Questions with Eric Schwarzenbach

1. As a leader in CNC tool grinding technology, when did Rollomatic enter the N. American market?

Founded in the 1980s, Rollomatic is a private Swiss company specializing in the design and manufacture of high-precision CNC machines for production grinding of cutting tools, cylindrical grinding, and laser cutting ultra-hard materials. We provide complete manufacturing solutions for grinding precision tools and parts, including wheel dressing and measuring finished parts. Rollomatic has shipped CNC grinding machines into the North American medical industry for bone drill and bur production for 30 years, so we have vast experience in grinding stainless- steel and steel cutting instruments.

2. What grinding solutions does Rollomatic deliver to customers?

Our experience with the orthopedic industry has taught us to develop and offer grinding solutions so customers can efficiently produce a large variety of orthopedic cutting tools - bone drills, hip reamers, arthroscopic burs, bones saws, cranial perforators, tissue shavers, and bone taps. Spherical cutters and hip rasps are largely used to prepare the hip socket and femur for hip joint replacements. Apart from the cutting geometry grinding, Rollomatic offers pinch/peel grinding machines for the attachment of orthopedic tools – a form of quick disconnect feature at the end of the tool shank. We can grind any grip feature of all known handpiece brands.

3. How does Rollomatic’s R&D meet customers’ demands?

We constantly work to enhance grinding speed, quality, and capabilities to benefit our customers. Application engineers grind tools and parts every day to find ways to improve existing processes or validate customers’ tools. We test new superabrasive wheels to increase feed rates, surface finish, and minimize bur issues with stainless steel. Our in-house developed desktop tool design software, VirtualGrindPro, is constantly updated and expanded.

4. How do Rollomatic grinding machines meet the future demand of connectivity and Industry 4.0?

Our solutions range from simple machine monitoring software to a future off-site platform providing modular cloud services including computing, data storage, and analytics. RMonitor machine monitoring software can be used as a live production cockpit to improve productivity, provide scheduling flexibility, and display manufacturing history. RConnect is designed to extract data from your Rollomatic machines using standard communication protocol, OPC-UA. The data can then be transferred to ERP programs, factory management software, or measuring machines.

5. Has Rollomatic developed any robotic solutions?

The new Kawada humanoid industrial robot can easily be placed where a person usually operates. It uses its head and two arms, equipped with cameras, to take over tedious, dangerous, or repetitive tasks, allowing workers to focus on areas that require creativity to generate greater added value.

For more information:
http://www.Rollomatic.Ch/en/contact/usa