Principle and Characteristics of Abrasive Belt Grinding Process

Abrasive belt grinding is a complex processing technology that uses abrasive belts as abrasives and is equipped with functional components such as contact wheels (or pressure grinding plates), tensioning wheels, drive wheels, as well as tensioning quick-change mechanisms, alignment mechanisms, and dust-proof (suction) devices to complete the processing of workpieces. Specifically, the abrasive belt is mounted on the outer surface of the drive wheel and tensioning wheel, and the abrasive belt is tensioned and operated at high speed. According to the shape and processing requirements of the workpiece, the corresponding contact and appropriate grinding parameters are used to grind or polish the workpiece.

Abrasive belt grinding is a resilient grinding process, so abrasive belt grinding is a complex processing technology that has multiple functions such as grinding, honing, and polishing.

The abrasive particles on the abrasive belt have stronger cutting ability than those on the grinding wheel, so the efficiency of abrasive belt grinding is very high.

The grinding speed is stable, and because the contact wheel is highly wear-resistant, the abrasive belt can maintain a constant speed of movement, unlike the grinding wheel, which slows down as the diameter decreases due to wear.

Abrasive belt grinding has high precision. Due to the improvement of the quality of abrasive belts and the production level of abrasive belt grinding machines, abrasive belt grinding has long entered the ranks of precision and ultra-precision processing.

Abrasive belt grinding has low cost. This mainly manifests in:

• Compared with the grinding wheel grinder, the abrasive belt grinder has a simple structure and a short transmission chain. This is mainly because the abrasive belt is light in weight, has a small grinding force, and has a small vibration during the grinding process, which requires far less machine tool rigidity and strength than the grinding wheel grinder.

• Abrasive belt grinding is easy to operate and requires less auxiliary time. Whether it is manual or automatic abrasive belt grinding, the operation is very simple. From the replacement of the abrasive belt to the clamping of the workpiece to be processed, all of these can be completed in a short period of time.

• Abrasive belt grinding has a large ratio of cutting, high machine tool power utilization rate, and high cutting efficiency. This reduces the cost of tools and energy required to remove the same weight or volume of material, and takes less time.

Abrasive belt grinding is safe and reliable, with low noise and dust, and is easy to control, with good environmental benefits. Due to the light weight of the abrasive belt itself, there is no risk of injury even if it breaks. Abrasive belt grinding does not have the serious sand shedding problem of grinding wheels, especially when dry grinding, the main constituent of the grinding debris is the material of the processed workpiece, which is easy to recycle and control dust. Because rubber contact wheels are used, abrasive belt grinding does not form a rigid impact on the workpiece like the grinding wheel, so the processing noise is very low.

Abrasive belt grinding has high flexibility and strong adaptability. This is manifested in:

• Abrasive belt grinding can be conveniently used for the grinding of flat, internal, external, and complex curved surfaces. Designing a abrasive belt grinding head device as a functional component can be installed on a lathe to perform post-turning grinding, or it can be installed on a planing machine. At the same time, various special grinding machines can also be designed. The use of abrasive belt grinding characteristics can easily solve some difficult-to-process parts, such as precision machining of ultra-long and ultra-large shafts and flat parts.

• The substrate, abrasive, and binder of abrasive belts have a wide range of choices and can adapt to various needs. The granularity, length, and width of abrasive belts also have various specifications, and there are various forms such as cylindrical and ring-shaped to choose from. For the same workpiece, abrasive belt grinding can use various grinding methods and process structures for processing.