7 Advantages that make CBN grinding wheels a better choice!

 

As with all work, there’s a correct tool for every job. In metal working, successful machining depends on sharp, well-maintained cutting tools that not only ensure precision, but also speed. Successful sharpening of cutting tools depends upon the use of the correct grinding wheel, geometry, tool set-up, and method of grinding for each type of tool. Below you will see some basic but valuable information about the sharpening of cutting tools; intended to keep manufacturing processes as efficient as possible, ensuring better effectiveness.

The most popular way to sharpen a blunt tool is grinding. CBN (Cubic Boron Nitride), diamond, aluminium oxide and silicon carbide wheels are some of the wheels used for this purpose. Diamond wheels are suitable for carbide, glass, and ceramics, but don't handle heat well when used to sharpen the hardened steels like HSS and HSS cobalt. Conventional wheels, like aluminium oxide or silicon carbide dull fast and become glazed and burnished, reducing grinding output and potentially causing thermal/metallurgical damage to the tool being ground. CBN grains have 55 times higher thermal conductivity, four times higher the abrasive resistance and twice the hardness of the aluminium oxide abrasives. CBN is ideally suited for any hardened steels.

Excision_CBN_(Cubic Boron Nitride) Abrasive Grinding Wheels

When choosing a grinding wheel, here are some advantages which make CBN wheels a better choice than conventional wheels for sharpening cutting tools:

  1. Longer life of the wheel at high material removal rates
  2. Very little thermal damage to the cutting edge
  3. Consistent sharp, burr-free cutting edges with no loss of hardness
  4. Easy and more effective control over tool sizes, shapes, and finishes
  5. Increased tool grinding productivity because of less downtime due to wheel breakdown and conditioning, and less wheel changes
  6. Less time required for gauging and deep cutting
  7. Improves fatigue strength and extends the useful life of the cutting edge

The use of CBN grinding wheels for the grinding of coldsaw blades HSS & HSS-Co, core drills (annular cutters), end mills, milling cutters, drill bits and a variety of hardened cutting tools can reduce the cost of grinding, while at the same time producing accurate precise polished cutting edges. Since CBN wheels last much longer than conventional grinding wheels and require little or no conditioning, there is less downtime for wheel maintenance. The savings in grinding costs with CBN wheels may range from 20-50 percent, or even higher, depending on applications.

Excision CBN wheels
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By Jason Thomas

Published Jan 28, 2020 02:14 PM