Grinding machines Archives – Curtis Machine Tools

The VECTOR Nano™

Laura Butcher — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 11:00:59 +0000

Ultra-precision grinding from Curtis Machine Tools with The Vector Nano

As new technologies, materials and products impose tighter controls on complex components, grinding to sub-micron accuracies with a mirror-like finish is becoming the norm. With this in mind Curtis Machine Tools have expanded their already extensive Vector range of grinding machines and are proud to announce that they can now offer The Vector Nano. Ultra-precision grinding comes with its own set of issues – the need for high mechanical rigidity, extremely high spindle speeds, excellent damping, high overall loop stiffness and thermal stability being the key requisites.

The machine has been designed to have these fundamental requirements at the core of its ultra-high precision capabilities, as standard the machine is equipped with the following:

11.4kW liquid cooled hydrostatic wheel spindle capable of delivering grinding peripheral of speeds up to 120m/sec.
2.7kW liquid cooled hydrostatic workhead with guaranteed axial and radial position variation of less than 0.00025mm, this can as an option be reducing further to 0.0001mm.
Glass scale absolute linear encoders fitted to both the X axis and Z axis with 0.000001mm (1 nano metre) measurement increment.
Integral temperature monitoring and compensation system.

As with all the Vector range, the Vector Nano can be offered with the following options:

Angular or straight approach grinding
Standard or super abrasive grinding technology
Static, rotary and full form dressing
Automatic grinding wheel balancing system
Gap and crash detection system
Pre, In & Post process measurement system with full closed loop statistical process control
Vision inspection for post process feature measurement
Full automation comprising of integral loading system combined with numerous parts presentation options,
vibratory bowl, pallet, conveyor etc
Ancillary process integration such as deburr, wash, dry, laser marking, packaging etc.

Speak with our sales team to find out more.

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Two machines shipped

Laura Butcher — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 10:19:33 +0000

Last week at CMT, we had two VECTOR Twin grinding machines accepted and dispatched to our happy customer. Our customer is a large automotive manufacturer and they will be using the machine to grind turbocharger vanes. Check out the video below to see one of the machines in action.

These machines incorporate an indexing twin-spindle workhead, allowing loading and some secondary operations to be performed whilst grinding is taking place on one spindle. Giving a spark-to-spark time approaching zero, making it ideal for optimised production.
Curtis Machine Tools are experts in developing engineered grinding solutions for turbocharger vanes, by providing a complete turnkey system that can be customised to your manufacturing specifications.

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VECTOR Twin grinding machine dispatched

Laura Butcher — Mon, 17 May 2021 13:11:42 +0000

Our latest VECTOR Twin grinding machine has been dispatched this week, ready to be delivered to our customer, a major automotive supplier, in the USA. Manufacturing this machine has taken several months of designing, assembling and testing to make sure it is to the exact requirements of our client.

VECTOR Twin

The VECTOR Twin can be used to grind a number of different components, depending on the requirements of our customers. Many of our customers manufacture small, high precision components within the automotive, medical and defence industries. The Twin, from the VECTOR family of grinding machines, inorporated an indexing twin-spindle workhead, this allows loading and some secondary operations to be performed concurrently with the grinding process. Using this machine means that the process can be nearly halved in time, therefore improving productivity.

This particular machine uses a conveyor system which holds a number of pallets containing components. This reduces the amount of human interaction that the machine needs to operate. Once the pallet has finished being ground, the conveyor system moves it to the end of the machine, ready for the operator to pick up. An SPC drawer has been incorporated into the machine to allow the operator to inspect finished components whilst the machine is still running. This machine also features a Staubli robot and Siemens control system.

Check out our YouTube channel soon to see this machine in action.

Customisation as standard

When creating a bespoke solution for our customers, there are limitless possibilities to customising our grinding machines. We do this by using the latest technologies from the likes of Siemens and Staubli. The integration of additional processes can be offered to provide a complete turn-key solution, such as;

Vision systems
Automation
Workpiece inspection
Deburr, wash and dry
Laser marking, packaging and much more.

If you wish to find out more information regarding our grinding machines, please contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, to keep up to date with our latest news.

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A long tradition in grinding

Laura Butcher — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 10:24:26 +0000

VECTOR Twin and Quad

Is a well-established British manufacturer of high precision grinding machines for small components. We supply bespoke engineered grinding solutions to manufacturers worldwide and have over 45 years’ experience within a variety of industries, such as automotive, cutting tools and defence.
Our Grind in a Box patented technology has proved to be a global success, based on this innovative concept, CMT have designed and manufactured the VECTOR family of grinding machines. The Engineering team at CMT are constantly developing new machining methods and applications that are precisely tailored to the needs of our customers and market conditions, in order to maximise the efficiency of production. The integration of additional processes such as:

Vision systems
Automation
Workpiece inspection
Deburr, wash and dry
Laser marking, packaging and much more.

