CNC centerless grinder for AS 9100C

Hank Matousek Sr. was perfectly content in his position as quality control manager at a bearing company during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and he had no idea that his employer’s growing financial woes and a pending layoff would become his surprise catalyst to found Grind All Inc. in Brunswick, Ohio, in 1972. Hank’s one-man shop with one used grinder in a basement has transformed today into a 45-machine, 52-employee, company. The Matousek family still places quality above all else. Hank’s creed – Do it right and make your product better – has been the cornerstone of Grind All’s operations since the company was founded.

“Do the best you can and people will come back. Do jobs better than anyone,” says Grind All President Henry Matousek Jr., quoting his father.

Grind All’s customer base has grown to include many aerospace and defense companies, leading it to set quality goals to obtain ISO 9001:2008 certification in 2011. Obtaining an additional certification to AS 9100C was the logical move for quality-conscious Grind All. Issued by SAI Global, AS 9100C is the standard for quality assurance in the aircraft, space, and defense industries. The certification, along with ISO 9001:2008 certification and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) registration, makes Grind All qualified to offer a complete range of services to even the most quality-conscious customers.

Obtaining AS 9100C certification is no easy task. Critical factors are the processes, characteristics, parts, and software that have a significant effect on product realization and on the use of the product. As Grind All began certification by evaluating its inventory of production machine tools – centerless grinders, OD grinders, ID grinders, surface grinders, honing machines, and flat lapping machines – it became clear that the company’s antiquated centerless infeed grinder would not make the cut. Although it had been successfully rebuilt and was working, it did not provide the reliability and precision required. Grind All saw two options – invest a significant amount of money to patch up the old grinder, or find an outside source for centerless grinding work. Neither option was acceptable. Henry Matousek Jr. turned to Total Grinding Solutions (TGS) for advice.

Affordable grinding technology

Combining 75 years of grinding experience, President Dan Geddes and company Partner Joe Giacalone founded TGS in Warren, Michigan, to design and build a centerless grinder that would be precise and boast the technological innovations of the best machines on the market.

“We applied our hands-on grinding experience with our in-depth knowledge of grinders and set out to design a quality centerless grinder that could handle even highest-volume production runs with extreme accuracy and consistency,” Giacalone says.

“We were looking to produce a more economical, more precision-based solution. We know what works, and we were determined to build a better mousetrap,” Geddes adds.

The TGS-CL-6020 CNC centerless grinder was launched in August 2014, when Matousek and his team saw the machine for the first time. Matousek appreciated the grinder’s modern design but he was especially pleased to learn that expensive tooling from his ailing centerless could cross over to the TGS-CL-6020.

The TGS CL-6020’s flexibility could accommodate Grind All’s requirement to run a variety of parts and, most likely, two or three different parts and materials per day. The controls are user-friendly to minimize training time and shorten the learning curve. The TGS-CL-6020 is priced for the middle market, whose options previously were low-cost basic machines or expensive high-end machines. After a series of test grinds, analyses, and consultations, Grind All management selected the TGS-CL-6020 to replace its old grinder.

TGS modified the machine controls to mimic what was already in place at Grind All, and with its new TGS machine, Grind All met AS 9100C criteria.

“The machine’s Fanuc controls are great. They’ve always been great. It’s nice to be able to call TGS or Fanuc for assistance rather than being tied in to some company’s proprietary software,” Matousek says. “Once our new centerless got going, it’s proven itself as a solid machine that will carry us into the future.”

Grind All Inc.

www.grindall.com

Total Grinding Solutions (TGS)

www.totalgrindingsolutions.com