Surface grinding uses a rotating grinding wheel to remove small amounts of material from an object, creating a flat surface with a uniform finish. Objects are secured to a chuck and moved across the wheel. The process can be vertical or horizontal, depending on the object’s size and the desired precision. Proper object alignment is critical for safety and accuracy.
Surface grinding is an abrasive machining process that involves attaching an object to a fastener known as a chuck, then slowly moving the object’s surface across a rapidly rotating grinding wheel. The spindle is part of a table that moves back and forth on the machine. The table lifts the object slightly deeper into the wheel at set intervals, such as 0.001 inch (0.0254 mm) with each pass, for example. The rotation of the wheel, combined with the abrasive particles on the wheel, removes small amounts of material from the object with each pass and creates a flat surface. Usually, surface grinding serves as a finishing step, designed to bring aspects of an object within certain tolerances, although the procedure is followed by a polishing step during a grinding and lapping process.
The surface grinding process inherently generates a flat plane where the wheel contacts the object. The machined surface is not only flat; the process also gives the object a relatively uniform surface roughness or finish. Increasing the time the wheel spends at the final depth of cut and using higher grit number wheels will further improve the surface finish. The slow increase in depth of cut allows machine operators to achieve tight thickness tolerances.
The deck grinder secures objects in three ways: magnetically, using a vacuum cleaner, or by holding the object with a mechanical constraint. Properly securing the object to the mandrel is critical to surface grinding. Misaligned settings lead to an incorrect cut at best. In the worst case, loose objects can come loose from the mandrel when they contact the rapidly spinning grindstone and can fly out of the machine at high speed.
Moles feature a donut-like design; the hole in the center rides on a metal rod known as a spindle. Surface grinders are available in a variety of models from dozens of manufacturers. All surface grinding machines, however, use one of two basic structures: a vertical spindle design or a horizontal spindle design.
Vertical spindle designs look exactly as the name suggests: the spindle points up and down. The grindstone lies flat on its face at the bottom of the chuck, allowing the full width of the grindstone to be used to grind an object. Typically, vertical spindle models are used when flat grinding panels or sheets of larger materials, or when a large amount of material needs to be ground quickly.
Horizontal spindle models suspend wheels above the table. With a horizontal spindle design, only the flat outer edge of the wheel contacts the object being held by the spindle. The smaller grinding surface allows for more precise cuts. Therefore, horizontal spindle flat grinders tend to be used when smaller features such as angles or profiles are needed.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
