Herkules Technology Impresses Japanese Customer

As a supplier of industrial machinery for customers in Japan, Daiichi Jitsugyo Co. Ltd., has purchased two Herkules machines for machining thin Sendzimir work and intermediate rolls (IMR rolls) for a Japanese end customer, JFE Steel Corporation West Japan Works in Kurashiki, for its new electric steel rolling mill. The WS 450L x 2,000 CNC Monolith™-machines are perfectly equipped for machining extremely thin rolls. “With Sendzimir rolls, there is always a risk that the pressure of the grinding wheel will cause deflection and deviations during the grinding process,” explains Denis Albayrak, the responsible Senior Sales Engineer. “Thanks to the automatic single-point steady rest, roll deflection is effectively prevented.“

The high-precision C-frame measuring device including C-probe enables a measuring accuracy of up to 2 μm and, thanks to its compact and stable design with swivel arm, precise measurement of both very small and very large roll diameters. “In addition to the fast processing and evaluation of the measured values by our in-house grinding machine control system KP 10, the patented Monolith™ design is of course an absolute competitive advantage for JFE,” continues Denis Albayrak.

“The customer saves the costs for the foundation, which would have to be very elaborately designed due to the earthquake risk and would thus also be very expensive. Our experience with Monolith™ grinders in earthquake zones, such as Japan or Turkey, has shown that the machines were ready for use again in a very short time without any damage.“ Another challenge was the roll machining time. “The requirements that JFE set for the grinding time were only possible in conjunction with our machine configurations. This was the only way for our customer to achieve exactly the result they needed in the shortest possible time,” explains Denis Albayrak. “A pair of work rolls and a pair of intermediate rolls were sent to Germany to extensively test the requirements in our in-house grinding shop. The results absolutely convinced the customer and definitely achieved the highly set standards.“

But it is not just the technology that impresses. The impressive value chain within the group – from the planning of the machines to the delivery of the finished product to the customer – and the effective, professional, and cross-location collaboration left a lasting impression on our customer. “In this enormously challenging project in particular, all departments involved work hand in hand across all locations and I can only thank all my colleagues,” concludes Denis Albayrak. “Without this great cooperation, a project like this could not be implemented.“