subject: Kinds Of Centerless Grinding [print this page] If you have grinding needs, you would be smart to consider giving centerless grinding an oppourtunity. Unlike traditional grinding, centerless grinding isn't restricted by having to use a spindle. Centerless grinding is a very efficient way to grind your material.When a centerless grinder is used, the material being worked on that you put into the centerless grinder doesn't have to be handled nearly as much, as it would with a traditional OD grinder. Because the material doesn't have to be handled as much, you will be able to have more pieces completed in a less amount of time. This of course, saves you time and money.Did you know there are actually three kinds of centerless grinding? Read on to find out what they are.
The three ways to do centerless grinding are: Infeed, through feed, and end feed.
Infeed Grinding
One of the more important attributes of doing infeed grinding is the centerline height of the material as it sits on the centerless work rest blade. However, probably most critical to using infeed grinding is that the workblades and wheel settings are properly set on the machines so that your parts a re-ground round instead of oblong.Otherwise, the centerless grinder will not be able to do a good grinding job on the material. Proper setup of workblades is absolutely critical. During infeed grinding, the parts are placed into the work area and are fed across the workblades to a pre-determined depth. Infeed grinding is closest to plunge grinding on center type grinders.What they have in common is that the material being worked on is held still in the axial direction while the machine works the pieces.
Through Feed Grinding
Through feed grinding is especially handy when you have a large amount of pieces done in a short amount of time. You can just load the material into the centerless grinders and allow the cant of the regulating wheel pull the material cross the workblade as the grinding wheel does its job and put the next piece in.The feed wheel during thru feed grinding is placed on an inclined plane.The feed wheel is adjusted on an incline so the material being ground will properly move across the workblade.In this process, the regulating feed wheel perfoms 2 things.The regulating wheel turns the part on top of the workblade and pushes it against the grinding wheel. This type of through feed grinding allows the grinder to much more efficiently and speedily grind the material being fed into it.
End Feed Grinding
The last type of centerless grinding, and less commonly used compared to the above two, is end feed grinding. End feed grinding involves having a piece of material move past the workblade axially; then the material pauses while the part is being ground. The material is then moved out of the workblade area. This type of centerless grinding enables you to have a wider range of shapes. However, the workblade on the end feed grinding setup will only allow the material being ground to get smaller in diameter.
No matter what kind of centerless grinding you do, it's important that you make sure all of your regulating wheels are set up properly in relation to the workblades on your machines.If the parts are not coming out correctly, then it's more than likely the regulating feed wheels on your centerless grinder aren't properly set up to match the workblade height. Centerless grinding is a great way to put out a lot of production with very little set up and material handling.
