Cylinder heads and engine blocks resurfacing machines by Industrias Kras

Kras resurfacing machines KR-800 Planner, KR-1000, KR-1500

The Ultimate Tooling wants to present in this article the three resurfacing machines for cylinder heads and engine blocks by Industrias Kras, the historic Argentinean company that has been producing engine repair machinery for over 40 years.

Over the years Industrias Kras has been able to carve out a leading role in the North and South American markets and, thanks to its production efficiency, the quality of its machinery is now well known and appreciated all over the world.

We will examine the following three resurfacing machines produced by Industrias Kras:

• KR-800 Planner
• KR-1000
• KR-1500

Let’s begin then with this interesting product overview.

KR-800 Planner resurfacing machine for cylinder heads and blocks

This resurfacing machine is the smallest of the three and is the ideal machine if you want to achieve quality results in a confined space.

Although its dimensions are only 170×85×180 cm, this head grinding machine is capable of working more than 800 mm wide and 400 mm vertically, making it fantastic for repair shops machining medium sized blocks and heads.

As well as benefiting from the free space not being occupied in your workshop, you can also count on two working methods:

• Abrasion grinding mode, using abrasive segments and coolant.
• Dry chip milling mode, using a welded tip cutting tool included in the standard equipment supplied with the machine.

If necessary, the KR-800 Planner can also be equipped with a cutter plate that mounts inserts made of polycrystalline diamond PCD or cubic boron nitride CBN.

The KR-800 Planner also offers the following advantages:

• Extreme precision of the head running on high quality linear guides and driven by a highly reliable brushless motor.
• Great machining flexibility, as both grinding wheel rotation speed and carriage feed speed are variable.
• The KR-800 Planner is made up of top quality parts, such as the Siemens motor that acts on the grinding wheel rotation.
• Maximum safety guaranteed by highly reliable piece clamping systems. Safety is further guaranteed thanks to the front doors and the visible and easily accessible emergency stop button.

KR-1000 resurfacing machine for cylinder heads and blocks

The KR-1000 grinding and milling machine for cylinder heads and engine blocks is the intermediate solution among the 3 resurfacing machines for flat surfaces proposed by Industrias Kras and is the most appreciated unit in Latin America and North America for its features.

Taking advantage of the dimensions of 253×88×175 cm, this grinding machine offers a larger worktop with a 900×210 mm table capable of moving 1260 mm across. The head has a working height range of up to 500 mm between grinding wheel and table, also providing extra vertical capacity.

The base is made of sturdy cast iron, as well as column and table that are controlled by ballscrews and make the movement extremely smooth and precise, allowing a useful working capacity of 1000×360×500 mm.

The KR-1000 has two machining modes like the KR-800 Planner and allows the additional use of PCD and CBN inserts for dry machining of aluminium and cast iron.

Although larger than the KR-800 Planner, its linear design makes it a compact machine.
To ensure maximum convenience in terms of the space used, the KR-1000 is equipped with protective screens with sliding doors that do not take up additional space.

Some other advantages offered by the KR-1000 grinding machine are:

• Greater control of the entire manufacturing process. Thanks to the control panel with digital display, the grinding wheel rotation speed and table feed rate can be displayed in real time.
• Productivity and efficiency of the process, which thanks to the automatic stop function at the end of the last pass, allows the operator to take care of other tasks while the work cycle ends.
• High flexibility, as it is possible to manually configure the work program and vary the grinding wheel rotation speed and the table feed speed, in order to customize the machining parameters as much as possible.
• Guaranteed safety. This machine has the same safety systems described for the KR-800 Planner with the added value of sliding doors that make access even easier.

KR-1500 resurfacing machine for cylinder heads and blocks

La KR-1500 è la più grande del trio di rettificatrici per testate e blocchi motore prodotte da Industrias Kras con dimensioni di 277×110×200 cm and its development follows in parallel the evolution of the grinding requirements to which medium-large workshops are subject.

Its powerful structure of over 16 quintals, combined with the Ø 410 mm diameter grinding-wheel/milling-plate, allows not only the grinding of heads and blocks, but also the machining of the lower part of the engine blocks which are very often deformed.

If you don’t have space problems in your repair shop and need to grind oversized heads and motor blocks, the KR-1500 is the ideal resurfacing machine.

The KR-1500 offers all the advantages already described for the Resurfacing machines KR-800 Planner and KR-1000, in addition to the following features:

• Useful working capacity of 1500 mm horizontally and 800 mm vertically.
• Maximum transversal stroke of the table 1650 mm.
• Increased diameter of grinding-wheel/milling-plate with a diameter of Ø 410 mm.
• Combined management of cutting speed and table feed to increase the possibility of customizing the work programs..
• Last pass function, with automatic stop at the end of the levelling, according to the direction of advancement.
• Robustness that guarantees reliability and durability.

Comparison table

Below we have inserted a table summarizing the technical specifications of the 3 resurfacing machines for flat surfaces produced by Industrias Kras.
It will be easier then to compare all the models we have previously illustrated.