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MFP 51

Shops Need More Processes and Less Grinders For HMLV Success

When it comes to the production of high-precision parts for industries that range from aerospace to medical, grinding remains the best, most cost-effective approach to obtain fine surface finishes and tight tolerances. And to ensure their customers have the application flexibility and machining power necessary for the high-mix/low-volume (HMLV) production strategy needed to meet customer demand, UNITED GRINDING continues to incorporate more processes and capabilities into single machine platforms.

One such multi-process system is the MÄGERLE MFP 51 – a dynamic multi-tasking CNC grinding machine that has, in some cases, resulted in overall process time savings of over 50 percent for components like aerospace turbine vanes. The MFP 51 offers the full range of surface and profile grinding operations in addition to drilling, milling and measuring, all with full five-axis movement. Whether a shop needs creep-feed, form, profile, reciprocal or classic surface grinding – as well as dressable or electroplated CBN grinding – the MFP 51 performs at a level of flexibility that allows manufacturers of high-precision parts to reduce setup times significantly, a key factor for success in HMLV lean manufacturing environments.

A single MFP 51 with one operator can perform the work of an entire four-machine cell, all without the risk of damaging workpieces between machines or an imprecise setup causing scrapped parts. Furthermore, the reduction or elimination of setup time and lowered risk of damaged workpieces results in considerable upstream and downstream savings across entire production lines. But to do the work of four machines, the MFP 51 needs to have the tool capacity for all its multiple operations.

To allow for unfettered productivity, the machine includes a generously sized tool magazine with 66 positions in a gantry-style system and quick-change pallets to minimize setup time. The palletized approach to workholding makes it simple to perform numerous operations on a part with minimal risk – the dimensional relationship between the part and the machine remains perfect, because nothing has moved.

The tool magazine and quick-change pallets also enable a far greater level of process versatility. This is especially important for industries such as aerospace, where a proliferation of advanced materials require different tools, including those capable of cutting or abrading materials with high nickel content or significant heat resistance. With a tool magazine capable of accommodating 21 grinding wheels, 21 dressing rolls and seven tools – or any other combination of through-coolant metal-cutting tools, grinding wheels, measurement probes – manufacturers can easily keep up with high-mix jobs with varying materials and degrees of precision.

From a pure grinding standpoint, the most important feature of the MFP 51’s tool magazine is its ability to accommodate up to 37 maximum-diameter grinding wheels. On a normal grinding machine, manufacturers are limited to perhaps a single arbor with eight inches of diamond roll form. The MFP 51’s expanded wheel and diamond roll changer, however, enables a wide variety of dressable grinding wheels, each of which can be dressed to shape or used as part of a wheel-roll combination to greatly expand the number and types of features that can be ground on a given part.

An optional RFID-based system even automates wheel size records on the wheel itself, a useful feature given the simultaneous tool and dresser roll changer capabilities of the MFP 51. Typical systems will write this data to a given tool position, but with the machine’s new approach, whenever a wheel is used or dressed, the machine records the diameter – accurate to .001 inch – and writes that data directly to an RFID chip in the wheel. This means far greater flexibility, faster tool changes and the ability to easily move tooling between machines.

By incorporating such a wide range of technology into a single machine, MÄGERLE has empowered manufacturers with the utmost in flexibility for the highest level of surface and profile grinder productivity. Whether it’s eliminating setup times to realize lower costs per part, obtaining an HMLV flow to meet customers’ delivery needs or reducing required manpower without cutting production, the MFP 51 can do it all. And if today’s precision manufacturing shops can’t handle jobs by grinding their parts in one machine, with one setup, they soon won’t be able to afford to take the jobs at all.

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