Established in 1986 Mictu’s core business is the eyewear industry. As the company has grown they expanded into aerospace, automotive, dental, and mechanical. Boasting a team of 15 people and producing more than 200,000 tools per year, Mictu exports tools to China, Hong Kong, North and South America, Switzerland and Germany, as well as servicing their local Italian market.

Andrea Colavo, the son of the founder of Mictu said, “There has been significant growth in our company since its beginning. We have a big body of knowledge as the eyewear industry gave us the opportunity to test our tools in many different materials giving experience in working with many kinds of plastics and metals.”

Servicing the changeable eyewear industry
The eyewear industry is different from other kinds of industries, mostly because it’s fashion. Eye wear trends are constantly changing and customers require different tools to machine different shapes.

The industry also uses very small tools and Mictu have produced tools with a 0.2 millimetre diameter mill. For example, a hinge requires very tight tolerance – in fact drawings often specify plus or minus one hundredth of a millimetre.

Understanding different materials is fundamental
Andrea continues, “We are a curious team who understand the value of trying new approaches and materials. If a customer is asking to use a material we have no experience in – we ask them how these material reacts to machining and describe the chips of this material. This helps us build a picture of how the material reacts to cutting. We make a sample tool and analyse its performance – is the tool working correctly or does it require adjustments? In the ANCA 3D simulator we can make these adjustments to produce a second batch and try again at the customers.”

Mictu has developed many different tools for many different materials. The most common plastics are nylon or polycarbonate and metals are titanium, stainless steel or cast iron.

Designing the best tool takes trial and error
“I think that anyone can make a tool, especially now that we have more intuitive software. However experience is still key. Cutting tool makers should consider the dynamics of the grinding wheels and need to know the right speed that will not cook your material as otherwise it will break like glass.”

“Generally we start from a drawing of the finished part and ask our customer how he wants to machine their component. Next we use our ANCA 3D simulator software program to simulate the tool to evaluate the best performing shape for that tool.”

“We start using 3D simulation with an ANCA MGX that we bought in 2002. The 3D simulator has changed the way we make tools, mostly because using this software means we are making less errors.”

“The characteristics that make a tool perform best is choosing the right material.

“A cutting edge must be appropriate for the material you have to machine for example, sometimes a very sharp cutting edge is not the best choice. Very sharp edges are weaker than a rounded edge and can vibrate more. So for soft materials you need a very sharp edge but for hard to cut materials you need a stronger cutting edge. “

“I have found it is important to make mistakes. This means you can learn what is not working and that helps you next time you are designing a tool.”

Technology matters – ANCA’s MGX has produced more than 350,000 pieces and is still running
Mictu invested in an MGX in 2002. Andrea recalls, “It’s our first ANCA and is still performing with more than 350,000 pieces manufactured over the years. We found the MGX is a very good machine for producing small to medium batches of very small tools.”

“More recently we purchased two new FX7 Linears because of their flexibility. They are excellent machines for producing varied sizes batches of tools. So far, we have been running them all week, overnight and on the weekend with big batches. During the day we use them to produce smaller batches. On the FX7 we mainly produce drills, step drills and mills and sometimes even end mills with a profile.”

“The FX7 can produce very different tools in the same batch making the machines extremely efficient. Another big advantage of these machines is that we can measure the tool without looking at it. The machine has a laser that measures and if necessary, corrects during the grinding process. Even if no one is looking at the machine, we know the machine is automatically taking care of the tolerance of our tools and that the end quality will be high. I sleep much better because I know the laser is doing its job checking the diameter of every mill you are producing.”

“We use the iBalance to ensure our wheel packs are balanced, reducing the vibration on our tools. This is fundamental when you’re making very small tools. If you have even very small vibration, you’re cutting edge will be hammered and cheap. If you have it balanced well, it will work much smoothly and have a nicer cutting edge.”

“Personally I also liked the appearance of the machine, I would even say it is good looking! With the new Linear models, we expect a longer machine lifespan and improved surface finish. The small footprint is welcome and its many features help with the repeatability of our tools. In summary we choose the ANCA FX7 Linear because it is a complete package with a wheel changer, large loader, laser measurement technology and has 3D Simulator software.”

