The recent arrival of a Timesavers 81 series wide-belt precision grinding machine at metal-polishing and finishing specialist
Van Geenen in the Netherlands has had an immediate impact.
Through improved capacity, productivity and overall capability the Rijssen-based company is opening up new business opportunities.
The company was established in 1977 when Arnold van Geenen and his sons Nico and Gerrit joined forces to provide a hand-polishing service — they actually had to sell their cars to buy the vital tools required to get the business off the ground.
However, the decision has paid off, Van Geenen B.V. Metaalfinishing is now unrecognisable from the early days. Under the guidance of Nico’s son Bart van Geenen the company operates from a 5,000m
2 premises, which houses the latest in polishing and grinding technology.
The most recent arrival being the €2 million investment in the Timesavers 81 series grinding machine, supplied by
Timesavers International, a leading provider of deburring machines and wide belt grinding machines,which places the business firmly in the 21st century.
The company began to specialise on stainless steel and other exotic materials early on. The emphasis now is firmly on producing high-quality sheet and tube material in terms of surface finish (right up to Mirror 8 grade), with greater efficiency.
Managing director Bart van Geenen said: “Hand polishing remains a critical part of our business, but automation has been central to our development since our first investment in a Grindingmaster/Timesavers machine back in 1984.
“We are always looking to improve efficiency and our investment in automation has boosted productivity. As such, our partnership with Timesavers continues with this major investment in the 81 series machine, an investment that driven both by the heart, with my father’s desire for manufacturing technology, and the head, with me focused on the commercial potential.”
Van Geenen prides itself on the quality of its work and the strength of its relationships with customers, a combination that has opened up new business opportunities for its polished sheet and tube products across markets including architectural, tanks, and food processing.
“We have always had the ability to do things that our competitors cannot do and to continue that we recognised it was time to move into precision grinding.”
Future-proofing productionThe scale of the Timesavers 81 series will also future-proof production at Van Geenen, at an overall length of 24m, the machine has a capacity to grind sheet or plate from 0.15 up to 100mm; with stock removal rates of up to 0.2mm/pass achievable with a table size of 2.1 x 8.5m to an accuracy of +/-0.02mm and 0.3Ra.
The new machine is already delivering significant time savings for van Geenen compared with existing processes. For example, producing a 4m long x 2m wide x 20mm thick sheet for a customer in the food processing industry, which required a 0.8Ra surface finish used to take between 4-5hr to complete, this is now achieved in 1hr on the 81 series.
Bart van Geenan continued: “With the level of investment in the Timesavers 81 series our hourly rate has increased, but this is justified as our throughput is much greater and lead times much shorter and that level of efficiency is vital when putting forward proposals to customers. We are also aware that none of our competitors in Europe have this capability.”
Encouraging for van Geenan has been the enthusiasm from customers for the use of this wide-belt grinding technology with the Timesavers 81 series. The efficiency of the system allows it to replace milling as an operation, reducing the number of processes and improving efficiency. With milling at least two set-ups may be required for roughing and finishing, whereas with the new machine just one operation takes the part to the finished state.
This is particularly important on stainless steel parts where the clamping of the material for milling can induce stress in the part. Using the vacuum table of the 81 series eliminates this completely, while achieving improved results in terms of flatness and surface finish.
Bart van Geenen added: “The 81 Series is a genuine alternative to conventional processes and, it is my role to convince customers that the process is viable and meets their requirements. Thankfully, customers are open to innovation and are willing to listen and try new processes.
“I recently quoted a customer for some polished titanium plate, within 5min of delivering the quote I received the order!”
The development of the Timesavers 81 Series came about following conversations with suppliers of sheet material, particularly titanium and other exotics such Zirconium and Molybdenum, which were facing challenges processing these materials accurately and efficiently.
The result is a wide-belt reciprocating table abrasive machine that eliminates problems found when milling or grinding using stones or abrasive wheel technology. In collaboration with abrasive belt manufacturers Hermes and 3M, the 81 series can process materials much more efficiently, in some cases such as grinding Molybdenum a conventional cycle time of 10hr was cut to 25min.
A typical Timesavers 81 series cycle consists of a fast rough-grinding cycle followed by up to three spark-out passes, with the sheet, which is positioned on the powerful vacuum table, then rotated and the cycle repeated on the opposite face. The result is a thickness accuracy across the entire sheet of 0.25μm with the major benefit of the process creating a ‘short-scratch’ finish.
Timesavers and Van Geenen are also collaborating with this new investment with Timesavers introducing potential customers, who may not be in a position justify the purchase of an 81 Series just yet to Van Geenen, and the machine being made available to Timesavers as a real-world example for customers to see the potential of this grinding technology.
Bart van Geenen concluded: “This investment is backed by our experience of the service provided by Timesavers over many years to our company and both our companies will continue to grow alongside each other as a result of that relationship.”
Timesaver machines are available in the UK and Ireland from Christchurch-based
Ellesco Ltd, a leading supplier of deburring, polishing and finishing machines.