder include:
? Granite base (bed) allows for custom machine platforms, allowing machines to be built per the customer?s application and, in some cases, per the customer?s floor space requirements. It provides a stable platform.
? Hydrostatic slides sized per the application. This particular machine features a 48 in Z-slide and a 14 in X-slide. The dovetail design provides cost reductions in the manufacturing process while maintaining the stiffness required for grinding applications.
? Precision, four-bearing ½-micron work head adapted to accept either a three-jaw chuck or a custom face plate, allowing use of the customer?s existing tooling.
? Both the work head and steady rest are on a precision slide and operate manually by enabling an air bearing. This provides quick and easy adjustment of both devices and enables quick changeover for the customer?s various work parts.
? Custom Steady Rest. Various versions can be provided based on the customer?s part diameter requirements.
? Custom wheel head mounting, allowing both new and existing wheel spindles to be quickly mounted during part change over.
? Pivots that operate on an air bearing allow ease in taper adjustment, both for the work/steady rest assembly, as well as the wheel spindle assembly.
? Custom guarding. A three-door system was designed, based on input from the end user, to accommodate their setup and gaging requirements.
? Direct feedback absolute linear scales are standard, eliminating any thermal concerns.
CNC North teamed with their sister-company CNC Engineering, Inc. (Enfield, CT) to design the Fanuc-based control system. Additionally, CNC North selected Open Vision? Grind, an open architecture grind package from CNC Engineering, Inc.
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