Punch Formers Guide
What Are Punch Formers?
In the grinding industry, a punch former is a fixture for grinding standard punches and EDM electrodes to achieve precise and fast machining. The punch former is a tool for precision grinding of electrodes, punches and grinding wheels. Its crank function can dress the grinding wheels into various curved or flat shapes.
The punch former is considered to be one of the most important components of the grinding machine because it can provide excellent processing speed and power to the production line. Some punch formers have a sturdy and compact structure and longer durability. This type of punch former is suitable for surface grinders and EDM machines to form punches of various shapes. The punch forming machine can be used in various grinding machines. There are four to five common types of grinding machines, such as surface grinders, cylindrical grinders, internal grinders, external grinders, roller grinders, etc.
Roll grinding machine
There are many types of grinders, roller grinders being one of the very effective types. A roller grinder is a kind of powered grinding tool that is commonly seen int he market. Roll grinders use one or more grinding wheels as cutting tools for processing. During the grinding process, through the shear deformation method, each abrasive on the surface of the grinding wheel will cut a small piece from the work piece.
In addition to roll grinder, the grinder field also includes belt grinder, bench grinder, cylindrical grinder, surface grinder, tool & cutter grinder, jig grinder, gear grinder, die grinder and angle grinder, etc. Grinding machines belong to the category of highly developed processing machines. Cylindrical grinders can be divided into two types: using center and center-less.
The cylindrical grinder can be equipped with multiple grinding wheels for different purposes at the same time. Rotate the work piece and pass it through the grinding wheel to be ground into a cylinder. Cylindrical grinders are often used to make precision rods, tubes, bearing races, bushings, and many other parts.
Centre grinding or center grinding is usually used to make various high precision shafts. The main advantage of this type of grinding method is the ability to grind the center of the shaft very accurately. There is a precise round center hole on both sides, which can ensure the positioning accuracy and thus improve the work efficiency.
What Are the Differences?
Although roll grinding and cylindrical grinding are almost the same in most processing details, there are some key differences between the two categories. First of all, the roll grinder is usually a customized machine for specific grinding tasks, which require the use of machines that can withstand heavy work. Therefore, compared with ordinary cylindrical grinders, roll grinder is larger, heavier, and stronger. Generally speaking, roll grinder usually cannot do taper grinding task. The rolls in the roll grinder can be used to process various products in a broad sense, such as paper, paint, steel, textiles, rubber materials, etc.
The length of the roll varies from a few centimeters to six meters or even longer, and over the entire length, a highly polished surface be required. In practical use, these rolls can provide high finished surface for sheet metal work pieces without the need for polishing or further buffing.
If the roll is designed for cold-forming metal, the huge pressure between the work piece and the roll will cause the roll to bounce off in the center. If a roll with a uniform diameter is used, the rolled metal work piece will be thicker at the center and thinner at the edges. Therefore, the correct curve of the roll surface needs to be carefully calculated. In addition, when performing roll grinding, a machine with a convex surface should be used to improve accuracy. Roll grinders are usually designed to rotate the rolls on their own bearings, and they may also rotate in the center of the tailstock and headstock.
Surface Grinding
Roll grinding, cylindrical grinding and internal grinding belong to the same kind of grinding work in some respects. Unlike cylindrical grinding and roll grinding, the grinding head of the surface grinder is lowered to the position of the work piece, and the work piece moves back and forth under the grinding wheel on the worktable. The worktable usually has a controllable permanent magnet as a magnetic chuck, which is used to fix the magnetic work piece. Of course, a vacuum chuck or other fixing device can also be used to hold the work piece. The most common surface grinder has a grinding wheel that rotates along a horizontal axis, and the grinding wheel uses its circumference to grind the work piece.
Rotary surface grinders commonly referred to as "Blanchard" type grinders. This type of grinder has a grinding head that controls the grinding wheel to rotate along a vertical axis and grinds using the end face of the grinding wheel, while the worktable rotates the work piece in the opposite direction below. Rotary surface grinders can be used to remove large amounts of material and grind on surfaces with obvious spiral grinding marks. It can also be used to make and sharpen metal stamping dies, flat shear blades, fixture bases or any flat surface.
Automation
The grinder can be operated manually or by CNC controller. When using CNC control system, the programmed grinding will be smooth. The control system can be preset according to the user's working habits. There are many kinds of grinder controllers in the industrial market all over the world. Users of grinders need to understand and learn how to manage and use these controllers in order to make automated grinding play the highest effect.
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