Pier Foundry & Pattern Shop in St. Paul, MN, recently added a new automatic grinding unit to increase throughput for finishing castings, and to reduce lead times. The installation was prompted by capacity constraints, and represents the ferrous foundry’s first use of automatic grinding. It aims to double its finish grinding capacity with the new machine.
Pier Foundry is an ISO-certified manufacturer of gray and ductile iron and austempered ductile iron castings.
Palmer MAUS North America installed its 300 G automatic grinder, a design for small- and medium-sized production lots of parts with unit weights of 2.2 lb. to 1,750 lb. The flexibility of the range promotes complete part grinding, rapid changeover, and simple offline programming. Also, the SAM automatic grinding machines offer high levels of rigidity and excellent material removal capability, with spindle power from 3 kW (4 hp) to 150 kW (200 hp.)
Palmer MAUS North America is a joint venture of the Italian supplier MAUS Srl and Palmer Manufacturing & Supply Inc., a developer of no-bake foundry systems. In addition to the new machine, Palmer MAUS provided training on the programming table and software to create the fixtures.
Pier Foundry’s 300 G grinder was installed in December 2017, with the machine delivered preassembled and needing only to be connected with air collection and electrical systems before the start-up.
“Overall, Pier Foundry was pleased with the fast installation. Meeting the needs of our customers is very important to Pier, and we expect this machine to be a part of our steps into automation to improve efficiency, safety and deliveries,” according to Matt Grilz, president of Pier Foundry.