United CGTR Adds CNC Profile Grinding Capabilities for Making Crush Roll and Circular Profile Form Tooling
Having recently acquired Allen Precision to add Swiss precision machining capabilities, United Centerless Grinding & Thread Rolling (United CGTR) is proud to announce another expansion to their company with the successful acquisition of another new manufacturing division: CNC profile grinding to give them the ability to make crush roll, I.D. form and other circular profile tooling.
United CGTR acquired this division from Connecticut-based Frasal Tool, an ASR-certified and ANAB-accredited custom manufacturing member of NTMA and CTMA. United CGTR builds upon their foundational services—centerless grinding, thread rolling, wire EDM, and Swiss precision machining—to deliver enhanced fulfillment options to industries including aerospace, medical, armament, and others.
”These specialty services are getting harder and harder to come by, and the costs are steep,” explains United CGTR president NJ Goulet. “Bringing these grinding and tooling techniques in-house directly benefits our customers by enabling significantly shorter tooling lead times. What was once an 8-10 week lead time has been reduced to 1-2 weeks!”
The new division adds tremendous value to United CGTR’s operations. Still, the acquisition was unexpected, emerging as a possibility only as the precision grinding company sought a new sourcing partner for their profile grinding needs for their required crush roll and circular profile form tooling needs.
After their previous long-time partner closed down, United CGTR was referred to Frasal Tool, a fully equipped local shop that revealed that they, too, were preparing to shutter their profile grinding and related tooling divisions. That’s when Goulet saw an opportunity for United CGTR to acquire the division and bring this high-performance service in-house.
“We’re now able to profile grind the crush roll form and other circular profile tooling used by our centerless form grinding department,” says Goulet. “United CGTR already has many years of CNC experience, and now we can hone that skill even further by making our own form tools.”
CNC Profile Grinding at United CGTR
United CGTR’s profile grinding delivers superior part-to-part consistency over alternative grinding methods. A CAD file guides the CNC profile grinding equipment over tight tolerance geometry and forms, consistently meeting specifications for size, complexity, roundness, concentricity, and surface finish.
United CGTR currently prioritizes precision profile grinding for creating custom carbide tooling for complex parts and projects.
Crush Roll and Circular Profile Form Tooling at United CGTR
When used to make crush roll and other circular form tooling, United CGTR’s profile grinding equipment can hold tolerances of +/-.00005”, bringing the company into the limited ranks of US manufacturers with such tight tolerance capabilities.
With carbide as United CGTR’s tooling material of choice, each custom-made tool can create an average of 10,000 parts before sharpening is required. And when a tool does wear down, it can be sharpened within hours in-house, saving significant time and money compared to the alternative of outsourcing this service.
“The ability to make and maintain our own carbide tools means less downtime in our precision centerless grinding department,” Goulet says, enabling faster turnaround times and more competitive rates for customers.
United CGTR’s enhanced tooling capabilities are particularly beneficial for simultaneously machining multiple diameters and radii. “We are customizing tooling more efficiently than ever,” reveals Goulet. “With a tool that we’ve customized to hold the entire form of a part, we can transfer that form into a grinding wheel in a single step. The older diamond-and-cam method necessitated grinding in multiple steps, but a custom tool can perform all three processes at once.”
About United Centerless Grinding & Thread Rolling
Connecticut-based United CGTR has been family-owned and operated since 1960. With their proximity to Pratt & Whitney and the Northeast’s manufacturing corridor, United CGTR began with aerospace as their primary service industry, then grew to include manufacturing for medical, armament, marine, automotive, and many other industries. Today, the AS9100 and ISO 9001:2015 certified, third-tier manufacturer operates out of a climate-controlled facility with 16,000 square feet of manufacturing space, where they provide parts and part solutions to customers seeking precision centerless grinding, thread rolling, wire EDM, and adjacent services. The company also has a second facility with 5,400 square feet of manufacturing space focused exclusively on Swiss screw machining.
