Contents

• 1. What is a 5 Axis Tool Grinder?
• 2. Tool Grinding Process
• 3. Applications
  • 3.1 Circular Saw
  • 3.2 Band Saw

What is a 5 Axis Tool Grinder?

A 5 axis tool grinder (also known as the 5 axis grinder) adopts a unique axis design to perform the tool grinding process. This machine contains five movable axes that can work at the same time. The structure is similar to that of a de-burring machine to some extent. Burrs are small pieces of material that remain on a workpiece after a machining process. They result in unevenness and irregularities on the workpiece surface. The 5 axis tool grinders are used to remove the unevenness and sharpen the cutting tools.

Automatic Helical Grinding, Makino Seiki Co.

Tool Grinding Process

The grinding process involves the use of abrasive grinding wheels. Each grain of the abrasive on the wheel's surface cuts a small chip from the workpiece through shear deformation. Grinding finishes the workpieces to produce a high-quality surface and high accuracy of shape and dimension. It is capable of removing material in very small sizes of chips from 0.25 to 0.50 mm. It also yields accuracy in dimensions of 0.000025 mm.
 

CNC Tool & Cutter Grinder, MachineToolSystems

Tool grinding is a common in-house operation for the metalworking industry. 5 axis tool grinders are commonly deployed beside the production lines to help manufacturers in their tooling business. A reason why the tooling industry relies on dedicated grinding machines is that the conventional machining methods could degrade the tolerances and surface quality of the tool parts.
 

Applications

The 5 axis tool grinder is able to process a great many cutting tools, such as drill bits, taps, mill cutters, circular saws, and band saws, just to name a few. In the following paragraphs, we will put our focus on its use of grinding circular saws and band saws. Grinding the blades periodically to make sure they stay sharpened is necessary. The grinding of the circular blade and band saw blade is a bit different from each other.
 

Circular Saw

Grinding the circular discs helps prolong their lifespan. The circular sawing machine uses a toothed abrasive disc set or blade to cut materials. No tools can retain their sharpness without undergoing grinding processes unless they are a laser or other non-contact devices. Sharpening the blade improves the cutting quality and efficiency.
 

Band Saw

Lastly, band sawing is no doubt the essence of this article in conjunction with the 5 axis tool grinder. Besides sawing tools, you can also use small tool and cutter grinders alongside turning tools, milling tools, drilling tools, and many other machining cutters. Users need to observe their cutting tools carefully in order to know when to replace, repair, or grind them so that turning, milling, boring, drilling, sawing and the related machining tasks can be carried out at ease.