Showcasing the Benefits of Some Oft-Overlooked Grinders

Although its origins extend even farther back, Supertec Machinery was established in 1997 in Paramount, California. With its decades of experience, Supertec turns to the future where it says it continues to invest in sustainable manufacturing operations.

Every year since 1998, Supertec has exhibited in the IMTS Grinding Pavilion. Brent Donaldson, executive editor of Modern Machine Shop, sat down with Don Staggenborg, sales manager of Supertec Machinery, to discuss what these IMTS veterans are bringing to the show this year.

Brent Donaldson, executive editor of Modern Machine Shop: What are attendees going to see in your booth this year?

Don Staggenborg, sales manager of Supertec Machinery:  We've got two machines that we're going to show that are out of the mainstream for grinding when they shouldn’t be. They're few and far between here [in U.S., Canada and Mexico operations], but in the rest of the world, especially in Europe and Taiwan, they’re more prevalent, or at least, that's my experience. The first one is a double disc grinder. It enables grinding on two sides of the part at the same time, basically.

BD: Given these are uncommon, what industries do you think could find the most use for the double disc grinder?

DS: The one where utilization is key is the bearing industry. They grind both sides of a bearing race simultaneously. When done with a double disc grinder, it gives you good parallelism. Double disc grinders are a little unusual, but we’re going to showcase them and bring more awareness to their benefits.

BD: You said you were featuring two machines. What’s the second?

DS: The other highlighted machine in our booth is what we call Mini Genie. It’s a CNC cylindrical grinder designed with a very small footprint. By small footprint, I’m talking 78 inches by 78 inches. It’s meant for job shops or shops that don't have a lot of floor space. We hear that a lot: “Well, I need a machine, but I don't have much space to put it.” Today, space is a big problem for a lot of shops; they need it, but it won’t fit. This is designed with that in mind. It’s meant for small shop types of situations and applications, and we really want to show that.

BD: So, let's get into that a little bit. Are there multiple model types?

DS: The actual overall models are called Mini Genie, and there’s two types of models, the 2020 and 2520. Basically, Mini Genie comes in an anglehead model [model A] and a plunge model [model P] where the wheelhead is at 20 degrees or at 90 degrees respectively. The one on display at IMTS is the Mini Genie 2020P, plunge model. 

BD: Does the Mini Genie have any other stand-out features?

DS: One of the highlights other than its size is the direct drive on the Z-axis for faster acceleration and deceleration. With that kind of direct drive system, there’s little backlash, so tighter tolerances and more accurate parts are a result. Mini Genies also have iGrind, our programming software.