Professional facilities build trust with customers
Mictu recently moved to a new facility and are reaping the benefits of investing in custom design. Andrea continues “The biggest benefits we’ve seen moving to a new facility was starting from a blank sheet. We decided to put all the pipes needed for the oil for the grinders underground to make a clear surface with less stuff that can leak on the floor. The measuring machines have been installed in a separate environment to keep them on a steady temperature. Since moving we have seen improved production, better quality control and overall we are more efficient and have a better environment for our people because it’s clean and fresh.”

“I think it’s really important for a customer to visit your facility so they can assess the working environment. Pleasingly, customers are very impressed which helps us build trust in our products and services. Customers choose to work with us because we are very lean and listen to their needs. We have a skilled and experienced team who are able to solve problems.”

When ANCA decided to create the ANCA EDG (Electro Discharge Grinding) machine in 2011, the mission was clear. The company wanted to create a high-performance Rotary Electro Discharge Machining (EDM) platform that was not only able to produce best-in-class tool geometries but also have market leading cycle times.

It was the brainchild of Pat Boland, ANCA Founder and Managing Director, who realised that to outperform the incumbents, brains were needed over brawn. “The erosion process is simple in its complexity. The basis of the process uses positive and negative electrodes with electrolyte to create sparks along a material. ANCA has a 45-year history in making the world’s best carbide and HSS tools and we wanted to use that skill set in PCD tooling,” said Pat.

The main drivers behind the ANCA EDG machines were that it needed to be simple enough for all types of brazed shear-fluted tools, but complex enough to enable the creation of the infinite variety of helical solid-tipped, veined and chevron tools. Pat adds: “We realised early on that with the complexity of tool geometries we wanted to allow our customers to create, the 5-axis interpolation while maintaining the precise erosion gap distance was going to be a challenge.”

Maintain the optimum spark erosion gap with IAC
The ANCA EDG is able to maintain the optimum spark erosion gap for both simple 2D and complex 3D path interpolations, which is fundamental to the process working with high efficacy. This is very simple for 2D paths, however, when 3D path interpolation involves 4 or 5 axes moving simultaneously; surface area, volume and path variation become a challenge. From testing, we knew that the standard was to set the machine feedrate to the lowest allowable to maintain a useable spark gap distance; however, this leads to a lot of ‘air-time’ and drastically lowers efficiency. To allow the feedrate to remain high and maintain the optimum spark erosion gap, the idea of Intelligent Adaptative Control (IAC) was born.

Intelligent Adaptive Control (IAC) is an in-time, servo-controlled feature that automatically monitors and controls the erosion gap distance, in-process. Utilising the EtherCAT functionality of the ANCA Motion AMD5x control system, IAC synchronises the machine moves with the generator performance. IAC adjusts and maintains the optimum spark gap which is vital while eroding 3D geometries such as PCD flutes and gashes on drills and endmills. With geometry changing in up to 5-axes at once, IAC automatically adjusts the gap distance and machine feedrate to optimise the erosion speed and surface finish. This involves not only speeding up feedrates when erosion is along linear paths but also slowing down feedrates when path changes occurs.

Twists and turns along the erosion path leads to scenarios where the electrode wheel is likely to come into close contact with the tool, or comes off the tool. This can lead to optimal, bad and missed sparks along the trajectory. IAC automatically accounts for this and maintains the fastest possible feedrate along the length of any changeable path. This results in increased feedrates, minimum thermal damage, superior surface finish, increased MRR and decreased cycle time.

An added benefit of IAC is the ease in which PCD and carbide micro-tools can be manufactured. Since IAC maintains the optimal distance, the chance of wheel collisions and hence tool breakage is very low which is critical when eroding tools under 0.5mm.

