DMG Mori UK Ltd (
www.dmgmori.com) has announced that grinding can now be integrated into three sizes of five-axis mill-turn centre in the company’s DuoBlock FD-series machines, the largest of which has a work envelope of 1,600 x 1,600 x 1,100mm.
The addition of grinding on the same machine platform will be of particular interest to manufacturers wishing to take advantage of ‘single set-up’ metal cutting and combine it with surface finishes down to 0.4µm (achievable with grinding).
Machine sizes 80, 125 and 160 in the DuoBlock FD series (both the DMU and the DMC pallet-change version) can be equipped with a grinding capability, in which case the machine designation carries the suffix FDS.
The Coventry-based company says that proprietary technology cycles in the machine control support internal-, external- and face-grinding processes. There is also a specific cycle for calibrating the grinding-wheel truing station.
A further new introduction is an acoustic sensor that detects the initial contact between the grinding wheel and the truing unit, ensuring reliability and accuracy.
First contact between the grinding wheel and the component is determined via the spindle load meter.
Extra measures to protect the ballscrews and scales from the ingress of particles from the grinding process have also been added, and the 1,300-litre coolant unit has been equipped with a centrifugal filter that separates particles finer than 10µm.