Shivayu Aerospace Components is a fast-growing defence components manufacturer that is using reverse engineering and technical know-how to offer futuristic technologies to the Indian Aerospace and defence sector. The company is on a mission to upscale India’s self-reliance in defence manufacturing with import substitutes and cost-effective alternatives to the usually pricey imported components
For a very long time for precision machining, India has looked out and depended on foreign manufacturers. Over the last couple of decades, the Indian manufacturing sector has seen a steady rise in domestic manufacturing of high precision components, especially catering to the automotive sector which is very price-sensitive. The need of developing indigenous products triggered making in India. Today, there are many Indian machine builders and cutting tool manufacturers who compete with multinational brands locally and globally.
India has many companies that manufacture solid carbide tools which are intensively used in the machining sector. It is assumed that India has around 300 plus solid carbide tool manufacturers. Solid Carbide Tools are manufactured in 5 axis CNC machines, which is not manufactured by any Indian brand. Apart from the German manufacturer WIDMA, who is manufacturing it in India, all the machines are imported, such as ANCA, DECKEL, ROLLOMATIC,SCHUTTE, TGT, REINECKER, and WALTER.
The 5 axis CNC machines consist of numerous important components, one of the critical parts is the precision wheel arbor.
A precision wheel arbor is a semi-capital tool that is required to support the grinding wheel on the 5 axis CNC machine. The machine builder, majorly through its supplier delivers the wheel arbor along with the new machine to the solid carbide cutting tools manufacturers.
Over time of operations, within 3-4 years the precision wheel arbor losses its calibration, resulting decline in accuracy. The continuous loading and unloading of grinding wheels also tear the wheel arbor. For the replacement of the precision wheel arbor, the cutting tool manufacturers used to depend upon foreign manufacturers, making it a costly affair. Most of the time the cutting manufacturer is forced to order in bulk, which was a big revenue loss.
KTA Spindle Toolings had many customers in the cutting tool manufacturing industry who were using their other products. Famous for delivering high-quality tool holders, the existing customers approached KTA Spindle with the challenge of getting a locally made high precision wheel arbor.
“Many Indian solid carbide manufacturers who use 5 axis CNC machines approached KTA Spindle Toolings to find an efficient and economical solution to help reduce the overall operational cost of the machines. More than a business, but offering a solution KTA Spindle decided to invest in developing a Made in India wheel arbor”, shared Santosh Tipale, Sales Director, KTA Spindle Toolings.
KTA is India’s leading precision tool holder manufacturing company and has a production capacity of manufacturing 10,000 tool holders per month. Today, KTA exports around 60% of its manufactured products to different countries.
Now, since most of the OEM’s of the 5 axis CNC machines are based abroad, this process of periodic replacement of such important parts is very expensive and time consuming as the arbors are required to be bought in bulk. As India lacked a domestic manufacturer of such necessary parts, Indian solid carbide tool manufacturers were heavily reliant on the foreign OEM’s.
After following a thorough Research & Development process, KTA came up with specialized precision wheel arbors, which was highly appreciated by their customers. “One of the major challenges we faced was the wheel arbors are not standard. The specification of wheel arbors use to vary with each OEMs”, commented Mr Tipale.
KTA manufactures the precision wheel arbors pertaining to the qualitative requirements of each machines. All KTA precision wheel arbors undergo sub-zero (-90°C) treatment to prevent holders from deformation and increase life. These precision wheel arbors have an accuracy of 3 microns and come with additional features like specially designed washers with fine adjustment screw for re-balancing after wheel mounting and also have main body balanced to G2.5, 25,000 RPM.
KTA offers high precision wheel arbors that are compatible with all major 5-axis CNC machine manufacturers such as DECKEL, ANCA, ROLLOMATIC, SCHUTTE, TGT, REINECKER, WALTE, and WIDMA. These arbors are specially designed and manufactured as per the requirements of the OEM’s and act as a great substitute to importing, saving foreign exchange to the country.
KTA Spindles now plans to expand their market by reaching out to the machine builders so that the wheel arbors manufactured by them can be included with the original equipment. “KTA hopes to get associated with 5 Axis CNC Machines to collaborate and create an ecosystem to provide the precision wheel arbors as part of their machine, spread the quality of Indian made products globally”, concluded Santhosh Tipale.