Optimise the erosion process with ASC
The current, voltage, duration, time-off and therefore intensity of sparks changes based on the material that is being eroded. That is, PCD will require certain parameters as opposed to carbide (HM) and High-Speed Steel (HSS). The challenge is that PCD wafers are generally 0.6mm PCD with a 1mm carbide backing – sintered PCD, chevron tools and solid-tipped tools are formed onto carbide backing also. When aggressively eroding along the PCD-carbide border, erosion parameters optimised for PCD can inadvertently over-erode the carbide backing. This in turn leads to over-erosion at the PCD-carbide border, named an “undercut” as it selectively erodes the carbide under the PCD. Additionally, it can lead to “cobalt leeching” which is when the PCD binder, cobalt, is preferentially eroded away.

This is akin to digging under the foundations of a paved pathway. If you dig too much material away from under the path, eventually the path will collapse. Machine testing showed that the undercut and cobalt leeching during heavy roughing lead to a brittle border along the cutting edge and premature tooling wear. To avoid this happening and to optimise the erosion process, Adaptive Spark Control (ASC) was created.

ASC uses the DSP (Digital Signal Processors) and FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) on the generator itself. The EDG erosion generator is able to monitor and process every spark, in real time. The waveform of each spark is automatically monitored and categorized based on material being eroded, erosion gap distance and other factors essential to optimal erosion process. The generator can then dynamically adapt the energy level of each-and-every spark (current, voltage, duration and time-off) to suit the material being eroded.

ASC optimises the erosion process leading to less cobalt leaching and a reduction in undercut at the PCD-carbide border.  This leads to a stronger cutting edge and a finished tool that is less prone to chipping. This helps achieve longer tool life, less tool wear and lower tooling costs. Testing on tooling suited to the machining of CFRP (Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic) showed a tool life increase of up to 100%.

Boost the power electronics with ANCA Motion SparX Erosion Generator
ANCA leant on the expertise from their sister company, ANCA Motion to optimise the electronics to enable even higher and more aggressive erosion all-the-while maintaining very high surface finish results. When compared to equivalent componentry, the “mega-amp per pulse” technology enables ANCA customers to broaden the power range they can access and utilise. The ANCA Motion SparX Erosion Generator exhibits superior performance over the range of Extra-Heavy Roughing to Ultra-Fine Finishing operations, utilising Pico-pulse technology for high energy-density ablation. This enables vastly superior controllability, providing customers with optimised feedrates, superior surface quality and drastically reduced cycle times. This pulse precision allows erosion that ranges from ultra-low energy pulses for exceptional ultra-fine finishing, through to high energy pulses for fast material removal.

In the PCD erosion process, cycle time is directly related to the Material Removal Rate (MRR). The ANCA Motion SparX Erosion Generator delivers unrivalled increases in MRR utilizing the new Extra-Heavy Roughing, Super Fine Finishing and Ultra-Fine Finishing operations. What this equates to is an unsurpassed increase in MRR and a 50% decrease in cycle time compared to competitor machines – arguably the fastest cycle times in the market. Additionally, erosion surface quality also sees an improvement across all power modes. Polished surface finishes of Ra < 0.1µm and Rz < 0.5µm can be easily achieved using the newly release “Ultra-Fine Finishing” process with Pico-pulse technology. These operations enable the production of superior cutting edges necessary for the most demanding of cutting tool applications.

Combining intelligence in a domain once dominated by brute force electronics, not only gives ANCA customers an edge over the competition but enables a smarter approach to tool making. The difference between our approach and the approach of our competitors is that ANCA focusses on what our customers want to achieve with their erosion process. They strongly told us that they wanted a process optimised for helical and round PCD tooling. We worked closely with ANCA Motion to design our erosion generator to suit not only shear tooling but the infinite array of highly complex geometries, rather than re-using generator technology originally created for Wire Electro Discharge Machining (Wire-EDM). Our approach turned the industry on its head. We let the geometries dictate the process, not the process dictate the geometries available.

by Tom Nathan, ANCA PCD Erosion Product Manager

AB Tools, Inc. – a US based specialist tool manufacturer, requested a solution to manufacture special carbide inserts. They were seeing a growing demand for this product and asked ANCA to supply a solution based on an MX7 Linear for autoloading and grinding special inserts as existing machinery and processes were not versatile enough for them to successfully meet their demands.

