WHAT IS FINE GRINDING?

Fine grinding is a superfinishing process performed by removing a well defined amount of stock from two parallel flat surfaces of components requiring extremely precise geometric accuracies and good surface finish. It is tipically the last grinding step of a mechanical production chain installed to improve and correct the geometry of parts coming from sintering, sawing, moulding or similar operations. Depending on the application, the stock removal can also be taken from just one flat surface.
The stock removal is gained by special super-abrasive tools, built with diamond or CBN (cubic boron nitride), through their friction with the parts to process. The grit size, the bond and the concentration of super-abrasive are defined upon the application.
The high level of technology involved allows such machines to achieve the same quality as the conventional lapping process. Main advantages from the latter are the much higher production (5-10 times than the lapping) and the cleanliness of the process: in fact, considering that any free abrasive slurry isn’t used, parts coming off the machine don’t need any deep washing or special solvent fluids.
Fine grinding technology is performed by Melchiorre with the double side machines series ELC. ELCs can cover all the main applications present in the high precision components industry.

- ELC Machines Series

APPLICATIONS

Typical applications of fine grinding are:

- hydraulic pump components (rotors, stators, covers, blades)
- automotive (injectors, piston rings, fuel & diesel pumps components, valve plates)
- bearings
- technical ceramics
- hard metal inserts, knives, sawing blades
- horologery components
- compressors