Automated Fine Grinding for The Timken Company
USA: Supfina supplies extensive automation for the Spiro F5 fine grinding system to The Timken Company.
Supfina’s Spiro series are a highly versatile and customizable line of Fine Grinding systems that can meet any customer’s need. Supfina recently partnered with The Timken Company with their complex automation needs, customizing a Spiro F5 with material handling robotics.
As these fine grinding machining systems specialize in providing highly precise plane parallelism and flatness, the solution Supfina specifically engineered for Timken also included a level of robotics and automation not seen before with the Spiro line.
Joseph Albanese, a Mechanical Engineer for Supfina, discussed the challenges and successes of adding automation to the Spiro F5. “This customer had to load many workpieces in a few minutes to keep up with our Spiro machine,” said Albanese. “Due to the size of the workpieces, this was a major time and ergonomic issue that had to be solved. A robot, vision system, and surrounding systems allowed us to cut the load time significantly through automation. This has the added benefit of maximizing uptime on our fine grinder.”
A representative from Timken praised both the simplicity and robustness when discussing the features of the machine. “[We liked the] simple setup and operation, and that operators were trained and qualified in a matter of days.”
The representative from Timken also lauded the response time. “Supfina was quick to respond to any process, mechanical, or system issues that arose…sending an engineer immediately to our facility.”
Supfina Machine Company CEO and President Andrew Corsini said of the partnership with Timken “The success of the relationship between Supfina and Timken stemmed from the desire to collaborate on a unique solution that was tailored to Timken’s needs. The end result was a system that dramatically improved an area of their manufacturing.”
Timken also spoke highly about the relationship with Supfina, describing it as “excellent through development, production release, and support”.
About Supfina´s Spiro Fine Grinding product line
No matter the workpiece properties, The Supfina Spiro provides the best fine grinding solution for achieving highly precise plane parallelism. Whatever the material, the job can be done to the most stringent tolerance requirements in the micron range, with the precision that you’ve come to expect from Supfina.
About Supfina
Founded over 100 years ago, Supfina is an industrial precision manufacturing solutions firm. Supfina is renowned in their ability to create customized systems for superfinishing, fine grinding, flat finishing, and double-disk grinding, including comprehensive automation solutions.
The customization of Supfina’s component manufacturing systems are robust, ensuring a desired solution to any specification. This flexibility allows for quick adaptability to changing workpieces or surface parameters due to rapidly changing customer needs and market demands.
About The Timken Company
The Timken Company (NYSE: TKR; www.timken.com) designs a growing portfolio of engineered bearings and power transmission products. With more than a century of knowledge and innovation, we continuously improve the reliability and efficiency of global machinery and equipment to move the world forward. Timken employs more than 17,000 people globally, operating from 42 countries.