ANCA’s Engineering team worked to find a solution as they can custom design mechanical, electrical, software and process solutions to enhance the standard product range and meet unique customer requirements. Simon Richardson, ANCA Product Manager said “developing new technology that directly addresses customers’ requirements, hopefully helping you get ahead of your competition benefits everyone. Our founders are often heard reflecting that some of our greatest product breakthroughs have originated from custom projects.”

Alfred Lyon, AB Tools Shop Supervisor said “both Jon Baker, the President at AB Tools, and I were extremely impressed with the whole process. From our own testing to having Simon Richardson come out and scope out our needs and what we wanted to accomplish. Followed by several emails, a discussion with Pat Boland himself and then flying to Melbourne to meet with the incredible Customer Solutions team who then took our requirements and ran with it.”

“Lastly, and probably the most amazing and important part, ANCA sending out engineers to iron out all last-minute details. Basically, our goals were not merely met but exceeded!”

The engineering team was requested to deliver a solution that was able to:

• Autoload and grind a range of AB Tools shear hog inserts.
• Perform grinding operations in one setup
• Meet cycle time requirements

The custom solutions engineering team delivered an enhancement to the ANCA MX7 with Robomate.  New designs developed included:

• A modification to the loading system with custom pallets to suit the inserts. The custom pallets can hold up to 442 inserts, this capacity can easily be increased by ordering the four pallet upgrade option available on the MX7 Robomate.
• A modification to the robot gripper head allows the robot to pick up and handle the insert/nail combination.  Robot loading software was developed to enable to the machine to pick up the insert and load and unload the nail via an interchange station.
• Custom anvil nose work holding to clamp the inserts, with the added benefit of a variable force drawbar system.  This drawbar allows flexibility to grind different sized inserts and to effectively clamp different sized tooling.
• A software interface to allow for the adjustment of specified insert parameters including – corner radius, periphery relief angle and rake face dimensions.  Digitising software also verifies the insert orientation prior to grinding.

The grinding and loading process is running within the customers parameters. Inserts can be ground in a cycle time of currently less than six minutes.

Alfred concluded “ANCA impressed me from day one. Creating basically a whole new type of machine for AB Tools, Inc. is not merely impressive, it is extraordinary. We could have purchased another machine just like the one we were using but we asked ANCA for help because we wanted to expand our capabilities and simplify our process. This new machine has exceeded both desires.”

In a servo motor system, regenerative energy is the energy that returns to a drive when a motor decelerates, and the amount of regenerative energy depends on the deceleration speed and load inertia. In laser cutting machines, the regenerative energy is typically large owing to their fast acceleration/deceleration and heavy mechanical structures.

Energy returned to drives is absorbed by the capacitors on drive’s DC bus. A multi-axis servo drive system does have a big advantage when handling the regenerative energy; the shared DC bus allows more bus capacitance to absorb and store more energy which can be used in the following acceleration cycles.

However, when regenerative energy is too high to be absorbed by the capacitors on DC bus, the excessive energy needs to be managed otherwise it can cause servo drive system failures.

Normally the excess energy is burned off via brake resistors connecting to the drive’s DC bus. This dissipates (and effectively wastes the energy), creating heat in the process.

An alternative solution is to use capacitor modules in the system. This offers a way to slash operating costs, particularly in energy-intensive machine applications involving a lot of deceleration, such as laser cutting.

Both solutions are supported by ANCA Motion’s AMD5x multi-axis servo drive system. The system uses a bussed system architecture, and its power supply unit converts three-phase mains electricity to a DC supply to all bussed drives.

The AMD5x system is highly flexible and is suited to highly demanding CNC applications such as laser cutting. It is suitable for accommodating multiple capacitor modules as well as servo drives.

A frequently asked question about using capacitor modules is about its ROI (Return on Investment). The potential of capacitor modules to save machine operators’ energy costs was explored recently, indicating a surprisingly short payback period.

