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Star Cutter Expands Grinding Business with Acquisition of Tru Tech Systems Farmington Hills, Mich., Sept. 1, 2023 – Star Cutter Company has acquired Tru Tech CNC grinding systems from Resonetics (Nashua, N.H.), assuming all design and manufacturing of the Tru Tech high precision CNC grinding machines currently performed at the Michigan facilities in Mt. […]
Ostrem Tool Company is a leading manufacturer of round shank solid carbide cutting tools. Located in Lyman, South Carolina, USA, Ostrem manufactures tools for the metalworking, automotive, and aerospace industries.
With nearly two dozen 5-axis CNC machines on their floor (including 14 ANCA machines) blank preparation is a crucial component in keeping every machine operating at capacity. It is critical that precision blank preparation never becomes a bottleneck in the process.
On a recent contract, Ostrem was manufacturing an ultra-precision 4 mm diameter reamer for the Aerospace industry. Because of the volume of the job, blank preparation was consuming almost 50% of Ostrem’s precision blank preparation capacity, occupying 5 machines per month.
Seeking a solution, Heath Bolds, president and owner of Ostrem, turned to TRU TECH Systems in Mt.Clemens, Michigan, U.S.A.
Known for its accuracy and industry leading feed rates, Ostrem chose the TRU TECH Revolution Perimetric™ Grinding System. The Revolution AUTO, equipped with a 3 pallet robotic loading system, was the perfect fit for the application. Its lights-out operation enabled
the machine to run continuously between shifts. As a result, one Revolution AUTO was able to absorb 80% of the workload needed for the job.
Another reason Ostrem chose the Revolution series was for its size range. The machine’s rigidity and flexible tooling allows the same machine that handles a 4 mm part with precision, to also handle much larger parts.
Ostrem manufactures a large tapered ball-nose endmill for the metalworking industry. Solid Carbide, 200 mm long and over 19 mm in diameter, it features an integral taper that is 125 mm in length. To maintain finish and size, grinding the blank had been taking over 60 minutes per part. Moving the endmill to the Revolution lowered the cycle time to just under 15 minutes, a 75% reduction in cycle time!
“I’m amazed at how fast the Revolution can cut through carbide”, said Heath. “When the TRU TECH machine arrived on our floor, the backlog on this one job alone was 90 days. The Revolution cleared that backlog in 3 weeks!”
“It’s always a fine balance to maintain the grinding wheel at higher feed rates, but the rigidity of the Revolution yields excellent wheel life, size and finish at very aggressive feeds. The Revolution sets up quickly, and makes fast, accurate parts with near-perfect concentricity. It’s really impressive.”
TRU TECH Systems provides Ostrem with more than just machines. They provide solutions. Ostrem uses TRU TECH’s REVOTM grinding wheel. The wheel is formulated to work in tandem with the Revolution’s aggressive feed rates.
“On some of our jobs, we’ve been able to grind over three thousand parts without ever having to dress the wheel,” Bolds said.
Ostrem Tool owns ten TRU TECH Grinders, including the Revolution and Revolution AUTO.
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