What Sets Our CNC Profile Grinders Apart
Since acquiring Frasal Tool, United Centerless Grinding & Thread Rolling is one of only five US companies operating these exceptional machines on our shop floor:
2002 Doebeli/Petewe CNC Form Grinding Machine
1998 Doebeli/Petewe CNC Form Grinding Machine
CNC Form Grinders Set a New Standard of Excellence
Unlike conventional form grinding equipment, CNC form grinders hold a complete profile on a single grinding wheel, with left-to-right or right-to-left continuity. Because the wheel never withdraws from the workpiece, CNC form grinding won’t leave transition marks on your part. The result is a seamless, perfectly aligned part with a flawless surface finish.
Conventional form grinding
Before the advent of the CNC form grinder, a precision grinding company’s only option was to use an outer diameter (OD) grinder, requiring multiple wheels to dress a complete form. With the first wheel, the operator might plunge 20% of the profile, meaning a finished profile would demand five separate wheels, five individual plunges, and five transitions from one wheel to the next—transitions that were nearly impossible to perform flawlessly.
CNC form grinding with Doebeli/Petewe machines
United CGTR’s CNC form grinding capabilities enable single-point grinding for even the most complex profiles and features. Using one sharply pointed wheel, we perform a controlled, continuous grind that completes the full profile without ever detaching from the workpiece. Our digital CNC form grinding program tracks the tool path across the workpiece at a consistent speed.
The Benefits of CNC Form Grinding
In addition to benefits like better speeds, lower costs, and increased quality, our CNC form grinding service provides a few key advantages to our customers, including:
Precision tolerances
United CGTR achieves critical tolerances like no other shop—and we’re talking tolerances as tight as +/- 0.00005”. You might assume that our reputation for being a tight tolerance shop is owed to the newest, most modern equipment available. In truth, it’s our savvy repurposing of older machines that permits us to achieve such impressive tolerances.
While modern machines are constructed from lightweight materials such as aluminum and sheet metal, our older machines, such as the Doebeli/Petewe grinders, are built upon granite surface foundations, which prevent thermal expansion. Thanks to these granite plate bases, your part won’t expand or contract with temperature changes, allowing us to achieve exceptional precision.
Small radii
Though achieving a tight radius with old-school manual grinding is possible, conventional methods can’t ensure consistency from part to part. Our 20-plus-year-old Doebeli/Petewe CNC form grinders, however, can achieve radii as small as .004”, and with our Wasino CNC grinder, we can go down to .002”.
Superior surface finishes
We know a smooth surface finish is application-critical for many of our customers’ parts. Both of our Doebeli/Petewe CNC grinders can deliver a surface roughness of 16 Ra straight off the machine. That’s twice as smooth as the 32 Ra industry standard for finished parts!
United CGTR leverages these superior surface finishing capabilities when crush roll forming parts such as medication capsules. We form capsule halves by pressing a specialized gel onto a series of 1/8“ diameter pins. If the roll’s surface finish isn’t sufficiently smooth, the gel won’t apply evenly over the pin and may fail to release from the tool.
Come to United CGTR for CNC Profile Grinding Services
You can find other manufacturers who offer profile grinding services, but no one provides the levels of precision, consistency, and quality offered by United Centerless Grinding & Thread Rolling.
