Retrofit Your Centerless Grinder to Reach New Production Goals

Ellen Kominars | August 19, 2019 | Centerless Grinders

Even the most reliable centerless grinder can be a good candidate for a retrofit. While there may not be anything wrong with the machine, production demands may require more output or a greater level of accuracy than the grinder can currently provide.

In those cases, a retrofit – adding new components to an existing centerless grinder – provides the perfect opportunity to meet an operation’s newest challenges.

GCH Tool offers a wide range of centerless grinder components, parts and assemblies that can be used in the retrofit of a centerless grinding machine. These include:

CNC Controls

New CNC controls provide important benefits, such as increased accuracy and improved productivity, whether they’re being added to a manual machine or are replacing outdated, older CNC controls. Other benefits include:

Better part finish
Extended machine life
Lower energy costs
Easier machine programming

A full CNC retrofit includes a new operator panel and control cabinet. It also requires new wiring between the cabinet and the centerless grinder’s motors and pumps to ensure that old, damaged wires don’t interfere with the control’s signals to various parts of the machine.

A CNC retrofit can be paired with new motors for even greater accuracy and output.

Motors

A machine retrofit can include from one to eight axes.

More powerful motors will expand the grinder’s capabilities, while new servo motors will improve the machine’s accuracy, leading to precise, repeatable positioning, which is particularly important when dressing a complex profile or engaging a workpiece.

In some instances, a motion-control resolution as small as 0.5 micron can be achieved by combining a CNC retrofit with new servo motors.

Ball Screw Drive

A new ball screw can improve the grinder’s capabilities, offering better stiffness and repeatability and less backlash. As a result, it can provide increased part accuracy at high speeds to boost productivity.

Spindles

A GCH-engineered grinder spindle can improve roundness, rigidity and accuracy while reducing maintenance requirements, thanks to its class 9 double-row cylindrical roller bearings and double-direction angular contact thrust ball bearing.

A coated spindle also will provide greater wear resistance.

Automation

Adding automation can improve part flow and productivity. An automation retrofit can include a wide range of components and assemblies, such as:

Bar feeders
Part hoppers
Single and double loaders
Overhead gantries
Robotics

Other Grinder Upgrades

Depending on the operation’s needs, a centerless grinding machine retrofit can include any number of updates to increase performance, productivity and reliability, such as:

Regardless of the type of retrofit, care should be taken to ensure the new components and assemblies don’t block access to the grinder’s most important features.

Regardless of your centerless grinder brand – Cincinnati, Landis, Bryant, Gold Crown or other – GCH Tool has the retrofit components you need to reach your goals. Contact us today to learn more.

About Ellen Kominars

Ellen joined GCH Tool in 2013 as director of marketing. She is responsible for digital marketing, media relations, website development, event planning, advertising, communications and graphic design. A long-time resident of Mexico City, Ellen speaks Spanish fluently, and often assists with the many GCH customers located in Latin America. Ellen has worked in industrial marketing for over 20 years. She’s now added grinding components and grinders to the list of products she’s marketed, which includes induction furnaces, hand tools, magnetic separators and diesel-truck axles.