United Centerless Grinding & Thread Rolling

It’s been 60 years since United Centerless Grinding & Thread Rolling (United) opened its doors in Hartford, Connecticut back in 1960. A lot has changed over the years, including the move of their operation across the Connecticut River to their current location in East Hartford where they’ve slowly added on to their facility over the years and currently reside in nearly 19,000 square feet worth of space (18,904 sq./ft if you’re keeping score at home…)

United is now a third-generation family owned business currently under the guise of Normand Goulet III (as well as Normand Goulet Jr. who can still be found hard at work on the floor and offering significant input at company meetings). That longevity speaks to the trust and loyalty that exists amongst the company’s 400+ customer pool who will often just send in jobs without prior communication knowing full-well that the work will get done, and if it can’t, communication is quick, precise, and open.

As the name suggests, United Centerless Grinding & Thread Rolling has been in the business of custom grinding and thread rolling since their inception. They’ve updated their service offerings in recent years to include wire EDM cutting capabilities and have several automated assemblies in place to knock out large custom contract jobs on an annual basis. The long and short of it is, United aren’t afraid of a job’s scope. They’ll handle small to enterprise sized jobs without any hesitation.

Industries served:

• Aerospace
• Automotive
• Commercial
• Marine
• Medical
• Military/Defense

Thread Rolling:

United offers high quality thread rolling services throughout the United States. Their inhouse specialists strive for quality in production and performance on all orders, no matter the size – big to small. Their thread rolling services can be utilized in all aforementioned industries, with a special emphasis on aerospace, medical, armament, commercial, automotive, military, and marine. Like their centerless grinding service, United provides free estimates and strictly adhere to predetermined scheduled delivery dates to ensure your project experiences no lag time and hang-ups. United has dedicated some of their workforce and space to automated thread rolling jobs which is an absolute marvel to see in person. They have the ability to reverse engineer any piece or part that you may need to apply threads to and have the equipment in hand to churn out enterprise-sized jobs that roll on year after year.

Service specifications:

• Precision thread rolling
• Standard pitches and metric
• Range size #0 (ott) to 1-1/8″
• 4″ length capacity
• J form, metric and left hand threads
• AS8879, AS7742 & many other industry specifications

Service features:

• Wide variety of sizes and dimensions
• Computer process planning
• ISO 9001 compliant

Common materials worked with:

• Stainless steels
• Nickel alloys
• Carbon steels
• Space age metals

Wire EDM:

United has most recently acquired and added the EDM wire cutting offering to their growing service set. Wire EDM services, like the rest of their work, is available for short runs and long contract options throughout the United States. They currently have over 25 years of experience in Wire EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining) and have open capacity on two Agie Charmilles Cut 200 Sp’s.

Equipment specifications/capabilities:

• .004 Diameter wire to .010 Diameter wire
• +/- .0002″ tolerances
• Parts up to 8″ thick (table dimensions 8″ x 12″ x 8″)
• Taper up to 20-degrees
• Small wire burning
• 4 axis burns
• Multiple setups/production jobs
• Specialized fixtures as needed
• Esprit programming systems
• FTool/Erowa tooling
• Precise shape-to-shape location and fitting
• Solidworks compatibility
• Job sizes from 1 to 1,000,000 pieces.

Focused on Quality

United Centerless Grinding & Thread Rolling have an inhouse quality assurance team dedicated to quality from project acquisition through post-production. This dedication ensures top-tiered results, and peace-of-mind from contracting customers who literally send in jobs without any warning. A true testament to the trust and loyalty that United customers have.

Quality is exuded in every vantage point, from the actual staff carrying out that literal role, to the engineers whose capabilities position them as an industry leader in solving project challenges and plotting educated design and processes right at the outset. United staff also includes mechanics who can, in a pinch, fix any issues with their fleet of machines, and have continued to actually fix machines for their competition when their equipment is in need. Handy! Another astonishing site to behold (outside of the cleanliness of the facility) is the proactive approach they’ve taken to rethink some of their older workhorse grinders that they’ve taken liberties with and are outfitting with modern functionality (like computer automation processes, etc.). Very cool, and very innovative.