New abrasive belts improve productivity of grinding operations.Metalcasting companies looking to improve the productivity of their grinding operations first can aim to find better grinding belts that last longer and work faster.Abrasive abrasive, material used to grind, smooth, cut, or polish another substance. Natural abrasives include sand, pumice, corundum, and ground quartz. Carborundum (silicon carbide) and alumina (aluminum oxide) are important synthetically produced abrasives. belts that can last longer and grind more parts will increase productivity by cutting down on belt changes, machine downtime The time during which a computer is not functioning due to hardware, operating system or application program failure. and total grinding costs. A new belt, the SG Blaze R980 from Norton Abrasives Norton Abrasives of Worcester, Massachusetts is the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of abrasives for commercial applications, household, and automotive refinishing usage. In 1990 it was purchased by Saint-Gobain of France. External links
The Blaze belts feature an improved SG grain with a stronger wear resistance for faster cutting and longer belt life. Traditional grain shapes are blocky, but the ceramic grains on the Blaze belts are sharp and have aggressive cutting edges. During the grinding process, each grain continually fractures along sub-micron faults in the grains' crystalline structures to repeatedly expose new sharp cutting edges. The belts' Y-weight polyester backing also contributes to their long belt life while offering better grain adhesion, enhanced edge-fray resistance and improved body retention. These features are combined with a resin system that provides better grain retention over past belt lines and a lubricant Lubricant A gas, liquid, or solid used to prevent contact of parts in relative motion, and thereby reduce friction and wear. In many machines, cooling by the lubricant is equally important. for cooler cutting. In field trials on off-hand and pressure applications, the new belts delivered marked improvement over other abrasive belts. For instance, the R980 belt was put on trial in a side-by-side performance test in which the two different belts were used on an off-hand grinder Grinder A slang term for a person who works in the investment industry and makes small amounts of money at a time on small investments, over and over again. Notes: for gate removal on 17-4 steel castings Steel casting is a manufacturing process in which molten metal is poured into a mold, allowed to solidify within the mold, and then the mold is broken and the solid piece is taken out. . The Blaze belt lasted through 56 gates (23.7 cu. in. [388 cu. cm.] of metal removed) compared to 35 gates (14.8 cu. in. [243 cu. cm] of metal removed) with the competitive ceramic belt, which is a 60% improvement. In a separate test, the Blaze belt was tested against a competitive ceramic belt on a pressure assist grinder for gate removal on high nickel investment cast jet blades. In this trial, the R980 lasted through 170 blades compared to 80 blades by the other ceramic belt. Similar improvements were seen in a test using a robotic grinder to remove the gates on cobalt chrome prosthesis prosthesis (prŏs`thĭsĭs): see artificial limb. prosthesis Artificial substitute for a missing part of the body, usually an arm or leg. . The Blaze belt lasted for 211 parts and removed 14.4 lbs. (6.5 kg) of metal while the other ceramic belt removed the gates on 74 parts, removing 5.5 lbs. (2.5 kg) of metal. Select No. 001 at www.moderncasting.com/info |
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