Unlike the standard grinding process where the workpiece is fixed on either of the sides in a stable position, in centerless grinding the workpiece has no fixed center. Instead, the workpiece is held between two wheels – an abrasive and a rubber-bonded one, where the latter applies lateral pressure on the workpiece while the abrasive wheel is grinding it. This makes the process particularly suitable for grinding round-shaped parts.
An end customer who specializes in producing carbide elements used in the automotive industry reached out to Meister Abrasives with the request of finding a solution to grind a large volume of small carbide parts. Their main goal was to optimize their current process in order to achieve a stable process and a faster cycle time. Taking into consideration the customer’s needs and the material of the workpiece in question, the experts from Meister Abrasives concluded that the most suitable solution in that case would be Meister’s Vit-DIA wheel that has proven to achieve excellent results on brittle-hard materials such as carbide.
When grinding small parts, the grinding wheel has to be very sharp and its structure should always be open, otherwise the parts can be damaged. Using a vitrified-bonded wheel guarantees a smooth grinding process and precise surfaces. Additionally, Meister’s Vit-DIA wheel exhibits a very long lifetime and an improved dressing interval of over 200’000 pieces.
Employing Meister Abrasives’ Vit-DIA solution, our customer successfully achieved the desired process stability and faster cycle time, while at the same time also improving the dressing interval. For optimal results, Meister’s experts advise to use a hybrid technology dresser which sharpens vitrified wheels with minimum pressure.
See the process summary below for details.
