The Abrasive West Creep Feed Grinding Process cuts and finishes products in one movement, delivering highly accurate results with controlled depth and superior finishes.
With customers around the world in several high-performing industries, we recognize the increasing demand, and significant advantages of, creep feed grinding.
OUR TEAM HAS OVER 300 YEARS
OF COMBINED EXPERIENCE MANAGING AND CONTROLLING
BALANCED COMPLEX GRINDING PARAMETERS.
ONE PROCESS
- shorter production time
- superior surface finishes
- better capability, accuracy and repeatability
Your product can be heat treated for final hardness prior to machining, delivering the project without interruption or delay for post-machining treatment, eliminating the need for deburring.
TIGHTER TOLERANCES AND COMPLEX GEOMETRIC
- heavy depth capability
- high stock removal rates
- subsurface integrity
- machine rigidity
- engineered tooling to give superior control
CREEP FEED GRINDING CASE STUDY
Engineering, Process and Productivity Improvements at Abrasive West
CHALLENGE
Customer X contacted Abrasive West to help improve quality, delivery and price in a very close tolerance medium volume aerospace application made from very expensive Stellite 6 material. The two-precision creep feed grind operations had the previous supplier with as high as 30% scrap rate and deliveries 4 to 6 weeks late.
SOLUTION
The AW engineering team reviewed the application. Several improvements were made to improve quality, delivery and pricing:
- Tooling Redesign - the incumbent suppliers’ tooling had been locating the parts from inadequate datums with too much variation to hold a .0005” total tolerance. Significant tooling modifications were made which resulted in greater process consistency and substantially less scrap (less than 0.02%).
- Proper Grinding Wheels - the type of grinding wheels were changed from “standard” creep feed grind aluminum oxide to vitrified CBN. This provided improved grind consistency, while maintaining tolerance and increased productivity.
- Proven Process – the sequence of operations was revised to take advantage of locational tolerance which controlled and maintained .0005” tolerance.
- Proper Grinding Parameters – the use of CNC machine technology improved part quality and capabilities.
- Gauging – in-process gauging was added, providing more process control and better Ppk results.
- Capacity – the components were processed 24/5 taking advantage of machine availability.
The Abrasive West Solution allowed Customer X to receive greatly enhanced quality, on-time delivery, and reduced cost (less scrap cost, no expedited shipping fees, lower part price with fast production).
Material is Stellite 6 (AMS 5894 Cobalt Alloy) – 52%Cobalt, 29% Chromium, 4.5% Tunsgsten, 3% Nickel, 3% Iron, 1.5% Molybdenum, 1.5% Silicon, 1.2% Carbon, 1% Manganese and 3.3% Misc Other.