Over the years, the manufacturing industry has employed both centered grinding and centerless grinding techniques. However, centerless grinding has gained more popularity since the technology is continually advancing towards more efficient production. In fact, this approach has become synonymous with superior finished products.
Owing to these advancements, centerless grinding is presently applied in many manufacturing sectors, including medical device manufacturing, aviation industry, automotive industry, consumer products manufacturing, and glass industry.
What Is Centerless Grinding?
Centerless grinding is a machining process that removes material from the outside diameter of a workpiece using an abrasive wheel without mechanically holding the piece. Instead, the workpiece is usually situated on a working platform between two rotary grinding wheels, namely the grinding wheel and the regulating wheel.
The two wheels rotate in the same direction but at different speeds, with the workpiece rotating at the same linear velocity as its point of contact on the regulating wheel, with no-slip. On the other hand, the grinding wheel turns faster than the workpiece and the regulating wheel, slipping past the workpiece’s outer surface and chips off the material as it passes.
There are two types of centerless grinding:
- Through feed grinding: The workpiece is fed on one side of the grinding wheel and exits from the opposite. This method is effective when working with straight cylindrical parts.
- Plunge grinding: The workpiece is fed on the grinding wheel continuously in an axial direction. This method is useful for workpieces with lowered surfaces.
What Are the Advantages of Centerless Grinding?
Centerless grinding has multiple advantages, both in the finished product and in the manufacturing processes. On the finished product, the observable advantages of centerless grinding are:
- A smoother surface finish
- Excellent roundness
- Straighter lines
Beyond the observable advantages, centerless grinding has numerous benefits in the manufacturing process, such as:
A Higher Production Rate
Centerless grinders fitted with automatic feed systems such as gravity chutes or hopper feeder attachments can process as many as 200 – 300 parts per minute without the need for any human involvement. This feature makes it possible to produce large amounts of small cylindrical parts.
No Deflection on the Workpiece
With centerless grinding, any job is supported along the entire length, between the wheels. This feature makes it possible to use heavier and longer workpieces with no deflection.
Lower Maintenance Costs
The process eliminates centering and external feeding errors, which means that the grinding wheels can last longer as there is less wear. Therefore, this reduces the maintenance costs after the initial setup.
Centerless Grinding Is a Low Tension Process
Since no axial thrust is imposed on the workpiece while grinding, it is possible to grind delicate pieces from brittle materials such as glass.
Quick Loading
When compared to centered grinding, centerless grinding has lesser loading. The load time can be minimized to as little as 3 seconds per part even when plunge grinding, thus makes the grinding process virtually continuous.
Do You Need Centerless Grinding Services?
Laurel Wire Company has been offering outstanding centerless grinding services for over three decades, augmenting high-quality production with top-notch customer service. In addition to centerless grinding, we provide a wide range of wire straightening and cutting services such as:
- Round wire straightening and cutting services
- Strip material with hard and soft tempers
- Flat wire cutting services
- Shaped wire cutting services
For all your centerless grinding needs, contact us today, and our team will be ready to answer any questions you may have.
