Doctor Blade Production Boost With CNC

Solihull (UK based Brauer Coley has been increasing productivity in the manufacture of Rotolin doctor blade bearings with its Okuma LB300 CNC turning centre.

Solihull (UK based Brauer Coley has been increasing productivity in the manufacture of Rotolin doctor blade bearings with its Okuma LB300 CNC turning centre.

Manufacturing the spherical bearings for doctor blades - used in the paper making industry - is a complex task, but no longer such a time-consuming one since the company's investment in the Okuma LB300 hard turning CNC machine said Brauer Coley.

The company said it manufactures up to 1,000 doctor blade bearings a year, many of which are made of hardened steel and which, due to their complex shape, were previously manufactured by using hand-formed grinding wheels.

Now, with the benefits of CNC, the bearings, which vary in diameter from 75mm to 250mm and come in male and female halves, can be created on the Okuma CNC machine with minimal passes, using CBN tipped cutting tools, thus increasing the speed of the operation and removing the variations inherent in hand-work.

Furthermore, because the ratio of cycle to load time is high, machine utilisation is very good.

Rotolin bearings are used in applications such as doctor blade bearings, which require mainly linear motion, with occasional rotary motion and are manufactured to tolerances capable of handling both types of motion either simultaneously or separately and at high loads.

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