Anca or Walter

Hi,
We are getting ready to buy our first Grinding CNC and are deciding between an Anca & a Walter. Our ownership wants the Anca for obvious cost reasons but all of us grinders are wanting the Walter. We have heard that the Walter software is much easier to program and is much more user friendly. We are not into production so that aspect isn't as important. Just wanted to see if anyone has any opinions. We are trying to prove to ownership that it will be worth it to spend the extra $80,000. Thanks

No experience with walter, but I don't know anyone who has owned a recent Anca that doesn't want more of them in their shop. I have used anca's software and once you understand what does what, there is nothing easier in the world for grinding drills and endmills, biggest thing to learn is wheel packs. If you get into weird trepan tools and such it might get a little difficult, but I have seen some pretty crazy stuff done on an anca. Make sure they throw in an offline seat of the software/simulator. This is worth it's weight in gold as you can sit at a desk and do your programming, and simulate all of your grinds before you hit the machine, while the machine is busy fluting and pointing drills and such. Guy I used to work with would do his fluting operations on all of his tools while he was programming the point and step geometries offline. By the time he was done fluting the batch he would then reload, probe, and do all of the cutting geometry in one shot, in the mean time setting up a whole different machine on another job. If it was a longer run (up to a full shift) he would sometimes use the other machine for the points and whatnot, while the first machine was fluting.

oh fun fun fun

Husker

I don't have experience with Walter either. I run an ANCA everyday at work and the machine is a dream to operate. I'd like to hear what any Walter users have to say about the ease of use of the Walter working envelope and the user friendliness of the software.

Regards
SR

I agree completely with Husker's comments. After having the privilege of attending training at their Ann Arbor facility and making a lot of custom tooling on one of their grinders for a few years, I can't imagine what the extra $80k would buy (besides a LOT of wheel packs, collets, tool blanks and some factory training ). I am NOT saying the Walter isn't a superior machine (because I've never run one); I am just curious if it offers any additional capability the ANCA doesn't? The user interface on the ANCA was very easy to use after a few days of training and the factory support was always phenomenal (the tech guys were very knowledgeable; always anxious to help; happy to look at programs and photos of setups and tool geometries; and quick to reply). Perhaps if the operators are already familiar with Walter CNC grinders, they are just hesitant to change (which I can certainly understand). In short, running and maintaining the ANCA was one of the best experiences I've had and I would pull the trigger on another one tomorrow if my work justified having that type of grinding capability in-house.

The main difference thatwe found in the programming is the ability to program in 3D with the Walter versus the 2D with the Anca. The Walter also has some kind of crash preventer on it that does not allow the tool to crash into the part if their was an error in programming. That was very appealing to a bunch of CNC rookies.

I am sure if Walter has it, ANCA isn't far around the corner or already does have it. But I do know this much. ANCA does have a 3D simulator of the machine. I remember using it in 2007.... As far as an active crash preventor, I have no idea if it is active, but I know if you simulate your programs before you run them, you would know if you have a major crash. But as mbraddock says, 80K will buy you a hell of a lot of peripheral tooling that you will need no matter what, the more you have the more flexible you can be with your setups, and you time to get setup will go down significantly. You would not believe the time savings you gain when you don't have to build wheel packs from scratch. It is simple as hell to just pop on a whole new pack vs breaking on down and setting them up then having to dress them... What some thought was only minutes was really 30 or more per setup. Multiply that by 4-5 setups a shift, that is well over 25% of you day...

Think about it. I would take that extra 80K and put it toward wheels, arbors, and coolant manifolds...



Do it.

Husker

I am the software product manager at ANCA and I would recommend that you have a demonstration of our latest version of software which will be released around May. ANCA were in fact the first to introduce high quality 3D simulation to the tool grinding industry and our simulation quality is still one of the best. As of our new software version we have incorporated our 3D graphics into the main tool design software, iGrind, so that the operator can view the 3D model directly on the machine. The 3D model naturally updates as parameters are changed. We still offer our Cimulator3D package which is best suited for offline geometry measurement and process verification.

ANCA software is known for it's flexibility, ease of use, and application diversity. This means you can grind a very wide range of tools on an ANCA machine. I would be interested to know what your specific applications are. We have a drill/step tool wizard and as of our next release a new comprehensive End Mill wizard which greatly simplifies manufacturing and regrinding of square, ballnose, corner radius, and chamfered mills. There are numerous benefits to be had using the ANCA software so I won't go into a full explanation here. You're welcome to email me at [email protected] if you are after more information regarding our software. Attention your email to Paul.

grady44 said:

Hi,
We are getting ready to buy our first Grinding CNC and are deciding between an Anca & a Walter. Our ownership wants the Anca for obvious cost reasons but all of us grinders are wanting the Walter. We have heard that the Walter software is much easier to program and is much more user friendly. We are not into production so that aspect isn't as important. Just wanted to see if anyone has any opinions. We are trying to prove to ownership that it will be worth it to spend the extra $80,000. Thanks

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I recommend Walter because friendly for operator you can emial to me:[email protected] I will teach you for easy operate Tool studio 3.1 latest version software.