Wheel Wear
Full Disclosure: As a grinding wheel manufacturer, we don’t always consider wheel wear to be a problem. In fact, it can be a good thing because, as the wheel wears, dull abrasive particles are released from their bonding matrix, revealing sharp granules that are ready to bite into the part. On the other hand, we also acknowledge that users have a legitimate interest in getting the longest possible useful life out of their grinding wheels.
So how do you do that? One thing you can do is increase your wheel speed, taking smaller scoops per revolution of the wheel. This will generally make the wheel hold up better. Not everybody can do that, however, because they might be already maxed out.
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The second thing you can do is flatten your feed cycle. Many users have a grinding cycle that incorporates an aggressive feed rate during roughing, a medium rate in the middle of the cycle, moving down to a very fine feed or none at all (spark out) at the end. If a customer wants to increase wheel life, we sometimes suggest that they flatten the feed cycle by adjusting the feed rate during these phases so that they are closer to each other. (See graph.)
In other words, don’t push the wheel so hard at the beginning of the grind cycle, ease up on the roughing feed rate and increase the medium and finish feed rates a little more.
Another thing you can try is improving your coolant application. One of the biggest enemies to wheels is heat. Wheels beak down if they get too hot. Sometimes simply adjusting the position of your cooling nozzles or the coolant flow rate can greatly improve your wheel life.
So if your wheel wear is not what you would like, there are some things you can do. Unfortunately (for you) and fortunately (for us) you will eventually have to buy another wheel. When that day arrives, buy a good one that has been tailored to your application. It will perform better and last longer.
And there you have it…
…An in-depth look at the top ten bore grinding problems and how to solve them. These top ten problems were identified by the Meister Applications Team after extensive research into difficulties most frequently encountered by our customers.
Over the past year we’ve presented these problems/solutions in a series of blogs to help you get to the bottom of any bore grinding issues you may be experiencing.
If you missed any of the blogs, or want to check back on a particular problem, follow this link. And, for a quick solutions guide, download our Top Ten Bore Grinding Solutions Chart here.
Finally, if you need to go deeper, contact a Meister Applications Engineer and we’ll do our best to give you some suggestions. You can find the members of the sales and applications engineering team on the Meister Corporate Website. Select your location at the top of the screen, and go to the company page for a list of contacts.
