The machine has been validated by a leading bearing manufacturer to produce fine finish and geometry results.

January 26, 2025 – Grind Master booth at IMTEX 2025 showed a live demonstration of the sophisticated Bearing Raceway Superfinishing machine for ball bearings. This machine was developed under a MHI funded project for Make In India, with AMTDC – IIT Madras and Grind Master as partners. The machine has been validated by a leading bearing manufacturer to produce fine finish and geometry results.

The range includes –

·Superfinishing of rollers and pins

·Superfinishing bearing raceways for cylindrical and taper roller bearings

·Superfinishing bearing raceways for ball bearings

The highlights of the machine are:

1. Unique patented superfinishing oscillation mechanism that is both robust and higher in performance

2. Breakthrough process monitoring system that solves some of the challenges in superfinishing with stones.

The machine is also a proud recipient of IMTMA Design Award 2025 – being recognised as a breakthrough development on 23rd January 2025. Bearing Superfinishing machines is a specialised domain dominated by European and Japanese machine builders. Most machines are even today imported into India. The machine launched not only provides Indian bearing manufacturers with a competent indigenously developed product, but also enables Grind Master to compete in this mission critical equipment globally. The success of this machine is a shining example of Make In India – Govt Funding, Industry – Academia collaboration.

Mr Vikas Dogra, Director, Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) was a special guest at the event.

Prof Ramesh Babu (Professor Emeritus IIT Madras), Srikanth Ramasubramaniam (AMTDC), PRMC members (Raja Ram Singh Yadav, Mohan Ram, Kaustubh Singh, S Sathyam, Sivasrinivasu Devadula) were also present. Grind Master team including Milind Kelkar, Sameer Kelkar, Deepak Mohite, Shashank Dubey, Debanjan Dhar were thrilled with the reception the machine has received.

Mr Vikas Dogra expressed satisfaction that the support from the Government of India towards R&D is enabling Make In India. Ramesh Babu comments, “This technology can be horizontally deployed for finishing inner profiles of several other parts.” IMTMA Advisor and Machine tool industry guru Mohan Ram complimented the project.

The development of this range of machines has been a 6 year project with the machines 1 and 2 having been validated in production at over 5 precision manufacturing facilities pan India. Centerless Throughfeed superfinishing machine has in particular been extensively used by manufacturers of pin type parts in the last 2-3 years. The machine has a unique process capability that gives reliability and saves energy.

The development of superfinishing of raceways for cylindrical roller bearings was encouraged by leading bearing industry player NBI (Spain), whose facility in India is using the first machine of this kind. The strong collaborative approach between NBI and Grind Master made technology development possible.

Grind Master is leading manufacturer of microfinishing and superfinishing machines for automotive powertrain parts, having installed more than 500 microfinishing/superfinishing machines at automotive OEMs and automotive part suppliers. These machines have been installed across a wide spectrum of industry including automotive powertrain (engine & transmission), steering parts and hydraulic cylinders. Many of these solutions have been breakthrough advanced technologies in superfinishing and have transformed the manufacturing processes. From replacing imported machines in 2000-2010, Grind Master has gained reputation globally and now exports over 50% of its production to developed countries like China, Japan and USA, successfully competing with German and Japanese Superfinishing machines on technology.

“Most of the bearing manufacturers in India are From Europe and Japan. Although they invest in India, most of the equipment comes from their countries. Now, with the development of this technology, they need not import this technology. The introduction of bearing superfinishing machines opens more opportunities for us. We hope to transform this discerning domain with our technology and process. We are very excited at this launch and thank all the collaborative partners that have made this development possible,” says Sameer Kelkar, CEO, Grind Master. 

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