Company History
Authorized Distributors
Cinetic Landis Corp.'s goal is to be a solid partner to our customers by providing reliable, best-in-class production grinders at a competitive price and backing them with expert processing, application development and total service support.
We are the world’s most experienced manufacturers of cylindrical, centerless and disc grinding machines and systems—your one-stop resource for Landis, Landis Cincinnati and Landis Giustina grinders.
We also service Besly, Norton, Pratt & Whitney, Warner & Swasey, Landis Gardner and Goldcrown grinders with parts made from the original engineering documentation owned by Cinetic Landis. In addition, we provide technical and service support as well as service parts for all Cincinnati and Cincinnati Milcaron centerless grinders. Plus our CITCO and Gardner Abrasives operations support your grinding wheel and wheel dressing needs.
About Us
Cinetic Landis supplies grinding-based process solutions for precision component manufacture in a broad range of industries including automotive engine, chassis and powertrain, aerospace, diesel engine, bearing and general manufacturing. A fully integrated supplier, Cinetic Landis offers a complete range of grinders and controls, plus a comprehensive line of conventional and super-abrasive wheels, dressing tools and systems, grinding accessories and service/support programs.
Known worldwide for leading-edge automotive camshaft and crankshaft processing systems, Cinetic Landis is also a leader in centerless grinding and disc grinding processes as well as lean and flexible CNC grinders for a wide range of shaft-type components.
Our Heritage
Cinetic Landis has been a world leader in precision grinding technology for well over a century. Landis' founder, F.F. Landis, invented modern cylindrical grinding in the 1870's when he mounted a power-driven emery wheel on the tool post of a lathe. His brother, Abraham B. Landis, pioneered the use of water as a coolant/lubricant during the grinding process to improve its efficiency, and the modern age of grinding was born.
Then, in 1890, Frederick Gardner invented the disc grinder, which became the foundation of Gardner Machine Company in 1905. His lifelong dedication to the improvement of disc grinding technology led directly to the formation of Gardner Abrasives in 1917, and the development of modern, wet double-disc grinding as a reliable production process in the 1940's.
The firms founded by these pioneers were united for the first time in 1950, when Landis purchased Gardner to create the industry's most comprehensive supplier of precision grinding technology. The exchange of expertise and technology between the two companies significantly strengthened both of them, and produced a series of breakthrough products which formed the backbone of high-volume, precision manufacturing operations all over the world.
Litton Industries recognized the strategic importance of this center of grinding excellence, and purchased the combined company in 1968, as part of its move into the precision manufacturing arena. Operating as separate entities within the Litton, and subsequent Western Atlas, corporate structure, Landis and Gardner continued to break new ground in their respective areas of expertise. Landis and Gardner united again as part of UNOVA's Industrial Automation Systems Group, which sold off Landis and Gardner to Fives in December of 2005. Landis and Gardner are still united within Fives, under the Cinetic Industries umbrella.
Cylindrical Grinding Technology Leadership
During the 1970's and 80's, Landis continued to advance cylindrical grinding technology, especially for the production of automotive components, through a series of innovations including CNC flexible manufacturing cells, and the industry's first crankpin grinding transfer machine. Landis also became a leading source of research into high productivity grinding tool materials, including CBN and other superabrasives.
Today, Landis' core technologies include expertise in hydrostatic bearings, CNC axis control, multiple-axis servo coordination, machine/sensor integration, motorized spindles, advanced PC computer-based machine control systems, as well as superabrasive applications. Landis is also a leading developer of sophisticated software tools for predicting, monitoring and controlling grinding processes. Numerous joint research and development efforts with major automotive customers and leading university researchers around the world are currently in place.
An example of the results of such efforts are the Landis-designed CBN grinding systems which promise significant productivity increases in areas such as camshaft and crankshaft grinding. Other technologies, including linear motor axis drives, are also being applied.
Ongoing investigations into high productivity grinding using advanced wheel materials and machine designs have resulted in exciting new approaches to grinding, including high-speed grinding and grinding from the "rough" - known as "green grinding" and "vector grinding."
In order to expand its market share with automotive tier suppliers as well as other industries, Landis introduced a whole new series of value-engineered grinding systems designed for low- to medium-production applications requiring flexibility and dependability at a lower cost.
With the addition of Cincinnati Machine’s centerless grinders and centerless processing expertise, Landis has rounded out its comprehensive line of world-class cylindrical grinders.
Pushing the Envelope with Disc Grinding & Abrasives
Landis Giustina has also been a major innovator of advanced machine and abrasive technologies during this time, expanding the scope of double-disc grinding to include a broad range of industrial applications outside the automotive industry. Landis Giustina double-disc grinders are critical to the production of components ranging from connecting rods and bearings, to cutlery and hand tools in plants all around the globe.
Landis Giustina's latest generation of double-disc grinders, the R-Series, offers an unprecedented level of performance and economy, in addition to traditional Landis Giustina precision and productivity. Available in both horizontal and vertical configurations, these high-performance, value-engineered double-disc grinding systems have re-defined the state-of-the-art in what many had believed to be a mature technology.
The company's Gardner Abrasives operation is a recognized world leader in superabrasive technology for centerless, disc and cylindrical grinders, and retains technological leadership in conventional abrasive applications as well. And the company's CITCO operation has continued as a world leader in the application of high-productivity diamond and superabrasive tooling for both abrasive wheel and dressing applications, as well as single-point tooling.
Our Commitment to You
Naturally, industry leadership and advanced technology development programs draw heavily on the resources and accumulated practical experience of Landis personnel. Customer needs are met with a well-developed simultaneous engineering capability supported by state-of-the-art computer aided design and engineering tools housed in our headquarters facility in Hagerstown, Maryland and other locations around the world.
Today, thousands of Landis, Landis Cincinnati and Landis Giustina grinders, and grinding systems, plus Gardner Abrasive and CITCO products are at work producing precision parts in automotive and many other high volume precision manufacturing plants around the world. In addition, Cinetic Landis customers are supported worldwide by a combination of direct sales offices and carefully selected distributors in key market areas worldwide.
But even more important than the tangible tools they bring to bear is the innovative, inquisitive attitude Cinetic Landis employees apply to every challenge they face. The spirit that inspired the founders of these great machine tool companies to invent modern grinding technology over a century ago is alive and well in Hagerstown, Maryland, and around the world, today.