Cutting tools continue to be an essential component across many industries, as they expand their own product range and complexity, manufacturers increasingly demand high-quality cutting tools meeting unique requirements. For cutting tool manufactures, deciding what technology to invest in should be driven by business goals and at IMTS, ANCA will present the grinding tech to tackle now, demonstrating the advantages of investing in a technologically advanced future. “Designing the best technology requires a multi-pronged approach,” says Pat Boland, ANCA Co-Founder and Joint Managing Director. “We immerse ourselves in the market; are continually inventing; keep a keen eye on new developments and bring them into our applications. We seek out intelligent, talented people, and interact with customers daily to understand their specific needs. This is how we design and manufacture our market-leading solutions.” “With a long four-year wait since the last IMTS, I am excited to show our visitors the latest technological advancements from ANCA,” says ANCA Inc General Manager Russell Riddiford. “We have not been idle between shows - once again ANCA has industry-first innovations launching in Chicago this year, and we will be presenting technology that helps solve the challenges faced by many manufacturers in the market. We are also excited to announce the winners of the fifth ANCA Tool of the Year competition on our stand at IMTS. The ‘Oscars’ of the cutting tool industry, the contest celebrates the deep experience and creativity of tool manufacturers across a highly skilled grinding industry.” The ANCA Integrated Manufacturing System (AIMS) optimizes cutting tool production through streamlined manufacturing, automation, and connectivity. With ANCA and AIMS, customers can achieve continuous, unattended production that dramatically reduces non-productive machine time, with smart automation that connects sequential tool production processes and offers connectivity across the whole factory. The technology considers a factory as a single machine, rather than separating it into many different process elements. This is a powerful concept that brings together one ecosystem and builds it to be as efficient as possible. AIMS, being a modular solution, can be deployed in stages, allowing for easy, gradual, and smooth transition from traditional to automated and integrated manufacturing. A fully operational manufacturing cell will be displayed at IMTS, demonstrating a fully automatic process of tool manufacturing, from blanks to ground tools. Included will be ANCA’s latest premium machine MX7 ULTRA capable of manufacturing high quality cutting tools, along with an AutoSet job preparation station, AutoLine for pallet and tool transfer as well as AutoFetch – a robot responsible for material transfer between processes - pallet and individual tools between job preparation, grinding and tool measurement on ZOLLER measuring machine. Jan Irzyk, AIMS Product Manager said: “AIMS can be configured in many ways but at IMTS visitors can see an unattended manufacturing workflow of two varieties of endmills on one MX7 machine. An important part of this workflow is closed loop measurement and compensation process using ZOLLER Genius as a measurement station. Depending on an individual customer’s requirements, our system can automatically transfer a tool from the ground batch, clean it, measure required geometries and transfer the results to the respective grinder where grinding parameters compensation is taking place to achieve required dimensional tolerance of the batch.”