How to Improve Grinding Profitability

Improve Grinding Efficiency & Profitability

The quality of work piece produced by precision grinding operations are characterized by dimensional accuracy, surface finish and surface texture. 

Surface texture defined in terms of surface roughness, waviness and flaws, is concerned with geometrical irregularities of the surface of work piece. All these features determine to the great extent the behavior of the part in service.

Surface finish influences the performance of mechanical parts and their costs as it has significant effect on the frictional and lubricant retention properties of the surface. 

Waviness determines whether mating will be accurate so that leakages can be avoided in sealed joints.

Today our main thrust is to look for the possibility of improvement in grinding efficiency along with the surface finish on jobs.

Followings are the major important factors that influence grinding efficiency and profitability. We can improve our grinding profitability monitoring these factors and tracking measuring parameters.

Here are 4 ways to improve the grinding Profitability & Efficiency

 

1) Wheel Selection Factor

The grinding wheel is the most important element of the production grinding system. The abrasive, grit size, grade and bond type should be correctly selected to fit the particular job. An improperly selected wheel can be major source of bad surface quality and inefficiency in the grinding process.

2) Machine and mounting mechanism

The heart of any precision grinding machine is the grinding wheel spindle and it's bearing. Any wear in the bearing that permits spindle to vibrate will cause the machine useless for precision work. Other machine tools factors include power and speed availability, control capability, truing and dressing mechanism. Each of these aspects affect the accuracy of wheel.

3) Wheel balancing

Proper balancing of grinding wheel is an essential requirement if good results are to be achieved. Because an imbalance wheel create a severe vibration when it runs high speed and leads to a chatter mark in component.

4) Process parameters

The grinding wheel speed, work speed, depth of cut, feed rate are the important parameters that effect the surface finish, which in turn affects the productivity and grinding cost of component.

Ensuring each of above factors is properly addressed and maintained helps to grinding machine to work at peak efficiency.

Looking at all above factors and process parameters, it is clear that achieving results with least variations requires use of reliable equipment to ensure accuracy and establishing standard practices to ensure consistency.

Optimizing grinding process and making it cost effective: To find out how to optimize my grinding process for increased productivity, we need to use system process. 

This process involves focusing on few specific factors from each of the all parameters and measuring how results change.