Konecranes Machine Tool Service (MTS) has an experienced team of hand scraping specialists, a “best-kept secret” in machine tool industry. Though the art of machine tool scraping has been lost in many areas of today’s machine tool culture, at Konecranes MTS it is alive and well. The company has a team of experienced machine tool scraping specialists, or “scraper hands,” on staff, with an average of 20 years of experience in the industry. These specialists are equipped to provide alignment optimization for both plain bearings (box ways) and linear guides.

Due to the increasing pressure for higher feeds and speeds, many OEMs are utilizing linear guides with greater and greater frequency. However, most companies will have a mixture of machines with plain bearings (box ways) and linear guide ways. Plain bearing slides may not allow for the increased feeds and speeds that linear guide ways do, but they still offer the significant advantage of higher dynamic stiffness.

In addition to performing the “art” of hand scraping work, the highly skilled team at Konecranes MTS also specializes in precision levelling and geometrical optimization of simple to complex multi-axis machines. They are often contracted to improve on OEM specifications and align machines to a customer’s more stringent tolerance requirements. Taking into account tool deflection, cutting forces, and work-holding, Konecranes MTS produces results that allow the customer to achieve a much closer tolerance with less scrap. As a result of this methodical alignment process, the machine maintains geometrical compliance over a longer period of time.

The lost art of precision hand scraping is a skill that Konecranes MTS continues to promote and pass on to younger service specialists.