For the analysis, a laser cutting machine operating at full load in China, two shift-per-day scenario was created, assuming a 0.66 RMB per kilowatt hour electricity price and an Air Conditioner (used to cool the control cabinet) energy efficiency ratio of 3.

The performance of a machine with two capacitor modules in this scenario was compared to that of a machine with a brake resistor only.

The difference in wasted power was unsurprisingly stark. This stood at 4,500W of wastage for the system with no capacitor modules, compared to 180W with. This translated into wasted energy per month of over 2200 KWH (worth about 1,400 RMB) versus 90 KWH (about 60 RMB).

Operating costs – including the initial investment – drew level at around eight months, with these becoming significantly cheaper overall for the system using capacitor modules after that point.

The GCX Linear builds on the best aspects of ANCAs proven technology to offer a purpose-built solution for manufacturing and sharpening skiving cutters. With a five axis CNC grinder powered by LinX linear motor technology on X, Y and Z axes, the GCX Linear also comes with features specially designed for skiving cutters and shaper cutters.

Century old invention finally realising its full potential – ANCA enters the skiving market

Xiaoyu Wang, Product Manager at ANCA said: “ANCA is responding to the increasing popularity of skiving and resulting surge in demand for skiving cutters. We want our customers to have a complete solution for manufacturing and sharpening skiving cutters and the GCX Linear will set the new benchmark for skiving cutter grinding.”

“Dressing the complex wheel profile is critical, ANCA developed the latest acoustic emission monitoring system (AEMS). AEMS can be taught to pick up the right sound of perfect dressing even in a noisy production environment.  Built upon supervised machine learning algorithm, AEMS ensures the wheel profile is dressed within micron accuracy with the least possible time while minimising the reduction in size.”

Tailored features and industry firsts of ANCA’s new GCX Linear

• Motor temperature control (patent pending), minimises machine warmup time, and delivers optimal thermal stability during grinding.
• Full process virtualisation on design station before grinding: Design, Optimise, 3D Simulation, MRR Estimation and more.
• In-process dressing with acoustic emission monitoring system (AEMS) and supervised machine learning algorithm.
• Dedicated gear cutting tool software package.
• Five axis CNC grinder, with LinX linear motor technology on X, Y and Z axes.
• 37kW (49HP) peak power direct drive spindle with BigPlus arbor.
• High accuracy headstock offers greatly improved index positional accuracy.

Effective aftermarket support is an opportunity. If done poorly, it could lead to unnecessarily lengthy downtime – for example, through the slow delivery of replacement parts – which will cost both the vendor and the customer. Loyalty, money and reputation are all at stake.

It’s been argued that manufacturing companies are becoming more and more like service companies, and any line between the two is getting harder to draw^[1]. There have been many articles recommending that manufacturing companies invest in a high performing customer service team to better meet their customers’ needs which previously may have been neglected.

In fact, in many ways I could say I am now tasked with much of the responsibility of selling our machines, a role that traditionally sat with sales and marketing. I say this because the most effective way to build customer loyalty is by providing excellent aftermarket support – by being agile and responding quickly to customer requests. We recently interviewed our customers and after sales support was by far the number one priority.

Technology is transforming how a traditional customer service team operates, with remote diagnostics and preventative maintenance quickly becoming the norm. This technology shift has made the importance of a quality service team paramount to its customers’ success, ensuring they can minimise machine downtime and maximise production efficiencies.

An obvious place to focus on is in after-sales service, for example in providing effective troubleshooting advice, education and training on how to get the most out of a purchase, or in finding better ways to provide replacement parts if there is an issue.

Service offerings within manufacturing companies can increase revenues, provide differentiation from competitors, and increase the loyalty customers feel^[3]. “Providing support generates a low-risk revenue stream over a long period of time,” a group of experts pointed out in Harvard Business Review in 2006.

“Aircraft manufacturers, for instance, can reap additional revenues for as long as 25 years after a sale. The longer the life of the asset, the more opportunities companies will find down the line.”

Seizing the opportunities

Machine tool buyers are increasingly expecting things like around-the-clock, unmanned operation and remote diagnostics. A machine breakdown is a critical issue, and around-the-clock responses to such an issue are expected.

