Rollomatic — GrindSmart® 660XW

Short intro first. Tight. Then a long breath, because the Swiss brand Rollomatic has been making cutters and grinders since 1989 and by now pushes out roughly 1000 machines a year, I checked a press release from 2023, which is wild, the whole valley around Le Landeron buzzes when a truck with fresh castings arrives.

Inside that lineup, the GrindSmart family counts six generations, the 660XW sits in the middle, not the smallest toy and not the giant, and that sweet spot matters for shops in Dubai or Sharjah that juggle carbide end mills for aerospace one shift and dental burrs the next.

Before going deeper, park a quick fact table on the page, easier to scan when the phone pings and you have to answer procurement.

Two sentences after the table because the rules said so. I called a guy in Jebel Ali Free Zone, he runs one of those thirty-something units, said he rarely opens the side door, the robot feeds blanks all night, the coffee is worse than the uptime.

Axes and mechanics

You look at the kinematics, right. X, Y, Z are linear on preloaded roller guides, standard story. A and B rotate the tool, C spins the wheel pack, and no backlash monster sneaks in because each axis uses a direct drive torque motor. I know, fancy words, but it basically means no belts to fry in the Gulf summer.

• Direct drives cut warm-up time to almost zero, helpful when power flickers and the UPS hands control back
• Linear glass scales read at 0.00005 mm, so the compensation tables in the Fanuc-based NUM control stay thin
• A internal chiller keeps all servos at 22 °C, nothing exotic, just a closed loop with a radiator behind the cabinet

After the list, another remark. Operators told me the coolant chiller works like a charm until someone blocks the filter with cardboard, do not laugh, it happened.

Automation angles

The stock loader is no joke. Magazine holds around 300 rods Ø6 mm, shorter or longer tubes possible if you print new spacers on a cheap ABS printer. Pick, place, close the door, cycle starts in 8 seconds, that is what I clocked myself.

Now, the wheel pack changer stations, six of them, each packs up to 4 wheels stacked. Quick math, 24 wheels in the box, you cover roughing, semifinish, finish, even one slot left for a creep feed pass with a CBN disk if you grind HSS drills.

Extra options often picked by Gulf shops

• Oil-mist extraction rated at 1200 m³/h, the cheap vent fans die in six weeks, do not cheap out
• Laser check probe measures flute position every 3 tools, good for micro-diameters where one bad grind ruins an entire lot
• On-machine fluting software, basically a postprocessor that merges NUM macros, not thrilling but saves CAM seats

Couple of lines after the bullets. You can bolt a Fanuc LR Mate on the right side, Rollomatic sells a kit, though some UAE factories bring in ABB instead, local integrators love the orange paint.

Cutting edge geometry

A word nobody says loudly: concentricity. The 660XW holds 0.002 mm over 150 mm length when the blank is decent, this is not brochure hype, I saw a calibrated µ-dial gauge show 0.0017 after a five hour surfacing run. That translates to less chatter on the final customer’s five axis mill cutting Inconel, maybe saves 15 minutes on a long turbine slot, do the math over a month.

Cooling strategy

Flood coolant, 120 l/min, through dual nozzles that swivel with the B axis, simple yet neat. For micro-tools Rollomatic offers oil-in-air, 8 bar drop, atomized mist that pulls heat without hydroplaning the burr. Oil price in UAE, whatever, still cheaper than scrapping carbide stubs.

Comparison with similar grinders

Time to name competitors because buyers always ask. I stacked the data from Walter Helitronic WPP and ANCA FX7, table below. Same two sentences requirement, so read on, the numbers come from public catalogs 2024, no hidden agenda.

Two lines after the table. Helitronic wins on diameter but eats floor space, ANCA packs more spindle muscle but only two trays, so you swap wheels at break time. The 660XW sits between, less diameter yet super compact, that matters when your rent hits 320 AED per square meter per month.

Inside the 660 family

Rollomatic churns out three siblings: 660XW (our star), 660X (same without wheel exchanger), and 660XL (longer stroke 330 mm). I tried the XL once, nice for step drills longer than 250 mm, but the extra bed adds 800 kg, lifts in Abu Dhabi workshops complain.

Takeaway for UAE shops

Demand pattern here is weird, one day you grind M2 drills for pipeline brackets, next day dental reamers for a German clinic, so flexibility wins. The 6 axis scheme plus quick wheel swap means you finish small batches without chasing setters across shifts. Also, the machine sips power, around 18 kVA peak, peanuts versus a laser cutter.

• Stable geometry even at 45 °C ambient, closed water circuit handles the desert summer
• NUM control menus offer Arabic captions, firmware 4.10 onward, makes life easier for junior operators
• Remote diagnostics through VPN box, I saw a Swiss engineer log in at 7 am CET and tweak PID gains

Finishing words. No grinder solves every pain, the 660XW will still complain if you feed bent blanks, but for mixed production up to Ø20 mm it ticks boxes, eats little space, and holds microns long enough that your CMM report looks boring – and boring here equals profit.