The tooling specialist OSG UK recently installed another Walter Helitronic tool grinder from Walter Ewag UK Ltd, Warwick, to meet increasing demand for tool regrinds and new tooling, as well as introduce its latest range of carbide tooling that has joined the company’s own-brand series of cost-competitive taps, thread mills and end mills, along with drills and reamers. They will be distributed throughout Europe via OSG’s European stock centre.

The latest Walter Helitronic — a Power 400 — joins an existing Helitronic tool grinder and Helicheck Pro tool measuring machine at OSG’s Basildon site; they complement Helitronic machines at OSG Nuneaton.

OSG director Tony Cooper says the ongoing investment by OSG means the company is “superbly equipped to meet all current and immediate future demands. He said: “Furthermore, the fact that all OSG’s Helitronics have pallet systems and robot loaders means that different sizes of tool batches can be pre-loaded and processed overnight and unmanned in batches of up to 30-off, to provide a high level of responsiveness for a wide customer base — one that includes aerospace and automotive customers throughout the UK, Ireland, and Europe.”

Boosting flexibility
He added: “Moreover, with an eight-station wheel changer boosting flexibility, the latest Helitronic Power 400 has been installed to meet ever-increasing orders for new tooling, as well as regrinds; these are mainly of own-brand tooling and extend to several thousand every month.”

The machine features the Helitronic Tool Studio ‘grind what you see’ easy-to-use, wizard-based software, and its robot loader can accommodate tools up to 125mm in diameter and weighing 5kg. Helitronic tool grinders are installed throughout OSG’s global operations, which are based on the group’s worldwide technical relationship with Walter; the Power 400 joins the Walter machines at Basildon, where there is an integrated cell comprising Vision tool grinder and Helicheck Pro inspection machine.

Mr Cooper continued: “The four-axis Helicheck Pro, which has a repeatability of ±1µm and a measuring resolution of 0.25µm, can accommodate tools up to 200mm in diameter x 300mm long. The machine is linked with the Vision for immediate feedback of measurement data and, where appropriate, real-time corrective action.”

He concluded: “Repeatability is everything when it comes to regrinding, so it is essential that the right machining technology is operated by suitably skilled operators to ensure that the reground tool exactly matches the customers’ specification. Our strength as OSG is that we have access to all our original geometries, which means when we regrind tools, we can get back to 100% tool life. Indeed, we are confident that in many cases our regrinds are even better than many other alternative originals.”