Founded in 1975, Surrey-based
T&G Engineering Co Ltd is a respected high-precision sub-contract machining company that currently exports over 50% of its output to customers in the aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical, medical, can-tooling and special-purpose machinery sectors. Recently, the company installed the first Studer S31 universal cylindrical grinding machine sold in the UK featuring the latest United Grinding CORE operating system.
Explaining the reasons behind the Studer S31’s purchase from Gloucester-based
Advanced Grinding Supplies Ltd (AGS), the exclusive Studer agent in the South of England and Wales, T&G Engineering director Tong Smyth said: “Our workforce has access to a wide range of ‘state of the art’ machine tools and advanced systems to ensure the efficient production of complex components with extremely close tolerances.
“Our comprehensive plant list and in-house knowledge means that our customers regard us as a ‘one stop shop’ for their precision machining needs — particularly relating to complex components and assemblies used for demanding applications within harsh environments.
“We have a wide-ranging in-house grinding provision that includes Studer universal CNC grinding machines, the first of which was installed more than 20 years ago and followed by several other Studer grinders — each equipped to the highest of specifications.”
High-precision cylindrical grindingHe added: “Our recently installed Studer S31 universal cylindrical grinding machine, which offers 1,000mm between centres and features a Granitan bed, was ordered because of the ever-increasing amount of high-precision cylindrical grinding work we need to perform; and to ensure that we specified our new Studer machine to suit our exacting requirements, we liaised closely with Peter Harding, the managing director of AGS.
“In keeping with our policy of ordering our machine tools with the latest technology, our new Studer grinder features United Grinding’s ‘CORE’ operating system, which has now been incorporated into our in-house digital communication and production systems, further improving the efficiency of our programming and grinding.
“With the CORE software architecture, exchanging data between United Grinding machines is now effortless. The system’s universal machine technology interface (umati) can also be used to communicate with third-party systems; it also provides access to United Grinding’s ‘Digital Solutions’ products directly on the machine without requiring the installation of additional hardware. Indeed, CORE establishes the technical foundation for these advantages — and other IoT and data applications.”
The CORE panel uses self-explanatory icons, allowing the operator to intuitively navigate through the machine’s menu and process steps; and rather than buttons, the user is presented with a modern, clearly arranged multi-touch display. Operators can configure their own interface to their individual requirements and each ‘bespoke’ interface loads automatically following an operators’ log in with a personalised RFID chip. Further aiding ease of use, production progress and the machine’s status are clearly visible from a distance.