Knowing how

For the Winterthur group, the term 'engineering' covers the complete consulting, support and training program. This helps customers to optimize the quality and efficiency of their grinding processes and achieve added value. Product-enhancing services of this type are becoming more and more important, as grinding technology has to fulfil more requirements today than ever before. The issues arising from the use of new materials, demands for higher quality standards and increased productivity cannot be met with innovative products alone. Often enough the correct answers can only be found directly on site at the machine.

This and the fact that, in grinding technology, standard solutions can only be applied in the rarest of cases have led to the foundation of Winterthur Engineering. Here we bring together our expertise from research and development and the practical experience gained by application consultants, product technicians and service engineers of all brands. It is their knowledge and experience that we pass on to our customers, along with:

  • individual consulting and detailed grinding concepts
  • on-site system engineering
  • seminars
  • software solutions such as Optima, the program for optimizing grinding processes and
  • application-oriented books on grinding technology

In addition to concrete technical information, such as formulas for the calculation of the specific material removal rate, these books also contain basic information on grinding technology. The figure (interner Hinweis: Abbildung, Graf Zahnflankenschleifen, S. 168 – illustration, gear-grinding graph, p. 168) illustrates how complex the organization of the grinding process is. Here, Winterthur Engineering provides more clarity – which helps, for example, when customers need to know they can achieve target parameters. These target parameters include:

  • material removal rate
  • surface quality
  • low grinding forces
  • geometric accuracy
  • grinding times

Some of these parameters may be conflicting. For example, a high rate of material removal will be difficult to achieve with low grinding forces. Often the solution lies in the interplay between the workpiece, the grinding machine and the grinding wheel, in a previously unforeseen compromise. Finding this compromise requires experience, but also the courage to come up with unusual solutions. This courage can of course be the product of both over-confidence as well as the awareness of one's own capabilities – but our customers can rest assured that the latter is the case for our specialists, and can trust that they will be able to find the most suitable solution for any grinding task.