United Grinding North America Inc. (Miamisburg, OH) has reached a major milestone with the recent delivery of its 500th Ewag RS Series tool grinding machine to the subsidiary of tool manufacturer Mapal Dr. Kress KG (Mapal; Aalen, Germany) in Mlada Boreslav in the Czech Republic.

Mapal started manufacturing PCD tools in 1980 and chose RS series manually-operated tool grinding machines specifically to process ultra-hard PCD cutting material. The company, which now runs two shifts per day using 22 RS 15 and three RS12 grinding machines, needed reliability and precision. These machines fulfilled their specifications of less than 2 µm over the long term, as well as their need for flexibility to machine a variety of cutting edge geometries.

“Back then, the RS series of tool grinding machines was the only one with the kinematics to assure these properties,” explained Christian Molch, the managing director of Mapal’s PCD Competence Center in Pforzheim. “Ewag tool grinding machines have proven to be in a class of their own in terms of their stability, precision and flexibility.”

Options and add-on features make it possible to grind even the most complex geometries, such as convex and, in some cases (but not with PCD), concave radii and cutting edges with axis angles in the shortest amount of time. In addition, the latest version of the RS 15 tool grinding machine is quick and easy to set up and operate. Mapal uses RS 15 tool grinding machines for a broad range of drilling and boring tools, milling tools, parting-off tools and indexable inserts made of PCD, in all variations, cutting left or right, with inner contours and axis angles. The machines are used for both producing new and reworking worn cutting edges.

“As we strive to fit our global sites with uniform production and operating equipment as part of our international production strategy, we grasped the opportunity of integrating the 500th R15 into the manufacturing process of our subsidiary in in the Czech Republic,” explained Molch, who acknowledged that alternative technologies – such as eroding or laser machining – have also become commonplace.

The process of grinding PCD tools is seen as essential by Mapal specialists, prompting Molch to expound on his positive experience with the manually-operated tool grinding machines: “In light of their numerous benefits, we will continue to give preference to these manual grinding machines when grinding PCD tools here in Germany, despite the high personnel cost.”