Long, hard life: General Industry Coverage
One of the Look Ahead features in this month's Cutting Tool Engineering magazine covers a new CBN superabrasive for grinding wheels that extends wheel life and lowers grinding forces.
The aerospace industry is grinding more hardened ferrous metals and nickel-base superalloys and the automotive industry is grinding more difficult-to-machine drivetrain components. As a result, Element Six Ltd. introduced the ABN900 CBN superabrasive for electroplated grinding wheels to tackle those challenges, according to Ned Vaughan, the superabrasive material manufacturer’s product manager for precision grinding. “There are a multitude of other applications, especially where you’re looking to generate a form on a steel component,” he said, “but the predominant applications where we see benefits are in aerospace and automotive.”
Courtesy of Element Six
A scanning electron microscope image shows Element Six’s ABN900 80/100 U.S. mesh grit size.
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ad index I.S. # ADVERTISER NAME PAGE # CONTACT NAME CONTACT PHONE CONTACT E-MAIL / WEB SITE 1 3M Abrasive Systems Div. 37 Customer Contact Center 866-279-1288 ext. 1687 [email protected] / www.3m.com/abrasives 2 Advent Tool & Mfg. Inc. 71 Jim Hartford 800-THREAD-4 [email protected] / www.advent-threadmill.com 45 Allied Machine and Eng. Corp. 5 Heather Kaiser 800-321-5537 [email protected] / www.alliedmachine.com 3 AMAMCO Tool 41 Andrew Gilpin 800-833-2239 [email protected] / www.amamcotool.com 4 Arno Rouse USA LLC 67 Bruce Welz 800-943-4426 [email protected] / www.arno-rouse.com 5 Bal-Tec 34 Patricia Johnson 800-322-5832 [email protected] / www.precisionballs.com 6 BIG Kaiser Precision Tooling Inc. 43 Tim Stapula 888-TOOL-PRO [email protected] / www.bigkaiser.com 7 Briney Tooling Systems 54 Donna Strozeski 800-752-8035 [email protected] / www.b
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I.S. # ADVERTISER NAME PAGE # CONTACT NAME CONTACT PHONE CONTACT E-MAIL / WEB SITE The Advertisers Index is provided as a courtesy to advertisers. Every effort is made to avoid errors, but should one occur, CTE is not responsible. Reviewed by the Engineering Index. Cutting Tool Engineering® (ISSN:0011-4189) is published monthly. Copyright 2011 by CTE Publications Inc., 40 Skokie Blvd., Suite 450, Northbrook, IL 60062
ad index I.S. # ADVERTISER NAME PAGE # CONTACT NAME CONTACT PHONE CONTACT E-MAIL / WEB SITE 1 3M Abrasive Systems Div. 37 Customer Contact Center 866-279-1288 ext. 1687 [email protected] / www.3m.com/abrasives 2 Advent Tool & Mfg. Inc. 71 Jim Hartford 800-THREAD-4 [email protected] / www.advent-threadmill.com 45 Allied Machine and Eng. Corp. 5 Heather Kaiser 800-321-5537 [email protected] / www.alliedmachine.com 3 AMAMCO Tool 41 Andrew Gilpin 800-833-2239 [email protected] / www.amamcotool.com 4 Arno Rouse USA LLC 67 Bruce Welz 800-943-4426 [email protected] / www.arno-rouse.com 5 Bal-Tec 34 Patricia Johnson 800-322-5832 [email protected] / www.precisionballs.com 6 BIG Kaiser Precision Tooling Inc. 43 Tim Stapula 888-TOOL-PRO [email protected] / www.bigkaiser.com 7 Briney Tooling Systems 54 Donna Strozeski 800-752-8035 [email protected] / www.b
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December 2011
In addition to boosting productivity, Vaughan noted that a wheel made with ABN900 particles, which have a consistent blocky shape, exerts lower grinding forces than a wheel using previous grades to allow cooler cutting and minimize thermal damage to the component.
The biggest distinction between the new grade and others is extended tool life, according to Vaughan. In a test at the company’s laboratories against two other Element Six products (ABN300 and ABN800) and a leading competitor’s product for electroplated applications, the company reported that ABN900 outperformed all of them. That included a 55 percent improvement in tool life vs. the competitor’s CBN when grinding GGG70 SGI, a cast iron often used in auto parts, with a grit size of 120/140 U.S. mesh. ABN900 is available from 30/35 to 170/200 U.S. mesh and is suitable for roughing and finishing.
One property that helps extend wheel life is the material’s high strength. The new grade’s CBN grits are stronger than previous grades at room and elevated temperatures, noted Siobhan Duffy, business manager for advanced materials at Element Six. “We tested ABN900 at 1,100° C in an inert atmosphere and it has higher thermal stability strength in comparison to our other grades,” she said.
For more information about Element Six Ltd., Shannon, Ireland, call +353-614-60146 or visit www.e6.com.
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