As technology is enabling better use of an asset, it’s also enabling better service when there are issues. For ANCA, this means offering remote diagnostics and responding to error codes. Remotely logging on to a customer’s machine to explore issues is also possible.

But we need to continue to offer our customers face-to-face support as well. To up-skill our customers so they get the best use out of their investment.

Customer service also means responding swiftly to issues and with an installed base of over 6,000 machines, some over 20 years old, worldwide. It involves a lifetime of support for an asset, regardless of time zone or remoteness. A network of over 60 service technicians, and branches in USA, Europe, and China are also part of this, and all work in service of a simple goal: being number one in lifetime customer experience.

For all manufacturing companies, the future brings challenges, but many exciting possibilities. This includes Internet of Things concepts for customer support, and providing better information to customers on how their assets are being used through sophisticated analytics. The increasing importance of services is likely to continue, and technology will provide new and better ways of solving customers’ problems.

Five tips on how to deliver great customer service:-

1. Be Responsive: It’s important to respond quickly to all enquiries, even if it’s to say you are looking into the issue and will get back to the customer. There is nothing worse than non-responsiveness to a customer who is trying to get help. Customer support response times can dictate how a client perceives your company and can affect the overall customer experience. Keeping your customers informed in a timely manner by answering phone calls and responding to emails within a reasonable time-frame are essential to great customer service.
2. Ask for Feedback: You may be surprised by what you learn about your customers’ needs when you ask them what they think of your business, products, and services. Excellent customer service often comes down to consistently checking in with your customers and making sure they are happy with the products and services you’re providing. If you do that successfully, you are on your way to becoming known for providing excellent customer service. Just remember to use the feedback you receive to make improvements where needed.
3. Commit to Continuous Improvement: Ask yourself at the end of the day, “What is the one thing you are going to do tomorrow to make your business better?”
4. Invest in Great People: The quality of your customer service will never exceed the quality of the people providing it. If you plan to out-perform the competition, plan on investing heavily in a team that can deliver, treat employees well as there is a distinct correlation between the quality of after-sales service and customer intent to repurchase.
5. Be a Good Listener: Take the time to identify customer needs by asking questions and concentrating on what the customer is really saying. Our customers are the reason we are still in business and our job is to serve our customers to the best of our ability. Good customer service starts with a genuine desire to delight your customers.

Wayne Drysdale
Global After Sales Manager, ANCA

Simon Richardson, ANCA Product Manager has been working with Tool Grinders for many years and has had the privilege of visiting several tooling workshops around the world. Meeting with customers in different conditions and with different grinding requirements has built his knowledge on how to set up a work shop to get the most out of your machines. Simon said “Most of these tips would be part of an operators’ everyday activity, but is always good to remind ourselves of some important housekeeping tasks. Following these tips will help grinders produce better tools, increase productivity, reduce breakdowns and extend the life of their machine.”

