Veteran manufacturing professionals like to say that grinding is more of an art than a science, but that is not quite true. At Meister Abrasives, we take the science of abrasive technology very seriously – and we understand that when it comes to overcoming a tough application challenge, it can be a struggle to even know where to begin. Manufacturers start to become grinding “artists” when they know the tips and tricks to get the most out of their grinding and dressing tools, so to help you get started, take a look at the first part of our list of the top 10 grinding problems shops face every day:
1 – Taper
Whether it is an I.D. or O.D. operation, taper is one of the most common problems in grinding and finding the cause can be tough. In some cases, it is as simple as adjusting the oscillation stroke to be longer or shorter to compensate. In others, dressing a reverse taper into the wheel may be the best way to handle things. 
When these solutions fail, manufacturers should consider increasing sparkout times, regrinding the taper after a retraction, or ensuring aggressive cutting action with a sharper wheel or dressing process prior to adjusting the machine itself to compensate for taper – especially for older machines that make calibration more difficult.
2 – Poor Roundness
Roundness and concentricity are crucial for the performance of many parts, particularly in demanding industries where tight tolerances are required for lubricity, vibration damping, friction control and ease of assembly. 
If your round parts are drifting out-of-round, however, you should start by addressing the deflection or forces built up in the workholding, quill or wheel. Increase the sparkout time, speed up the rotational speed of the workhead and sharpen the wheel for lower forces and less vibration. Conversely, high-pressure coolant can actually cause grinding wheels to hydroplane on the part’s surface, especially in I.D. operations, so turn down the pressure to reduce deflection and improve roundness.
3 – Irregular Shape
Taper problems involve straight walls that have fallen out of parallel. Shape problems arise when walls have stopped being straight or parallel. Typically, this involves walls that are either bowed out (“barrel shaped”) or bowed in (“hourglass shaped”), and like taper, some of the possible solutions are the same – adjust the oscillation stroke and ensure even coolant distribution. 
Irregular shapes, which involve out-of-shape segments at various points across a part’s surface, are another issue altogether and often require dialing in the right amount of coolant. Too little coolant will cause thermal expansion and uneven material removal; too much coolant will cause hydroplaning.
4 – Rough Surface Finish
The entire point of most grinding operations is to create a high-quality surface finish, but shops may not have finer-grit wheels to try if their surfaces end up too rough. Increasing the wheel speed and shallower cuts is the most common solution, but when you are already running max rpms, you will need to find other methods for improving finishes. 
A longer stroke or faster oscillation will smooth out surfaces, as will longer sparkouts. Surprisingly, duller wheels may also be the way to go – ease up on dressing parameters and go with a lower feed rate, and while your process will be slower, you will likely get the surface finish you need for now while waiting for that finer-grit wheel.
5 – Post-Dress Fluctuation
It may seem obvious, but when you dress a grinding wheel, you are changing the top layer of the 
abrasive – and if the dressing parameters are incorrect, you will usually find that the first few parts are out-of-spec after the wheel is dressed. If optimizing the parameters is not enough to solve the problem, increasing the dress feed or dressing more frequently while keeping the same material removal rate can help. And while dressing wheels are tough, they do not last forever, so check the condition of your dresser to ensure it has all the diamonds it needs to do its job.
Looking for more? Please follow THIS LINK to see Part-2 of our series, with 5 more useful solutions.
Still facing challenges that you and your team are struggling to overcome? Meister has the expertise required to diagnose and fix any grinding difficulty. Contact Meister today to talk with an application engineer to get started. And be sure to come back to The Meister Toolbox blog to see part two of our top 10 grinding problems list.
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