Holroyd's Edgetek machines are produced with high-power/high-speed spindles that optimize the use of plated CBN wheels at surface speeds of up to 9,000 m/min. This enables them to achieve high depths of cut and optimized metal removal rates exceeding those of more conventional machines, such as CNC lathes, milling and machining centers and grinders. In addition, the Holroyd Edgetek machines are manufactured with a polymer granite base. The polymer base typically weighs 3 tons and has no resonant frequency. As a result, it enables higher precision machining to be achieved. Combining the stiffness and damping capability with the Edgetek's ultra-high-speed machining capabilities and plated CBN wheels, is reducing cycle times in many crucial industry sectors. In one example, the cycle times for producing automotive parts manufactured from sintered metals were reduced from 70 seconds per component to just 22 seconds. At the same time, the Edgetek's plated CBN technology achieves a reduction from $1 to just 3.3 cents per component. This is the result of the Edgetek machine producing a much larger number of components between tool changes: 15,000 as opposed to the 50 achieved with conventional milling and turning machines. In another UK application, a single five-axis Edgetek machine is slashing process times with single lift and set-up. The Edgetek is replacing seven conventional milling and grinding machines, providing a reduction in the throughput time for a complex finished part from 8 hours to just 12 minutes. "This application epitomizes lean manufacturing technology," said Holroyd's sales director, Neil English. "It provides the opportunity to begin with a hardened blank, and then produce a completed part in a single setup, using plated CBN wheels." "It is not the cost that is driving the trend toward plated CBN, but the productivity," says English. "Smaller production runs and more setups means that many companies no longer have the luxury to amortize the cost of bonded wheels, and the long non-productive set-up times associated with them, over extended production runs. Plated technology fills the need for high metal removal rates with short set-up times and eliminates the need for dressing." The flexibility of the Holroyd Edgetek design, and the huge variety of machine types and multi-axis configurations available, enables the machines to provide higher levels of precision and productivity in the manufacture of gears, sprockets, rotors and impellers, medical instruments, hand tools, air foils and nozzle guides, airframe actuation components, ducting supports, and mechanical seals. The machines serve a broad spectrum of industry types, including power generation, automotive, aerospace, medicals, tools and general engineering.