2015 was a very busy year for Meister Abrasives USA—developing products, capabilities and information resources to help our customers become even more productive. Here are some highlights in case you missed them:
A Major Aerospace Case Study — “Accelerated Grinding” published in AEROSPACE MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN, reported on how engineers at Woodward Inc. broke through a part production bottleneck by upgrading their conventional abrasive wheels to Meister’s CBN grinding wheels.
“A huge, highly automated CNC system weighing more than 10 tons will make it possible for Meister Abrasives USA to produce large vit CBN and diamond abrasive wheels up to 1,225 mm (approximately 4ft.) in diameter.”
Big Wheels: Meister Abrasives USA expanded its large-diameter wheel manufacturing capabilities with processes, materials, and equipment mirroring those used by Meister Abrasives in Switzerland. with this installation in place, Meister Abrasives will be able to manufacture its entire line of superabrasive wheels (with the exception of a few specialty products) from virtually identical manufacturing operations in the Unites States and Europe. This will allow the company to balance its production scheduling to better serve customers throughout the world.
Surprising porous hybrid-bond dresser technology developed: These unique tools not only improve the performance of both internal and external CBN wheels, we also learned that stationary dressers using this technology can produce dressing results that were only possible in the past with rotary dressers. Read more here.
Top Ten Bore Grinding Problems and how to solve them: The Meister Applications team got together to consider the most common problems faced in bore grinding and how to resolve them. We started this 10-part series in 2014 and completed it in 2015. Now you can see all of the Top Ten Bore Grinding Solutions from one location.
New Test Center for injection nozzle grinding: In 2015 Meister became the first abrasive products manufacturer to have its own internal grinding test center to prove out abrasive product solutions under simulated conditions for bore and seat grinding. With this commitment to technical leadership in internal grinding we’re able to significantly reduce lead times and constructively support customers in the continuing development of their processes.
Meister Abrasives will introduce products incorporating its innovative 3D abrasives technology early in 2016
More To Come in 2016: Some significant Meister initiatives that we will have much more to say about include:
- Introduction of products incorporating game-changing new 3-D abrasives technology.
- New large wheel product announcement.
- Semiconductor abrasives product and applications developments.
- Additional investments in the development of advanced dresser technology.
In September, we are looking forward to visiting with our customers in Chicago at a better-than-ever 2016 IMTS exhibit. Come by our booth to see exhibits of advanced automotive, aerospace, medical, cutting tool, bearing, fuel-injection, and semiconductor/photovoltaic components manufactured with Meister Abrasives technology. You’ll also be able to check out some other advanced grinding technology– so stay tuned.
Finally, to our many customers and friends, thanks for helping make 2015 another fine year for Meister USA. Here’s wishing success to all in 2016!
Bruce Northrup
Vice President & General Manager
Meister Abrasives, USA
