History of GMT - Surface plates and Bed Plates - Part-4

Bed Plates were developed where the plate design is different to that of standard surface plate. There was no change in ribbing. Bed Plates are kept side by side with a gap of 3 mm. The plates are offered in grade2 and grade3 accuracies. The plates are mounted on special Cast Iron stands. Depending upon customer needs stands are supplied with 600 mm above floor level or can be kept in a pit so that plate is in floor level.

Unique feature of the special plates are foundation arrangement, erection and commissioning. At our works the plates are matched and assembled and scraped to the required accuracies, They are dismantled and dispatched to the customers works. Fabricated stands are dispatched as a single piece wrapped in hay and gunny. 

 GMT bed plate - size - 6000X4000 mm (consists of 4000x1500– 4 Nos)

Foundation plan sent well in advance to the customer with instruction to prepare the foundation, size of foundation bolts, and other important details specified in drawings and documentation. On confirmation from customer that foundation is ready with our stand in position our team will visit customer site and erect and commission the plate, Minor touching up by scraping is done at customer end to ensure accuracies are maintained as per our inspection report.

I remember Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum were so impressed with the design, stability and strength of our Special Surface Plate size 6000 x 1200 mm,  2 other divisions also bought similar sizes. When asked why not use the plate which is already available. The  Department Heads said that the plate looks so impressive they budgeted for their requirement and raised purchase requisition as a single tender and ordered for the same.
 

About the author : Shri. K Jagannathan - Executive Director – Sales & Marketing, Guindy Machine Tools Limited.
Sri.K.Jagannathan is synonymous with lathe chucks in the Indian machine tool industry. He has been with Guindy Machine Tools for over 5 decades. His vast experience and immense knowledge of workholding products is evident in some of the most complex workholding solutions provided by GMT.