B&R Controls: A well-designed grind

The Fermat Machinery company has been manufacturing high-precision CNC cylindrical grinding machines since 2007. It mainly serves the markets in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the USA, with approximately thirty machines manufactured and sold every year.

The high quality of Fermat’s machines and the premium services they are able to offer are owed to the company’s state-of-the-art facilities, in particular its vast manufacturing hall featuring modern precision manufacturing machines such as gantry milling machines, boring machines, guiding surface grinders, and more. The company produces all the basic mechanical components for its machines entirely in-house. Purchased components come exclusively from renowned global manufacturers. The overall quality of products and services is ensured by an in-house design department, a broad sales network and a professional service department.

BUB E 50/1000 CNC universal cylindrical grinder with a new control system developed in partnership with B&R.

Performance and usability

Fermat has always been a leader in the field of CNC grinding technology. Among the new machines the company presented at the 2013 EMO trade fair in Hanover was the BUB E 50/1000 CNC with a new CNC system developed in partnership with B&R. This innovative grinder with a double-swivel grinding head and variable speed control is capable of grinding interior and exterior cylindrical and conical surfaces in both the longitudinal and plunge directions. It also allows grinding of workpiece faces by the side of the grinding wheel. It can be used for both single part and small batch production – with precision grinding of workpieces weighing up to 500 kg – and for economical grinding in series production. The BUB E 50/1000 CNC grinder meets the growing demand for increased performance – with precision down to 0.002 mm – while maintaining versatility and ease of operation. The control system is based on the B&R Power Panel for control and HMI as well as B&R ACOPOSmulti drives for motion control. Bringing all of the machine’s control technology together on one platform greatly improves usability, while open control hardware and software allow the machine to be adjusted for any specific grinding process according to customer requirements.

The workspace of the BUB E 50/1000 CNC grinder with double-swivel grinding head, hydrodynamic bearings and continuously variable grinding spindle speed

Innovative open control system

The new CNC system used in the BUB E 50/1000 CNC grinder was developed in cooperation with B&R and makes use of the comprehensive hardware and software technology offered by the automation specialist in this area. The openness of the software in the areas of PLC/HMI/CNC allowed the control system to be tailored exactly to the machine with an emphasis on maximum operating efficiency for the end user. It mainly serves the markets in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the USA, with approximately thirty machines manufactured and sold every year. The high quality of Fermat’s machines and the premium services they are able to offer are owed to the company’s state-of-the-art facilities, in particular its vast manufacturing hall featuring modern precision manufacturing machines such as gantry milling machines, boring machines, guiding surface grinders, and more. The company produces all the basic mechanical components for its machines entirely in-house. Purchased components come exclusively from renowned global manufacturers. The overall quality of products and services is ensured by an in-house design department, a broad sales network and a professional service department. Performance and usability Fermat has always been a leader in the field of CNC grinding technology. Among the new machines the company presented at the 2013 EMO trade fair in Hanover was the BUB E 50/1000 CNC with a new CNC system developed in partnership with B&R. This innovative grinder with a double-swivel grinding head and variable speed control is capable of grinding interior and exterior cylindrical and conical surfaces in both the longitudinal and plunge directions. It also allows grinding of workpiece faces by the side of the grinding wheel. It can be used for both single part and small batch production – with precision grinding of workpieces weighing up to 500 kg – and for economical grinding in series production. The BUB E 50/1000 CNC grinder meets the growing demand for increased performance – with precision down to 0.002 mm – while maintaining versatility and ease of operation. The resulting user interface enables fast commissioning and makes operation and maintenance safe and easy – all while preserving open access to CNC programming so that users can create their own programs in G-code. Currently, the CNC core of the control system interpolates three axes simultaneously – two linear (x and y) and one rotational (c). Many different types of contours such as radius, convex/concave course, cones, spheres, etc. can be machined this way. The control hardware meets all of the industry’s most stringent requirements for safety, compactness and modularity, and it can be connected to external linear encoders. In addition, the x-axis of the machine is equipped with an external linear encoder directly connected to the ACOPOSmulti drives to provide maximum positioning precision.

Cooperation as the foundation for innovation

The BUB E 50/1000 CNC uses state-of-the-art components to give the machine its competitive edge. "The professional approach of B&R’s experts combined with our engineers’ years of experience has allowed us to develop a remarkable control system open to even the most complex tasks of grinding between centers,” says Michal Bureš from Fermat. "The new control system allows Fermat to easily create custom grinding machine configurations according to customer requirements while maintaining its ease of use. Our close cooperation with B&R’s development department offers great potential for future innovations."