These are designed, developed, and integrated into the VECTOR, providing a complete turn-key process. CMT offer limitless possibilities to engineer and implement the user-specific requirements. With hundreds of machines ranging from a standalone solution to fully automated production lines, CMT is one of the market leaders in this field and your partner when it comes to process orientated solutions.
Our machines are fitted with the latest technology, including Siemens control systems, and our engineers have a high level of understanding using both Fanuc and Staubli robotics.

All the VECTOR machine variants share the same grinding platform, with a long radial stroke and a short axial stroke, for single and multi-plunge operations or peel grinding of profiles. VECTOR machines have been designed to give maximum productivity and precision with an exceedingly small footprint, providing an excellent ROI.

VECTOR Twin

The VECTOR Twin incorporates an indexing twin-spindle workhead, allowing loading and secondary operations to be performed. This additional spindle allows loading and unloading to take place whilst grinding is in process on the other spindle, giving a spark-to-spark time approaching zero, making it ideal for cycle time optimised production.

VECTOR Quad

The VECTOR Quad is based on the proven VECTOR Twin, revolutionising production grinding. The Quad uses an innovative four-spindle workhead, enabling the outer diameters or contours to be ground simultaneously on two workpieces, using the same grinding wheel, doubling the output. The Quad has a maximum diameter of 45mm.

This article can also be seen in the April 2021 edition of Grinding and Surface Finishing magazine.

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CMT celebrates sale of the 100th VECTOR

Laura Butcher — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 08:05:00 +0000

With more than 40 years’ experience in producing engineered grinding solutions for high volume production environments, Curtis Machine Tools continues to enjoy global success with its range of VECTOR production grinding machines and is celebrating the sale of its 100th VECTOR^TM grinding machine to Cummins in the USA for the production of diesel injection components.

A market survey in 2005 showed that over 90 percent of all grinding applications had a grinding length of less than 75mm, with the key market being high precision fuel injection components and turbochargers. CMT reacted to this survey and developed the Curtis VECTOR range with a grinding length of 100mm and integrated 3-axisloading system designed for high volume cylindrical grinding, typically 250,000 to 1,000,000+ parts per year.
The first VECTOR grinders were sold in 2006 to a customer in India grinding diesel injection components. From this point, the VECTOR has seen continuous development, enabling CMT to offer a multitude of options in workpiece presentation and holding. This, combined with process refinements in respect to grid types, grinding fluids and machine parameters, has given the VECTOR a truly market leading set of performance characteristics.
The key to optimising cycle times on high volume grinding machines is to reduce the ‘dead time’ to a minimum. The VECTOR Twin is the advanced machine in the range, having two work spindles mounted in an indexing drum, allowing loading and grinding operations to be carried out concurrently, giving cycle time reductions of up to 50 percent.

This photograph shows the working area of the VECTOR Twin with its main feature: When the door is closed, the grinding area is sealed and all coolant and debris is contained. The coolant is piped through the bottom of the guard and mist is removed by an integrated extractor for conventional grinding. For high-speed grinding a separate unit having a higher capacity is used.

The grinding wheel is mounted on cross slides, allowing grinding to take place by moving the wheel to the left and dressing by moving to the right. The dressing unit behind the grinding wheel is either fixed, rotary disc or diamond roll.
The left-hand wall of the fixed guard is a divider plate between the two work spindles. These are mounted in a drum that can be rotated through 180 degrees to index the spindles between the grinding and loading positions.
The splash guard, above the grinding wheel, rotates round the wheel so that when the wheel is retraction for loading, the splash guard covers the front of the wheel, stopping any coolant being released by the wheel being thrown past the divider plate as the workhead indexes. Grinding takes place on the spindle within the dirty area, while loading takes place in the clean area.

Grinding and loading therefore take place at the same time. The index time for the workhead drum is 1.2 seconds, giving a part to spark time of less than 2 seconds. In addition, secondary operations can be carried out on the component in the loading position, such as brush deburr, post process diameter gauging, pre-process length positioning, washing, laser marking etc.
As the coolant and grinding debris are totally contained within the fixed grinding guard, the pick/place locations can be close to the work spindle. Loading systems can be integrated into the without any risk that the loader slides will become contaminated. This makes for short robot movements and allows the machine to have a very small footprint of only 1,200 mm wide, including the loading system pallet storage for the components.
The fixed guard also makes all machines in the VECTOR range suitable for high speed super abrasive grinding wheels, as the wheel and high-pressure coolant are fully enclosed.

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