1. Keep things tidy and in order: Every interaction with your company builds your brand – including your workshop. A tidy, clean and structured workplace will also ensure equipment is always within reach and readily available. This saves time, means items are not lost or misplaced, it also looks better when you have visitors. Start a 5S program within your company. You will be surprised of the results.
2. Tightly maintain the ambient and coolant temperatures: When producing accurate tools, it is critical the ambient and coolant temperature is stabilised within one degree of each other. A chiller will ensure the correct oil temperature is maintained and is definitely worth the investment.
3. Use the best coolant system you can’t afford: A lot of companies don’t spend enough or see the value in a decent coolant system. Clean filtered coolant will enhance the grinding performance and keep the machine looking good like new. A good filtration system will also ensure the longevity of the machine and maximise the return on investment.
4. Handle and store precious items carefully: Items such as collet adaptors and grinding wheels can be expensive and are critical to producing quality tools, so they need to be stored and handled with care.  Providing proper storage not only protects these valuable items but also keeps your inventory visible and manageable.
5. Dress and condition grinding wheels on a regular basis: Frequent dressing and conditioning of grinding wheels will ensure higher productivity, the wheels will perform better and the surface finish of the tools will improve. Worn wheels also makes your spindle work harder putting this critical machine part under unnecessary stress.
6. Keep collets clean and in good condition: This may sound like a no brainer, but you will be surprised how many grinding shops use collets with grinding marks on the nose and dirt inside the collet. Sometimes we just hang on to collets too long. Collets should be considered a consumable item and replaced as required.
7. Use high quality blanks and the correct insert depth into the collet: You can’t breed a winning racehorse from mules. Similarly, if you want to produce a good quality tool, start with a good quality blank. Put the maximum amount of tool into the collet, ANCA’s 3D Cimulator can calculate the maximum insertion depth for you automatically – preventing you from grinding into the collet.
8. Read the machine manual: If you buy a new machine or the machine is not familiar to you, then read the manual and documentation that comes with the machine, you will be amazed how much you will learn and time you will save. You may also avoid some expensive mistakes. Most companies will also have videos to help their customers understand how to use the tool machine, and here at ANCA we have been putting tool grinding tips out on a weekly basis. Follow #ToolTipTuesday on ANCA’s Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn feed to ensure you don’t miss any.
9. Follow the maintenance schedule advised by the machine manufacturer: Dedicate time at the end of the week to conduct the stipulated maintenance tasks and clean the machine. Like any technology, taking the time out to conduct preventative maintenance will be of great value in the long term. Preventative maintenance is better managed and has less impact on your company then unplanned breakdown maintenance.
10. Ensure the air supply and electrical power to the machine meet the machine manufacturers recommendations: Follow the guidelines as stipulated by the manufactures is terms of air quality and electrical supply to the machine. You will be surprised how many costly breakdowns could have been avoided by following a few simple rules upon installation.

 As well as being pleasing to the eye, highly polished flutes and gash surfaces improve chip evacuation and significantly improve tool performance and life. The smoother surface enables swarf (or chips) to exit more freely, preventing chip packing and material build up during machining.

ANCA is well known in the industry for its rigid grinding machines and has combined this with its sister company, ANCA Motion’s, LinX linear motor technology. Tools ground on our machines have a consistently high-quality cutting edge and surface finish. Since the product was launched customers have reported dramatically better results using the duel technologies.

Simon Richardson, ANCA Product Manager explained: “When machining softer or ductile materials, chips can stick to the carbide. If the chips created are not removed faster than they are being produced – the tool may not perform effectively. However, a better surface finish on the flute prevents the swarf from sticking onto the flute face of the tool while reducing the amount of heat that is generated when machining.”

“We realised that having a highly rigid machine with a cylindrical linear motor that boasts a smooth axis movement, would greatly improve the final surface finish on the tool. The research and development team conducted many hours of test grinding to rigorously test our assumption of what surface finish quality we thought was possible.”

An Alicona infinite focus XL metrology machine in ANCA’s Grinding Centre of Excellence was used to verify the results to Nano metre accuracy finding that a surface finish roughness average as low as 164.7nm (which translates to 0.16 Ra) was achieved.

Paul Bocchi, General Manager of ANCA Motion said: “An advantage of knowing ANCA’s customers so intimately is that we could immediately see how our technology would work seamlessly to improve performance.”

“The LinX cylindrical linear motors ensure there is no loss of preload or rigidity when grinding tools. As well as that, reversal errors are eliminated and higher contouring accuracy can be maintained due to a control algorithm we use which is unique to ANCA.”

Simon concluded: “Tools with highly polished surfaces means better cutting edges which will ensure extended tool life and improve the finish on the machined part. We have seen the demand for tools with a superior surface finish continue to increase and cutting tool manufacturers are producing more highly polished tools in larger quantities.”

Tips on achieving a superior tooling surface finish

• The quality of the grinding wheel is critical in achieving a high-quality surface finish. A fine-grit wheel can form small chips during grinding which could impart fine marks on the flute face and gash.
• Using a fine-grit also poses a challenge as the wheel must be fine enough to produce the required surface finish while maintaining a good toroid radius over a batch of tools.
• Ensure the wheel is properly trued and dressed so that it performs as expected.
• Ensure efficient coolant delivery and fine filtration systems are in place.
• Ensure the grinding wheels are balanced correctly using iBalance

ANCA is pleased to announce the Board has confirmed the appointment of an independent, non-executive Chairman for the ANCA Group Board.

