Grinding stamps for indexable inserts is a timely process, especially when the stamp is made out of carbide which is an extremely hart material. The initial rectangular shape of the carbide stamp has to be ground to its final rhombus shape. During the grinding process, the raw part constantly hits the grinding wheel with force which often damages the wheel, making the grinding process very challenging.
An OEM customer of ours reached out to us with the request to provide the most suitable solution for grinding carbide stamps with a profile accuracy of 3µm, a surface roughness Ra 0.05 and a reduced cycle time. Meister Abrasives’ experts developed a two-step tailored solution: a Ceramet DIA wheel for the rough grinding process and a Vit-DIA wheel for the finishing process. Due to its diamond hybrid bond technology that is suitable for exceptional cutting of extremely hard materials, Meister Abrasives’ Ceramet DIA wheel is very resistant to the hits of the raw part on the wheel surface. These properties, in combination with the wheel’s very high wear resistance, make the Ceramet DIA wheel the perfect solution for this rough grinding.
Once the rough grinding process is completed, a finishing process is required to achieve the necessary surface roughness and profile accuracy. Thanks to its vitrified diamond bond technology for fine and precise surfaces, Meister’s Vit-DIA wheel was chosen for that finishing step. There is not much grinding pressure applied which is why a good profile and finest surface are achieved. The Vit-DIA wheel has good dressability and retains its shape with the matched Hybrid Dresser (hDD) from Meister Abrasives.
The powerful combination of Meister’s Ceramet DIA and Vit-DIA wheels surpassed the initially requested parameters. The achieved profile accuracy of 1.6µm was significantly better than the requested one (3µm) and the achieved surface roughness was Ra 0.03. Additionally, the cycle time was cut in half which resulted in a reduced cost per piece.
See the process summary below for details.
