One of the takeaways from this year’s IMTS show is how sustainability is driving innovation, particularly as it applies to the EV revolution and its impact on precision machining.
Mach-B’s customer, United Grinding, encourages precision grinding specialists to approach this new future with optimism. They believe the market shift to electric vehicles “presents a significant opportunity to the precision grinding shop,” and that the trend will bring with it an overwhelming amount of new business.
They point out that because EV’s don’t have an internal combustion engine, many manufacturers assume there are no precision ground parts in EV’s. While electronic vehicles don’t have transmissions or fuel injectors, all cars have ground parts like steering columns, including ball screws and ball nuts, a motor or axle shaft, bearings and spindle shafts. Some turned or welded parts, like suspensions, also remain the same between internal combustion engines and EV’s. Traditional transmission shafts and gears could be produced on lower end grinding machines and still be acceptable for production.
Additionally, the capabilities needed for internal combustion engine parts can be shifted to produce EV parts. It’s a matter of being equipped with the advanced grinding technologies necessary to produce precision parts. EV parts require super-tight tolerances that eliminate imperfections. A shop’s ability to produce these tighter tolerance parts will help secure their market share and open up opportunities for them in other segments – like the medical and aerospace industries.
Change is difficult, but if you position your organization for the future, you will be able to take advantage of awaiting opportunities in the automotive industry and expand to segments you may not have considered before.