Gardner Abrasives Offers Array of Productivity-Boosting Grinding Wheels

Gardner Abrasives division of Cinetic Landis Corp. offers an array of productivity-boosting grinding wheels with features to suit the requirements of grinders with conventional or high-speed spindles. Included are Gardner's innovative Black Magic disc wheels that have a proprietary formulation making them suitable for dry grinding a wide range of spring materials, high performance cBN button wheels for high-speed dry grinding applications, superabrasive disc wheels for grinding hard or difficult to grind materials including ceramics, and custom designed and engineered wheels using ceramic grain to increase wheel life and reduce dressing to minimize grinding costs.

"The Gardner Black Magic disc grinding wheel features a proprietary bond material that incorporates induced porosity with internal lubricants," said a company spokesperson. "This unique design enables a significant productivity improvement in dry spring grinding when compared with traditional magnesite-bonded wheels. For example, a 36-inch diameter Black Magic wheel made with ceramic grain for grinding stainless steel springs outperformed a magnesite-bonded ceramic grain wheel by a 2:1 ratio. Production rates (springs produced per hour) were doubled using the new Black Magic wheels.

"By reversing the direction of the Black Magic grinding wheels every three to four hours, downtime for dressing can virtually be eliminated. Even without directional change of the wheels, dressing is drastically reduced.

"Gardner Abrasives also offers its grinding wheel utilizing bonded cBN for dry grinding of springs. The unique, patented wheel design features multiple layers of cBN, resulting in a more consistent finish as well as better performance at speeds of 10,000 sfpm or higher when compared to single-layer electroplated cBN wheels. Even better results have been obtained with wheel speeds up to 24,000 sfpm.

"To maintain a more consistent finish, the Gardner cBN matrix uses a finer grain for a finer finish right from the start. The spacing between the matrix is filled with a proprietary composition designed to wear at a similar rate as its cBN-bearing matrix. Thus, unlike conventional cBN electroplated wheels that produce a very coarse finish when the wheel is new and which gradually improves as the single layer of cBN grain wears, the Gardner wheel produces the same fine finish throughout the life of the grinding wheel. The cBN matrix layers have been processed regularly with depths of 1 inch (25mm). Virtually no maintenance is required. Mount to your spindle collar, run several springs for break-in, then watch it grind and grind and grind.

"Another advantage of the new bonded cBN wheel is reduced heat damage. The wheels have been designed to achieve an interrupted spring end cut, which allows the heat of grind to be dissipated faster than a continuous cut. Smaller cBN grain can be used which develops lower heat per grain cut path. Also, less heat is produced because the wheels are able to maintain a sharper cutting edge than, for example, conventional aluminum oxide or ceramic grain abrasives.

"With these features, the new Gardner bonded cBN wheel is ideal for ultra-high speed spring grinding in a variety of hard metals. This range of materials includes stainless steel, chrome vanadium, chrome silicon, music wire as well as titanium.

For more information contact:

Don Schlie

Gardner Abrasives

Div. of Cinetic Landis Corp.

481 Gardner Street

South Beloit, IL 61080

800-325-0256