At that time the tight tolerance ODs are going to have much less grinding stock. We will have somewhere between 0.005 to 0.010" [0.13–0.25-mm] stock on the bearing diameters for fi nish grind.
“Whenever we steer away from our standard spindle shaft, a 55" [1400- mm] long stainless steel shaft, 3" [76- mm] in diameter and we’re basically running the whole thing with multiple diameters, we don’t need to change wheels. Everything is the same, the same abrasives, same diamond, same coolant, so we never have to do much tear down,” Schubert said. AME’s Studer S40 features two OD wheels, two ID wheels, and a Y axis that allows installing an ID spindle in a vertical orientation so that you can grind slots and keyways. It also has a C axis for out-of-round grinding, thread grind- ing, and spline grinding as well. “We have one large angle head and then we have what we call our secondary wheel, which is a smaller, narrower wheel. What we found is that it works incredibly well on chamfers, radii, getting into tight spots and reverse grinding. We’re really glad that we made the decision to have that confi guration,” Schubert said. “This confi guration really has paid off. I can buy inexpensive conventional aluminum oxide wheels, because we know we’re going to do a large amount of that kind of work. Our dressers will last at least the lifetime of two wheels.” Occasionally some of the spindle shafts will come in with diameters that include a band of ceramic that the customer uses as a seal. In the past, AME did all the normal OD grinding and then sent the part out for someone else to grind the ceramic with perhaps CBN wheels. Now, however, with the Studer the operator roughs the shaft down with the big wheel, then brings the smaller
wheel over, and he can hold a very fi ne microfi nish on the ceramic with the same exact tooling that’s on there to grind regular steel, eliminating the need to farm parts out.
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