What is Cylindrical Grinding?
Cylindrical grinding is an important process used to achieve a finished grind on both the outside and inside of a workpiece. In addition to creating a high-quality finish with incredible accuracy, CNC cylindrical grinding also has the added benefit of allowing for high-volume production and the grinding of complex curved surfaces.
Cylindrical grinding is achieved by traversing the grinder along the surface of the work object, but it can also be used to create plunge cuts for narrower features on a given component. When cylindrical grinding is chosen as the method for an internal grind, the workpiece can be held in a chuck.
Cylindrical grinding is essentially characterized by 4 different actions:
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The grinding wheel is constantly in a state of rotation
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The grinding wheel feeds both away and toward the object
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The object is in a constant state of rotation
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The object and grinding wheel are traversed in respect to the other
Besides being a versatile and highly accurate form of precision grinding, cylindrical grinding can also be applied to components that have already been hardened or have received an application of hard coating.
The types of components that we use cylindrical grinding for include hydraulic cylinder shafts, rollers, bearing journals, cores, retainer pins, transmission shafts, and other hardened components.