CIMT 2023 – Supfina hard-coated brake disc grinding technology
… helps the green development of the new energy vehicle industry
The 18th China International Machine Tool show (CIMT 2023) will be held in April. As one of the four major machine tool shows in the world, it has attracted numerous exhibitors and visitors due to its significant influence and appeal. This year Supfina will strike a strong pose on the stage of CIMT2023 with its new products and technical solutions.
Over the years, CIMT has played an important role in the development of the machine tool industry, which successfully builds a premium platform for the intellectual exchange of machine tool industry worldwide, and points out a development for digital and intelligent innovation in new era for the majority of enterprises. CIMT 2023 arrives as scheduled. In the show of this year, the digital innovation and development will be heightened. As one of the global leaders in high-precision surface processing technology, Supfina will make a public appearance of its new products and solutions in CIMT 2023, and specifically introduce the Planet BD machine, a new hard-coated brake disc grinding machine, for the automotive industry. Mr. Siegel Christoph, General Manager of Supfina Germany, said, "With the development of new energy vehicle market, the hard-coated brake discs and high-precision grinding technology have brought widespread attention among the manufacturers in the automotive industry. While meeting the requirements of process innovation, the Planet BD grinding machine has also made upgrades from multiple dimensions, i.e., environmental protection and customer satisfaction etc.."
Adapting to development and focusing on breakthroughs
Supfina has supplied with high-precision surface machining machines and integrated process solutions for many industries. It combines the modern digital intelligence concepts with traditional manufacturing and processing, and invests a lot in research and development of new products and technologies. In the last years, Supfina has accumulated a lot of experiences in high-precision machining, and provided, with customer oriented, one-stop services from product research & development to automation production.
Mr. Siegel Christoph said, "The machine and attachment from Supfina will ensure an optimal performance of the products processed, which represents the best accuracy in the surface grinding industry." In the automotive industry, Supfina’s machining technology can be applied to almost all key components, such as crank and connecting rod transmission mechanisms, gears, transmissions, Powertrain, suspension system, chassis, steering device etc. With the goal of "Carbon Neutrality", the automotive industry has experienced a change to new energy vehicle, which sets a higher standard for the processing, accuracy, and materials of vehicle components. Following the trend of development, Supfina devotes itself to researching and developing advanced solutions and products, and constantly seeks breakthroughs in the change.
With the local control of air quality being stricter and Euro VII Emission Standards coming into force in 2025, the environmental protection and energy conservation & emission reduction will become a general trend worldwide in the future. The emission of PM2.5 and PM10 are now the main pollution of environment. Therefore, less emission of fine dust particles will become a hot topic in the automotive industry.
Compared to fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles use brake discs less with lower force due to electric motors. The casting-iron brake discs are faster to get corroded in raining, snowing and snow-melting agent, and the vehicle manufacturers have put the focus on anti-corrosion of brake discs. However, numerous fine particles will be generated from the friction between brake pads and brake discs, and fly into the air with the rotation of the wheel hub, which results in the rising up of PM2.5 and PM10 finally. Therefore, it is of significance to reduce the emission of fine particles for environmental protection. The hard-coated brake discs have emerged as the times require, however, as typical precision grinding workpieces, it must be upgraded to a new level in the grinding process.
Planet BD grinding machine enables grinding simple and efficient
Hard coating/material grinding brings a challenge for both grinding machine and tools in rigidity and stiffness. Especially when tungsten, titanium or niobium carbide has been applied by laser cladding (LMD), extreme high speed laser cladding (EHLA), high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) or cold gas spray technology to the disc surface. The heat from grinding will be transferred to the workpiece, and lead to a distortion, which finally has influence on the quality of workpiece. In order to achieve optimal braking performance, Supfina Planet BD grinding machine (Fig. 2), with a tailor suited grinding process, adjusts the structure and roughness of the friction ring surface based on the coating process requirement of different customers, and eliminates the run-out and thickness deviation to maintain the consistency in braking performance.
Planet BD provides a comprehensive processing solution with grinding and automation integrated, which is significant in core competitive advantages compared to other similar products in the market. Double disc grinding is a simultaneous machining of both friction ring surfaces, and with a rigid design of machine bed, Planet BD ensures highly static and dynamic stiffness of optimal vibration damping performance, which allows for precisely repeatable machining in short cycle time and high throughput of production. For cost control, the overall equipment efficiency (OEE) has been further improved by optimizing the process chain between coating and double disc grinding, and applying automated loading and unloading to different infeed and outfeed system. Supfina also adopts high-quality tools to make the machine performance and force upgraded, and reduce operation cost by extending tool lifetime.
Machine tools and process technology are the key to controlling the grinding process. The controllable, stable, and force-controlled grinding process of Planet BD ensures the highest accuracy in dimension and geometry, which sets up a new benchmark for brake disc grinding. The reliability of machine is largely related with the operation in addition to its design and manufacturing processes. As a part of process research and development, the reliability of Planet BD grinding machine is a focus that customer concerns. With years of double-end grinding experience, Supfina has verified the reliability of Planet BD grinding machine through the grinding of thousands of brake discs. When the operator has reasonable working behaviors and be good in machine maintenance, the failure rates of "Bathtub Curve" in three periods (i.e., early failure period, accidental failure period, and wear-out failure period) will be lower and the trend of curve will be more stable. This fully proves that the Planet BD grinder is easier for transport, installation and commissioning, and runs mass production faster and more stably, which effectively reduce the maintenance costs during the machine operation.
Set market layout in advance to meeting the market challenges
The global electric vehicle market now has entered a new stage. A concept of sustainable development and the related rules and regulation put forward higher requirements for environmental protection. The brake discs of traditional coatings or materials have initially shown the disadvantages in wear-resistance and stability. The new energy vehicles of medium and high-end will inevitably start to use new brake discs with a more advanced technology. The hard-coated brake disc is better in hardness, anti-corrosion, abrasiveness, high temperature resistance, and corrosion resistance, which is necessary to reduce the emission of fine particles from braking systems and provide anti-corrosion for electric vehicle brakes. It will definitely be widely used in the coming years.
grinding technology by actively seizing the opportunities in the low-carbon market." The Planet BD grinding machine provides a feasibility in customization, together with optional automation items. Supfina has run thousands of hard-coated brake discs for the development of processing and prototyping, which fully demonstrates the reliability of machine to customers. The demand of this new technology is potential among the automotive companies and suppliers, and the top automotive companies in Europe have currently made orders for this machine type.
Therefore, Supfina Germany believes that Planet BD grinding machine will be fully recognized in the market with continuous good feedback.
Supfina will continue to make efforts in technologies related with low-carbon and sustainable development in long term, and help the healthy development of the entire industrial chain by taking an outstanding position in the new technical and industrial development of automotive industry.
