Kellenberger, which is part of the Hardinge Grinding Group, along with other well-established brands: Jones & Shipman; Hauser; Tschudin; Voumard and Usach, has its headquarters in St Gallen, Switzerland, where around 200 people are employed. Here the company, which specialises in universal/cylindrical grinders, manufactures and assembles machines along with its sister plant in Biel.
In recent years the company began a new project to develop a machine that would combine many of the capabilities, technologies and controls from its various sister brands into one platform.
The Kellenberger 100 – the new naming classification putting the brand at the forefront of Hardinge grinding machines to reinforce each one’s merits – merges existing know-how found in Kellenberger (Kel-Vista/Kel-Vita); Tschudin (T25) and Jones & Shipman (Ultramat/Ultragrind) machines, into one versatile and compact grinder.
“It was clear that we needed a new platform for the future so we could offer a flexible solution for our customers,” comments Roland Ackermann, director of marketing. “At the same time, we wanted to enhance the functionality compared to some of our other machines. With the new simpler interface, we want to address a broad range of customers. The machine also has to be user friendly and, from our production perspective, be cost optimised so we can offer a good price performance ratio. This has meant developing a new assembly system and concept to reduce build cost and lead-time. Additionally, our service engineers were involved in the entire project so we could develop a machine that would be easy to maintain.”
The Kellenberger 100 is considered a mid-range universal grinding machine, intentionally adaptable for different parts, but able to offer both small batch and high-volume production.
Slick sliding guides
One of the biggest advances is the introduction of a special coating on the Z-axis guideway which is said to greatly enhance performance, accuracy and longevity.
“With this coating there is less friction, which means we are very close to hydrostatic guideway system performance but at a lower cost, explains Rolf Wald, area sales manager and member of the Kellenberger 100 project team. “The new coating greatly reduces the stick-slip effect. This is very important when making small parts with the very small and rapid movements required by the machine. It also greatly reduces the wear on the guideway meaning much longer lifespan.”
Another major advance from Kellenberger is the use of an innovative compact diagonal modular grinding wheelhead. Turned by a fast, accurate B-axis torque motor, it provides collision free, universal operation for OD and ID grinding and measuring of the workpiece.
The grinding head can be used with 10 different tool variants and configurations. On the machine being demonstrated at the launch, the set-up included a tandem grinding wheel arrangement with 500mm grinding wheels. The grinding head has an 11.5kW powered drive offering speeds of 800-3,800rpm.
Mr Wald continues: “We see this as a production machine that, for example, with two wheelheads, can carry out roughing and finishing operations. We have also used motor spindles rather than belt spindles for internal grinding so it’s a universal machine that can also be adapted to much more high-volume production like situations.”
So far, the machine has been built with 1,000mm centre widths but machines of 600 and eventually 400mm are also expected in the future.
Other features on the machine include stable temperature, thanks to an integrated cooling circuit; integrated lifting system for grinding wheel changes and tailstock mounting; enhanced interconnectivity for remote monitoring and developments in Industry 4.0.
[caption id="attachment_24547" align="alignleft" width="230"]
Area sales manager, Rolf Ward, with the K100 control[/caption]
The grinder can handle a large workpiece capacity with a 200mm centre height and 150kg weight limit. When it comes to automation the new model has been designed to be able to accommodate a wide range of loading systems that customers might require, including robotics.
Pushing the buttons
Regarding control, Kellenberger has also made significant changes. The machine uses a Fanuc 31i-B control unit with a 19-inch display and intuitive touchscreen operation. The system offers end-to-end user guidance and several programming routine options.
Other features include: expanded functionality; automated calculation technology; context-sensitive help images and online operation and maintenance instructions. These features mean no ISO programming skills are necessary from an operational perspective.
Optionally, newly designed cycle programming or workpiece-related graphic programming is available which includes graphical programming for cylinders, radii, facets and tapers and other data for easy step programming, icon programming and non-circular programming options; Kel-Form for the creation of standardised forms in the control and the import of DXF files; Kel-Soft a CAD/CAM software package for the preparation of non-circular grinding programmes and; Kel-Assist, a software package for the preparation of contour grinding or profile-dressing programmes.
“As we know there are fewer and fewer skilled operators, so we need a control and software interface that helps the operator learn to programme quickly,” Mr Wald says. “Our programming systems offer much more ‘push button’ style operation with the control doing most of the background programming itself.”
Getting Smart
Like many machine tool manufacturers Kellenberger is addressing the concepts brought by Industry 4.0 – which means providing machines that allow interconnectivity with the internet for smart factory systems, remote monitoring and service support. VPN connectivity is provided as standard on the new machine, although users can decide whether they want to use it or not.
Mr Ackermann explains: “We are involved in creating standard interfaces within our industry along with other grinding machine makers. We need to ensure we can link into any system or network that our customers have in place already. These systems allow us to communicate with the customers and for them to communicate with us. However, we are aware of the risks in sharing data. We have a secure firewall which means remote communication can be used without any risk of data being accessed by others.
Kellenberger’s machines have traditionally been sold in the aerospace, automotive, hydraulics, mould and die, medical, machine tool and general engineering sectors. Its machines are exported primarily to Europe, the USA and Far East.
The company says the Kellenberger 100 is designed to be used for a wide range of industries and applications. It sees particular opportunities for new markets such as hybrid and electric vehicle production.
Generation game
Introducing the new machine, Kellenberger, CEO Urs Baumgartner states: “Kellenberger stands for 100 years of high quality machine tools and for cylindrical grinding and universal grinding tied to the Kellenberger family for three generations. However, we have to continue to examine ourselves and adapt to an everchanging environment and that is what we are doing with this new generation of machines. It is all part of a process to re-focus and simplify our range.
“We have progressed from being purely a machine seller to a total solution provider. This means working more on our systems and also how we can customise our machines. We want to expand the competence and flexibility for customer specific solutions on standard platforms, simplify the handling of the machines both for the operator, operation of the machine in general, and integration into our customers facilities and servicing.
“We also have to provide a comprehensive service package which includes working on customers’ applications. As part of the Hardinge Grinding Group we have a vision of a future as a leading international company in the field of grinding for high precision applications.”
Kellenberger grinding machines are available in the UK through Jones & Shipman, which supplies full training, installation and service support.
The new machine will feature on the company’s stand at EMO in Hannover: Hall 11, Stand C78.
A video of the launch can be seen at: http://bit.ly/jonesshipman
Jones & Shipman www.jonesshipman.com
