Surface Grinding Machining Services ... Grinders

Grinding is a machining process of removing only a very small amount of material to obtain a highly toleranced surface finish on both flat and cylindrical parts.  Grinding is also used to cut hard materials.  While the grinding process has been vastly improved with the addition of CNC it is still a very slow and therefore somewhat costly way to remove stock from a part.  Grinding is used when you need to achieve one of the following:

There are a variety of grinding methods and machines that perform them. A few of these machining methods are Surface Grinding, Cylindrical Grinding, Internal Grinding, Centerless Grinding and Vertical Surface Grinding among others. 

CNC Grinding
CNC Grinders have made it possible to produce repeatable surface results for large quantity runs thereby achieving significant cost savings.  CNC Grinders have also made it possible to achieve contour grinding of surfaces.  CNC consist of an interface for downloading CAD/CAM software, a microprocessor with storage unit, along with other interfaces which makes possible the precise movement of the grinder.  The most common CNC grinders are use for inside and outside diameterical grinding.  

Centerless Grinding
The most common generally thought of centerless ground material is round bar stock.  Centerless grinding provides high speed grinding of material surface from the outside diameter without the use of centers along the parts centerline.  Centerless grinding utilizes a regulating wheel, along with a work rest, while pressure is applied to the part using its grinding wheel to remove the material.  Centerless grinders require only slight adjustments to maintain tolerance and low maintenance, such as dressing the wheels.  

Cylindrical Grinding
Cylindrical grinders, much like a lathe, holds the part on centers, along its centerline, using a head and tail stock.  The grinding wheel can then grind the OD of the entire length of the part, or over a specified area.  To achieve the desired finish, special attention is paid to both the grinding wheel and traversing speeds.  

Surface Grinding
Surface grinders can achieve both a surface finish and a specified tolerance for both flatness and perpendicularity.  Generally surface grinders consist of a moveable magnetic table, which holds the part, with a horizontally mounted spindle above the surface to be ground.   The surface table moves left to right and in and out ensuring that the grinding wheel covers the entire work area and does not linger too long in one portion of the surface. The horizontal spindle that has the grinding wheel attached to it may be adjusted in height to determine the amount of material to be removed in one pass. Successive adjustments are typically necessary to finish the part.

Internal Grinding
If your part requires extreme accuracy from inside diameters then chances are that it requires internal grinding. Internal grinding can achieve close tolerances even if your part has been pre-hardened. Internal grinding can be accomplished on a wide range of hole sizes.  While the size of the internal grinder is determined by the work holding diameter and the length of the grinding stroke careful attention must be paid to the length of cut to ensure accuracy. The basic configuration of an internal grinder consists of a work drive (which holds the part), the work piece or the part being ground and the grinding wheel which is mounted on a mandrel. Typically internal grinding requires higher RPM's than other grinding methods in order to cut efficiently.

03.15.09