In 2022 Lian, our Marketer, explains our applications one by one. Last time she discussed the most frequently asked questions about deburring. One way to remove burrs, among other things, is grinding. In this blog Lian will tell you all about it. Starting with: What is grinding? “In short, it is a machining technique that removes material using a grinding belt or abrasive disc. This allows you to remove burrs or unevenness, smooth the surface or apply a certain grinding structure to the material.”

 

Why grinding?

“If you want to deliver products with a precise and smooth surface, grinding is a must. The smoothness of a surface also determines how much dirt can adhere to it and how easy it is to keep clean and to clean. These are important requirements when it comes to food and health, for example.” In addition, a smooth surface is important for further processing such as welding or bending.

How to grind?

“There is a lot to choose from when grinding metal sheets. Q-Fin has semi-automatic and fully automatic grinding machines in its range. But there are also manually operated machines such as angle grinders. With all these applications, you can choose the grit type and the roughness value to be used for grinding. I will be happy to explain the various options to you.

With which grit should I grind?

“In general, a distinction is made between coarse grit and fine grit. Coarse grit is often used to remove damage, contamination and hard scale from the sheet surface. After this, a surface finish can be considered, for which finer grains or a scotch-brite are used.
In general, coarse grit is used when the surface finish is not essential for the workpiece, when a large surface needs to be machined or when it requires a finishing such as powder coating for steel products. Also called pre-grinding.
Fine grit, on the other hand, is used when the surface finish is essential. For more precise machining of smaller surfaces, lower roughness values and products where the visual aspect plays a role, often stainless steel plate parts, fine grit is also used. This is called regrinding or finishing”.

 

What is the desired roughness?

“Grinding is possible in several degrees of roughness. Usually, the average roughness, indicated by ‘Ra’, is used. The roughness value after grinding a part is determined by the grit, the grinding speed and the amount of material removal.
The desired roughness can vary per product and material type. For example, as discussed earlier, in the food and health sector it is very important that a product is as smooth as possible.”

What kind of grinding belt(s) should I use?

“There are different types of grinding belts to choose from. For the application we talked about before, the surface grinding of flat sheet metal products, you can use grinding belts with a coarse or fine grain or a scotch-brite belt, as described. But that alone is not enough to make a choice. Various factors play a role in choosing the right grinding belt:
- What material are you going to process?
- What shape is the product to be grinded?
- How will the grinding belt be loaded?
- What base material should the grinding belt consist of?
- Are you going to grind wet or dry?
- Is the grinding belt water-resistant?
We are happy to help you answer these questions.”

Q-Fin specialises in the development, construction and sale of both semi-automatic and fully automatic grinding machines. And that with a speed of at least 3x more than comparable machines. Discover our extensive product range!

Grinding of metal sheet parts is just one of the applications our machines can help you with. In our next blog, Lian will tell you all about rounding metal parts.