Introduction

A special regulation method of the horizontal axes of operating and rubbing wheels of a centerless grinding machine coupled with an opportune blade profile, allowing a continuous regulation of blade rest angle and workpiece height, without requiring blade substitution and/or manual regulations.

Technical features

Thanks to a proper regulation of the horizontal axes of operating and rubbing wheels of a centerless grinding machine, coupled with an opportune blade profile, the proposed method allows a continuous regulation of blade angle γ and workpiece height h_w, without requiring blade substitution and/or manual regulations. The regulation of γ and h_w are not independent: their relationship is defined during blade profile design. Angle γ and height hw depends on the contact point between workpiece and blade: in particular, γ is given by the tangent to blade profile in the contact point. The invention does not require a machine modification, but only the introduction of a new kind of blade. A continuous or step-wise variation of γ and hw can be optimised and exploited to improve process stability, i.e., workpiece roundness: the patent includes a method to do that.

Possible Applications

• Centerless grinding operations.

Advantages

• Time saving in process set-up (no need of manual regulation or substitution to change blade angle);
• Machine cost reduction (multiple blades in one single object);
• Fine regulation of work rest angle;
• Advanced strategies for increasing process stability (multi-stage approach).