Ziersch

New grinding machine fills a gap in the market

With the new ZR 35 cylindrical grinding machine, Ziersch GmbH from Thuringia is responding to changing market requirements. The modular machine concept owes its high cutting performance, precision and compactness not least to the extremely flexible CNC solution from Mitsubishi Electric with which Ziersch equips all its machines.

Ziersch GmbH, founded in 2006 with 50 employees in Ilmenau, Thuringia, builds grinding machines for both, individual and series production. Accuracies of up to 0.001 mm are offered, as well as maximum flatness, plane parallelism and surface quality for grinding areas from 400 x 250 mm to 5,000 x 2,200 mm. Most recently, the company added the ZR 35 cylindrical grinding machine for medium and large batch sizes to its portfolio of surface, portal, rotary table and cylindrical grinding machines (internal and external).

Space-saving grinding

“Grinding machines have to be kept as compact as possible as production space is getting increasingly expensive,” explains Managing Director Frank Ziersch. The ZR 35 meets these requirements with a revolutionary concept: grinding is done from top to bottom, instead of from back to front. To achieve the requirements full CNC axes have been rearranged. With an integrated automatic part change system as well as an inclined infeed arrangement with adjustable angle from +6 to -10 degrees, the machine achieves minimum cycle times.

As for all grinding machines from Ziersch, control technology from Mitsubishi Electric is used. The C80 CPU, which has been specially optimized for the CNC, is reliable and offers functional safety in addition to high productivity and user-friendliness. “Our C80 not only offers added value,” confirms Frederik Gesthuysen from Mitsubishi Electric, “it also reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the end user.”  Three C80 CPUs can be plugged in, controlling a total of 21 subsystems and 48 axes. Intuitive and user-friendly operation is provided by the Mitsubishi Electric GOT2000, in which the interfaces of the individual CPUs are already integrated.

Modular grinding

Ziersch values CNC technology from Mitsubishi Electric not only for its high performance, but also in particular for its flexibility and expandability. This means that customer requirements can be taken into account and additional accessories can be retrofitted without any problems. “We are using control and drive technologies from Mitsubishi Electric, as we are highly appreciating the flexibility and are able to implement our uniform operating philosophy,” explains Frank Ziersch.

Ziersch emphasises the modular design and the high degree of standardization. Decades of grinding experience have defined an optimally functioning standard in which all useful options are already included in the basic machine. Any extra options can be easily adapted at a later date thanks to the modular concept of the machines. This shortens delivery times and allows customers to put new grinding machines into operation more quickly.

Grinding for the future

A proof of sucess is the supply industry. As supply contracts are getting increasingly short term and manufacturers must be able to adapt their machines to frequently changing components a correspondingly flexible and cost-effective machine, such as the ZR 35, is an advantage.

Ziersch knows he is well equipped for the future: “The requirements for grinding machines are becoming increasingly complex, and with Mitsubishi Electric as our partner for technologies and support, we believe we are well positioned for the future,” summarizes Frank Ziersch, “together we can keep pace with the market and solve engineering challenges in the long term.”