Pat Boland, Joint Co-Founder said: “After a rigorous interview process, with several high-quality applicants, the Board has appointed Graeme Billings to this role.”

“Graeme comes from an impressive business background as both a Senior Manager, Independent Director and Chairman for several of Australia’s best Companies,” he concluded.

After his appointment, Graeme said: “The ANCA Group is a great success story. I look forward to working with the Board and Management in pursuit of the Company’s long term growth strategy.”

Formally a senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as leading the Firm’s Global Industrial Products sector, Graeme has extensive experience in assurance, transaction and consulting services with multinational and Australian companies in the automotive, construction and general manufacturing industries, spanning a 34-year period.

Graeme also draws on his experience with acquisitions, mergers and other business investigation areas, including succession planning.

In addition, he was a regular media commentator on the industrial products sector.

Graeme lives in Melbourne with his wife and they have three children.  Graeme is a passionate sports fan and particularly enjoys AFL, cricket and golf.

This position is effective immediately.

Fanar is one of the top five manufacturers of tools in Europe and is known in the market for its uncompromising quality. The Polish based company supplies a wide range of cutting tools for threading, drilling, milling and turning and specialises in shank tools for machining holes. Fanar’s global network of customers operate in the automotive, aerospace, medical and home appliances industries among others.

From the beginning Fanar has invested in the newest technology and machine tools to ensure they have the capability to offer the latest products. However, in 2016 Fanar realised that if it was going to remain ahead in the market they needed to improve the production time for manufacturing complex cutting tools.

Dariusz Ptaszkiewicz, Technical Director at Fanar said “In the era of e-bay people are accustomed to the convivence of online shopping where products are delivered within two to three days. This mindset can be challenging when customers expect this same type of service especially when purchasing specialist cutting tools. We needed to find a way to meet our customers’ expectations without compromising on quality.”

“The more complex the tool, the longer it takes to produce and may require several machines and different set ups as part of the grinding process. Essentially, this process can be quite lengthy. However, at FANAR we are not afraid of a challenge and we set ourselves the ambitious goal of delivery to our customers within seventy-two hours from receipt of the order.”

“We looked for a supplier who could provide a solution that enabled fast changeovers, precision and repeatability. Another important requirement was that the grinding machine had a software package that was intuitive to use and didn’t require highly skilled programmers.

 “After reviewing what was available on the market, we were confident that ANCA’s MX7 Linear was right for our businesses because of its numerous innovative features. The polymer concrete base, linear motors, ability to prepare tools (wheels) on the machine and integrated measuring system meant that we could achieve our goal of seventy-two-hour delivery with a grinding machine of the highest standard.”

First impressions and opening new markets
Dariusz Ptaszkiewicz, continued “When investing in a new product, there is always some concern that the machine may not deliver what was promised. ANCA’s MX7 Linear exceeded our expectations and I am yet to find a product that offers so many innovations and features that are unique to the market.”

“Once we had the latest technology, combined with our years of experience in grinding and metalworking, we could quickly begin production of the most complex geometry and high dimensional precision tools.”

 “I am excited that Fanar is now in a position where we can consider orders that in the past we avoided. The technology means we have the capacity to produce complex tools, even for individual orders, at the highest quality with minimal risk. With the investment, we have achieved our goal of significantly reducing lead times and production costs, while opening new potential markets for our business.”

Special features such as RoboMate have enabled simple but accurate automation and ANCA’s in process measuring system, Laser Plus, has meant that for the first time our company has implemented unmanned production without any concern that the products may be defective.

“Furthermore, the machine was ordered with the Statistical Process Control (SPC) software package for quality control purposes. This enables Fanar (as a trusted supplier of cutting tools) to continue to meet ISO 9001, ISO / TS 16949 standards.”