Studer Dual Grinder Retrofitted with SINUMERIK 840Di at Carpenter Advanced Ceramic


A Studer Dual Grinder has been retrofitted by CNC Design for Carpenter Advanced Ceramic in Melbourne, Australia.

The Siemens Sinumerik 840 Di control was the first choice for retrofitting a dual grinder in order to control complex, synchronous grinding operations. The operator's job in the setup process was simplified by an interface which could be operated intuitively.

On a type Studer S 45-6, Carpenter Advanced Ceramics of Melbourne, Australia, produces parts for the aerospace industry that are made of special ceramics. Two grinding programs can be executed simultaneously on a dual-channel Siemens CNC Sinumerik 3 for external and internal grinding of a part. Over time, it became increasingly more difficult to maintain the old Sinumerik 3 CNC because spare parts were lacking and setup operations for new parts were no longer state of the art. Carpenter therefore decided to retrofit the grinder. One important objective of the retrofitting was to reduce machine downtimes to a minimum.

The Simodrive 1FT5 servomotors and 610 series drives were still very reliable and they were to be retained; only the control was to be replaced. Carpenter selected a new CNC solution with the double-channel Sinumerik 840Di. The Sinumerik 840Di was the best choice for interfacing the 5 analog axes and 2 spindles with a powerful CNC. Special screens developed by CNC Design simplifies the operator's job in setting the part. In addition, the grinder was outfitted with Simatic S7 300 (ET 200M) I/O modules, an OP 10c operator panel, a mobile manual operating panel, SINDNC and a remote diagnosis system.

In a mere three weeks, the entire new control – complete with peripherals and software – was installed, put into operation, tested and the operators were trained, thus keeping production downtime to an absolute minimum.