Reasons Affecting the Service Life of Abrasive Belt

The production process of abrasive belts has extremely strict requirements for the base material, abrasive, binder, and sand density. The premature end of abrasive belt life is often caused by improper use. Below, we will analyze several typical problems.

The Effect of Loading on Abrasive Belt Life

When a layer of metal material covers the abrasive cutting edge, loading occurs, and the surface of the abrasive belt becomes shiny and slippery to the touch. Loading mainly occurs on high-strength metal materials, especially hard and tough materials. Insufficient grinding pressure is the main cause of loading. For high-hardness materials, insufficient pressure makes it difficult for the abrasive to penetrate the workpiece and make the abrasive fracture and sharpen itself. Even with sufficient grinding pressure, softer contact wheels or press plates will collapse seriously, and it will be difficult for the abrasive to enter the workpiece.

Higher abrasive belt speeds make the abrasive have insufficient time in the grinding area, resulting in thinner cutting depth and serious heat generation. The causes of loading are comprehensive, and the solution is also comprehensive. This means that suitable contact wheels or press plates, sufficient grinding pressure, and lower abrasive belt speeds are the solution to the problem. Of course, choosing abrasives with good self-sharpening is also necessary.

Bluntness Affects Abrasive Belt Life

During the grinding process, although the abrasive still exists, its sharpness is already poor. This is because the cutting edge of the abrasive is dulled due to wear, and this phenomenon is called bluntness. Normal bluntness is the end of abrasive belt life. Obviously, the "bluntness" referred to here occurs when the abrasive has not been completely consumed, mainly due to improper selection or use of the abrasive belt. Abnormal wear and tear of abrasive belts seriously affects their service life and greatly increases processing costs, so it cannot be ignored.

Surface Blockage Affects the Life of Abrasive Belt

Blockage occurs when the gap between the abrasive blades is quickly covered and filled with chips before the abrasive blades wear out completely, causing the abrasive belt to lose its cutting ability. The reasons for blockage are many, mainly due to improper selection or use of the abrasive belt, and the material being processed. The contact wheels or press plates are too soft, making it difficult for the abrasive to enter the workpiece, and the temperature in the processing area due to friction causes the chips to "weld" to the abrasive belt, causing blockage. The solution is to use a hard contact wheel or press plate, or use a peak-toothed contact wheel and press plate, or use a small diameter contact wheel, and so on. If the abrasive belt speed is too high, the abrasive will be difficult to effectively enter the workpiece, and blockage and workpiece burns will also occur. At this time, the abrasive belt speed should be reduced.

Materials that are too soft to be processed (such as non-ferrous metals such as aluminum and copper) are extremely likely to cause surface blockage of the abrasive belt. The solution is to use a sparse abrasive belt and a coarse-grained abrasive belt under the condition of meeting the roughness requirements. The abrasive belt with larger brittleness such as silicon carbide abrasive belt can be used; the method of adding grinding aid is used, such as using lubricant. The processing surface of easily blocked materials is smooth. For this type of material, lubricating grease and coarse-grained abrasive belts that are prone to scratches should not be used, and ultra-coated abrasive belts should be used instead. The product has good chip removal and anti-blockage performance.

Control of Abrasive Belt Deviation

Deviation is the key factor affecting the quality and life of abrasive belts. The improper design of abrasive belt tensioning and adjustment mechanisms can cause serious deviation and jumping of the abrasive belt, which makes the processing quality unable to meet the specified process requirements and greatly shortens the normal service life of the abrasive belt, which will cause the abrasive belt to be scrapped in a short time. Therefore, the key to achieving good processing results and effectively extending the service life of abrasive belts is to choose models with high-efficiency and reasonable support frame casting, transmission, and adjustment mechanisms.