Grinding Out Bottleneck Diamond & CBN lapping plate

PRODUCTION TIMES

The Stahli Model DLM 700 flat-honing machine’s simultaneous top-and-bottom finishing of carbide inserts expands Spartan Carbide’s production capabilities.

For more than 30 years, Spartan Carbide Inc. has provided high precision carbide inserts and tooling. Spartan Carbide specializes in form grinding of specials and standard geometry ceramic, PCD and CBN inserts for diverse OEMs. In 2002, Spartan combined two existing facilities that separately housed management and production manufacturing into one facility in Fraser, Mich.

CHALLENGE
Eliminate top-and-bottom grinding bottlenecks.

SOLUTION
Two-sided flat-honing machines.

Before double-sided flat honing

More than 98 percent of the inserts Spartan produces have a top-and-bottom grind. All while delivering the flatness, finish, and parallelism its customers specify. To accomplish this, Spartan had seven single-sided rotary-table grinders operating 10-hour shifts, 5 days a week.

“Even with that amount of production,” said Tom Haberski, Spartan’s plant manager, “we kept running into a production bottleneck.”

According to Haberski, he could expect 900 to 1,000 inserts from each of the rotary table grinders in a 10-hour shift. “It was a very labor-intensive operation,” continued Haberski. “Requiring one operator per machine to achieve that level of production”. Setup was also time-consuming because the inserts needing to be positioned in a 30″ magnetic chuck with a 2″ ring. In addition, having to position in several smaller steel straps to lock the carbide inserts into the 30″ chuck”.

How do we create more production?

The initial grinding on the single-sided rotary-table grinders was critical to Spartan’s overall production. The machines’ output fed more than 40 grinders used for a secondary operation. Which was having to finish the peripheries and edges of the inserts. Using single-sided abrasive machines, the inserts had to be ground first on one side then flipped and ground on the opposite side. This required multiple setups. According to Haberski, a batch of inserts often had to be flipped a third time to achieve the appropriate degree of parallelism, further clogging production.

The Stahli Solution

The Stahli flat-honing or fine-grinding process is unlike conventional fixed-abrasive grinding or lapping for sizing workpieces. Flat lapping as opposed to flat honing, typically involves a slurry. For example, loose aluminum oxide, silicon carbide or other abrasive grains flowed across a rotating lapping plate. Typically these slurries are mixed in a water or oil-based solution. They create an abrasive “film” between the plates and the workpiece. Stock removal from a single side, or both sides simultaneously, can be complete without part distortion due to heat or clamping.

The Moresuperhard solution.

If you just have single-sided rotary-table grinders that we can supply synthetic Iron/copper lapping plate with diamond lapping slurry.

The diamond slurry much better than others aluminum oxide, silicon carbide or other abrasive grains and also can enhance productivity and have best surface quality. It also saves the cost of replacing the new machine

Expert the conventional fixed-abrasive grinding or lapping that we also can supply diamond & CBN lapping plates for your single-sided rotary-table grinders.

Vitrified bond Diamond & CBN lapping plate.

If you have Two-sided rotary-table grinders that we can supply double disc diamond & CBN lapping disc. Stock removal from a double side, or both sides simultaneously, can be complete without part distortion due to heat or clamping. the operator can unload the finished tools from the machine and start processing a new batch within 2 minutes.

More Double side diamond lapping plate

The Moresuperhard dressing wheel.

Dressing Wheel For Diamond And CBN Wheel

The dressing wheels are used for dressing diamond and CBN wheels. According to the different particle size, accuracy of the diamond and CBN grinding disc to choose the dressing wheel, making dressing easier and more time saving.

Achievements made possible

The payoff for Spartan has been an increase in overall production while eliminating the bottleneck. The Stahli DLM 700 produces 4,000 to 5,000 inserts in a 10-hour shift. Compared to the 900 to 1,000 on the single-sided grinding machines. This enabled five of the seven single-sided grinders to be taken offline and sold prior to relocating to the new facility.

The Stahli DLM 700’s simultaneous two-sided grinding, along with fewer setups gives Spartan significant productivity enhancements with consistent yields. The flat-honing machine has been so productive, Spartan is bringing in outside contract work to fully utilize the machine’s capacity. The performance of the machines went above and beyond expectations.

Forwarded from Stahli

https://www.stahliusa.com/technical-article/grinding-out-bottlenecks/