INTEGRAL SYSTEM for

ROLLER ENGRAVING with

NATURAL TEXTURES

3D machining on plane, on a roller?

Issues machining complex 3D surfaces?

Issues giving a natural textured finish to your parts?

Surfaces with high data density and large dimensions?

Create machining from a probe, digitization, digital images, ...?

The complete system is made up of both the appropriate software development and the special machine adapted to the client's needs in addition to the training and adaptation of the customer's technicians to both areas.

We start from a complex problem and a large "bottleneck" of our client, which covers several areas to be resolved:

• An environmental problem due to the materials used.
• A problem of premature wear of the original mold of the roller.
• Technicians accustomed to artisan and mostly manual work.
• Elevated costs due to maintenance.

ENVIRONMENT: The client presents us with a matrix mold (roller) made of the same material as the final product, to which asbestos particles are added to make it more durable and consistent.

PREMATURE WEAR : The surface of the roller, made up of fiber cement and asbestos particles, is in production just a month and a half and this requires having, in addition to the roller in production, three more spare ones for a possible immediate change.

MANUAL WORK and HIGH COSTS: Due to the great variety of textures used and premature wear, the client has a large number of artisan workers to manufacture the necessary rollers.

HERLUCE Solution: Currently the matrix mold (roller) is manufactured in Steel and is later chrome plated for a duration 12 or 15 times longer.

Fiber Cement Roller		Chrome Steel Roller

PROCESSES DETAIL:

DIGITIZING AND OBTAINING ORIGINALS: Due to the more than 50 years of artisan work of our client, it has various types of textures in its engravings and more than 20 combinations in its rollers.

The originals are digitized using 3D surface scanning techniques with a high density of points (0.1 mm.). Since the average size of the original pieces is around 8 m2, this is where the first problem to solve arises:

How to treat surfaces of 8 billion 3D points in space?

Current surface scanning programs cannot treat all this vastness of points at the same time.

HERLUCE Solution: Our IT department develops its own software capable of processing all this data together and displaying it in a TIFF image with 256 levels of grey, which represents the 3D image in all its dimensions. This image becomes the ORIGINAL, which through our ModelArt3D.net software can be machined on any CNC machine, both flat and roller.

C.A.M. for Three-Dimensional Artistic Engraving
Steel sample 300 x 300 mm.	Image used for sample

MACHINING:

Where to machine large rollers with great finishing detail?

Ø 1,250 x 2,000 mm rollers. and 4,500 kg of weight, with a Ø 1.5 mm finishing tool.

In the wide range of current machine tools, there is no suitable machine for the machining process of these large parts and with the required detail.

HERLUCE solution: We opted to manufacture a machine tailored to the required needs. To put it simply, “A lathe type recorder”.

The machine implements, in addition to other equipment:

• CNC with High Speed Machining System, controlled by PC.
• Alternating Current Servomotors (brushless), activated by individual digital regulators.
• Electronic divider plate (horizontal), to support up to 8,000 kg.
• High Frequency Head, up to 24,000 r.p.m.
• Automatic tool change.
• MQL Lubrication System.

Custom machine for the manufacture of steel rollers.

 TRAINING AND LEARNING:

Our client's artisan technicians were trained and advised in each and every one of the various techniques used in the new Integral Manufacturing System that HERLUCE designed and developed. 

ADDED VALUE: In the head of our client, a utopian wish that his clients requested, had been around for many years, to be able to create new 3D textures with new motifs different from the usual ones. HERLUCE, he gave her that possibility and now she can create them easily and cheaply.

Phases of the construction of a roller
Initial steel ferrulel		Interior reinforcement detaild		Detail during engraving

 HERLUCE, it also collaborates with the client for the design, construction and development of new rollers, carrying out the complete construction of some of them, in addition to introducing constant improvements aimed at greater duration and precision of these rollers. Improvements have been made in the choice of materials, coatings, pneumatics, mechanical components, ...

Chrome plated roller		Fully finished roller