Published 3/5/2012

United Grinding Celebrates 30 Years in Virginia Location

United Grinding recently celebrated 30 years in its Fredericksburg, Virginia location with a ribbon-cutting event opening a newly expanded and renovated facility.

Peter Zelinski

Former Editor-in-Chief, Additive Manufacturing

United Grinding recently celebrated 30 years in its Fredericksburg, Virginia location with a ribbon-cutting event opening a newly expanded and renovated facility. At the event, United Grinding CEO Rodger Pinney and Walter-EWAG Sales Director Christian Dilger both spoke about these two companies’ views of the economic conditions affecting North American manufacturing, and the strong case for investing in this market. Mr. Pinney cited the “tailwinds” favoring North American manufacturing include cash-rich companies, a growing reshoring trend, continued low interest rates and a high level of capital equipment investment by auto and aircraft producers. Mr. Dilger said the companies see cause for caution in Europe and a likely slowdown in Asia, but good reasons to expect continued manufacturing strength in North America.

United Grinding’s headquarters is in Miamisburg, Ohio. The Fredericksburg location supports the company’s cutting tool manufacturing brands—Walter and EWAG. Technology within these brands goes well beyond grinding. Walter offers cutting tool measurement technology that integrates with its grinding machines, while EWAG couples grinding with laser machining and EDM to machine the hardest cutting tool materials. The Virginia-based staff provides expertise in all of these areas.

Formerly the US headquarters for Walter Grinders, the Fredericksburg office became part of United Grinding in 2004 when the Germany-based Koerber Schleifring group bought Walter. United Grinding is the arm of Koerber Schleifring in North American. Mr. Pinney, who was also United Grinding’s CEO at the time of the Walter acquisition, said it was clear from the beginning that there would be no consolidation of US facilities as a result of this integration. Continuing to serve tool grinding customers well would mean retaining competency, and retaining competency means retaining people. Many of the experienced Walter Grinding staff members have deep roots in this part of Virginia.

Plus, tool grinding is a market so different from production grinding that it deserves its own location. Production grinding customers are often large plants, says Mr. Pinney. Orders for several machines at once are common. By contrast, tool grinding customers are often small. A typical tool grinding service provider might be a family business with around 10 employees, purchasing one machine at a time.

Serving this small customer actually places greater demands on the equipment provider’s facility. The expansion in Fredericksburg is a response to these special demands. For example, tool grinding customers are less likely to request on-site training, because they often lack the space for this. A new 7,500-square-foot showroom and demonstration area in Virginia will provide ample space for training. Another requirement for all of United Grinding’s customers—but for the small tool grinding customers in particular—is for machine service needs to be addressed before they significantly affect uptime. A tool grinding company might lose a valuable contract if it unexpectedly loses the capacity to fill a time-sensitive order. Accordingly, the Virginia site has been expanded to make room for the larger staffing level appropriate to the growing customer base that this location is serving. Finding, hiring and equipping this additional staff is the task to which United Grinding is turning its attention now.

United Grinding’s Paul Ehrlich describes the Walter Helitronic Micro CNC tool grinder to a group of attendees to the company event.

One of the attendees to the event was Congressman Rob Wittman of Virginia. Application engineer Robby Faulkner describes knee implants machined on the Walter equipment.

Related Content

Aerospace 19 Jun 2023

5 Tips for Running a Profitable Aerospace Shop

Aerospace machining is a demanding and competitive sector of manufacturing, but this shop demonstrates five ways to find aerospace success.

The Future of High Feed Milling in Modern Manufacturing

Achieve higher metal removal rates and enhanced predictability with ISCAR’s advanced high-feed milling tools — optimized for today’s competitive global market.

High RPM Spindles: 5 Advantages for 5-axis CNC Machines

Explore five crucial ways equipping 5-axis CNC machines with Air Turbine Spindles® can achieve the speeds necessary to overcome manufacturing challenges.

CAD/CAM 12 Jun 2024

Orthopedic Event Discusses Manufacturing Strategies

At the seminar, representatives from multiple companies discussed strategies for making orthopedic devices accurately and efficiently.

Register for TASC: The Automated Shop Conference

Workforce Development

How I Made It: Dennis Rymanowski

Dennis Rymanowski has worked at NSH USA for 60 years, with his passion for manufacturing living alongside his passion for his family’s polka band.

Inspection and Measurement

A New Frontier in Surface Finish Control

What if your machine tool could measure surface roughness as it cuts? This article explores how in-process metrology is advancing from concept to reality, enabling real-time feedback, immediate detection of anomalies and new levels of control over surface quality. Discover the technologies making this possible.

United Grinding Celebrates 30 Years in Virginia Location

Share