Introduction to Characteristics of Abrasive Belt Grinding Process

Abrasive belt grinding has developed for nearly 30 years and has now become a relatively complete and self-contained new processing technology. It is favored by users because of its high processing efficiency, wide application range, strong adaptability, low cost, and easy operation and safety. In foreign countries, abrasive belt grinding technology has made great progress, and its processing objects and application fields are becoming more and more extensive. It can almost process all engineering materials, which can be used from general daily necessities to large aerospace equipment, and has become an important means of obtaining significant economic benefits. The reason why it has received more and more attention and achieved rapid development as a processing technology is because it has the following important characteristics.

Abrasive belt grinding efficiency is high

The abrasive particles on the abrasive belt have stronger cutting ability than the abrasive particles on the grinding wheel, so its grinding efficiency is very high. The high grinding efficiency of abrasive belt is reflected in its material removal rate, grinding ratio (the ratio of the weight of the workpiece removed to the weight of the abrasive), and the utilization rate of machine tool power, all of which are very high. The power utilization rate of abrasive belt grinding machine has reached 80% in the early stage of its development, leading other machine tools. Therefore, abrasive belt grinding is also a good energy-saving processing technology.

Abrasive belt grinding produces high surface quality of workpiece

This is not only because of its multiple functions of grinding, polishing, and deburring, but also because of:

• Compared with grinding wheel grinding, abrasive belt grinding is known as "cold grinding", which means that the grinding temperature is low and the workpiece surface is not easy to be burned;

• The abrasive belt grinding system has small vibration and good stability. Since the abrasive belt itself is light in weight, the balance state of the grinding process structure system is easy to control, and all rotating components (such as contact wheel, driving wheel, tension wheel, etc.) have little wear, and there will be no dynamic balance factors like the grinding wheel. In addition, the elastic grinding effect of the abrasive belt can greatly reduce or absorb the vibration and shock generated during grinding;

• The grinding speed is stable, and the driving wheel of the abrasive belt will not slow down like the grinding wheel when the diameter is reduced. The high surface quality of the workpiece produced by abrasive belt grinding is mainly reflected in the small surface roughness value, good residual stress state, and no microscopic cracks or changes in metallographic structure.

Abrasive belt grinding has high precision

Due to the improvement of the abrasive belt making quality and the production level of abrasive belt grinding machines, abrasive belt grinding has long entered the ranks of precision and ultra-precision machining, and the highest accuracy has reached below 0.1mm.

Abrasive belt grinding has low cost

• Abrasive belt grinding equipment is simple. Compared with grinding wheel grinding machines, abrasive belt grinding machines are much simpler. This is mainly because the abrasive belt is light in weight, the grinding force is small, and the vibration during grinding is small, so the requirement for the rigidity and strength of the machine tool is much lower than that of the grinding wheel grinding machine;

• Abrasive belt grinding is easy to operate, and the auxiliary time is short. Whether it is manual or motorized abrasive belt grinding, the operation is very simple. Everything from replacing and adjusting the abrasive belt to clamping the workpiece to be processed can be completed in a short time;

• Abrasive belt grinding has a high grinding ratio and a high utilization rate of machine tool power, which enables the tool and energy cost consumption of cutting materials of the same weight or volume to be reduced, and the time occupied to be short.