Exceeding the Expectations

Stanadyne LLC is a developer and manufacturer of fuel pumps and fuel injectors for diesel and gasoline engines. The company is based in Windsor, Connecticut, with global locations in China, India and Italy. It specializes in fuel injection equipment producing components for gasoline direct injection engines, common rail systems, electronic and mechanical governed rotary distributor pumps for diesel engines and diesel fuel injectors.

In need of a local solution

The components needed by Stanadyne India Pvt Ltd (SIPL) for fuel pumps and injectors were being sourced from its US manufacturing plant and were made on Cincinnati grinder while adhering to stringent quality parameters.

The company was looking to localize the process. Its requirement, from cost management perspective, was an indigenous Centerless Grinding Machine (CLG):

• with features to set the machine up quickly independent of any operator with specialized skills;
• that could deliver process capability of 1.67 min on roundness (50 UPR) and straightness of 0.635 µm max, size tolerance 1.27 µm, and Ra 0.1 µm max.

Challenges abound

However, there were various challenges in fulfilling the requirements:

• material variants - bearing steels and stainless steel
• a wide variety of parts - diameters 6 to 9 mm in steps of 0.5 mm
• hollow valves with undercuts/ x holes/milled slots
• the machine would need multiple passes for parts and repeat set ups
• traverse at least 2 m/min
• optimized GW and CW.

MGT’s ‘Made in India’ offer

“Since we could not get any commitment on the process capability from most of the local and global machine manufacturers who do serious business in the segment, the final plan was to work collaboratively with MGT,” says TG Deenabandhu, Senior General Manager, Projects, Stanadyne LLC.

In a rare display of confidence building exercise between MGT and Stanadyne Management, Deenabandhu himself worked with the MGT’s Design and Application team to do pre-order trials on an existing Centerless Grinder. He worked with the shop floor personnel to help in the settings of machines and quality inspection for nearly 20 days and suggested many important specification and design changes. Those critical inputs from his years of experience was the real reason for achieving better accuracies even on the proto machine.

Micromatic Grinding thus took up the challenge to develop a solution to meet the required quality parameters, previously seen only in high-cost imported machines.

The company worked on its standard offering, the CLG 5025 with the below additions to suit Stanadyne’s requirement:

• 6-axis CNC centerless grinder for high precision and higher productivity;
• Twin support grinding wheel head for higher rigidity;
• AC servo motor for regulating spindle drive;
• Regulating spindle with direct drive to reduce vibration level;
• Rotary disc system for grinding wheel dressing.

The SIPL team of S Jayakumar, Divisional Manager, Manufacturing Engineering (ME) and R Sivakumar, Deputy Manager, ME lent an active support with the work holding, grinding process etc. “Deenabandhu and his team’s commitment is a unique example of customer-led innovation in MGT’s ‘Make in India’ story,” sums up NK Dhand, Chairman, MGT.

Micromatic Grinding took up the challenge to develop a solution to meet the required quality parameters, previously seen only in high-cost imported machines.

Plunger, Delivery Valve, Metering Valve (in that order), which basically are cylindrical rollers used in fuel pump assembly

Source: Micromatic Grinding Technologies Ltd

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