Adjustable Volume
The FLX tool grinder from Star Cutter Co. can grind carbide tools up to 2" in diameter and 8" in length, and can change when volume requirements change.
Unveiled at IMTS 2024, the FLX tool grinder from Star Cutter Co. in Farmington Hills, Michigan, can grind carbide tools up to 2″ in diameter and 8″ in length, and is designed to fit the bill in a variety of different production environments. The five-axis machine also is capable of facilitating change when volume requirements change.
When designing FLX, Star focused on flexibility so users could modify the machine to meet very different grinding needs. An FLX setup can include multiple wheel-changing stations with wheels of up to 6″ in diameter. Toolmakers “can go from a simple machine with no wheel change up to a maximum of 15 wheels,” noted Aaron Remsing, Star’s grinding division product manager. “To the best of my knowledge, we have the highest amount of wheel-change capacity on the market right now.”
FLX also offers automation capabilities for continuous production of large numbers of parts. With waterfall programming, the machine can produce up to 1,105 tools before unloading.
“We made it a scalable solution for the very high-volume guys because it has an automation bay that is truly modular,” Remsing said. Since the bay is a standalone unit, he explained, Star can configure an automation cell at its facility to meet the needs of a customer already using the machine, then ship the cell to that customer.
“In the past couple of years, we’ve seen quite a few instances where a customer starts out with a basic machine and then, either because they’ve intentionally gone after high-volume work or because they found themselves in some larger projects, they needed to add a robot that they didn’t want (to pay for) upfront,” he said. “Now they can do that.”
In this case, automation comes in the form of the Fanuc LR Mate 200iL, a six-axis industrial robot. A longer-arm version of the 200i, the 200iL is capable of reaching farther into the machine cabinet in order to make wheel changes, Remsing noted. “Everybody wants the robot to do more than just load and unload parts,” he said. “We are currently the only ones doing wheel change and part change in a single setup.”
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