Tackle New Materials with Confidence Thanks to Breakthroughs in Abrasive Solutions
A wide range of industry sectors benefit by embracing newly developed products to elevate their metal removal and finishing processes.
Posted: February 15, 2024
Advances in abrasives technologies and tools result in faster metal removal and fine finishing in a single step, as well as extending the life of these products. Proper techniques by your operators improve your shop’s efficiency, while reducing wear and tear on belts, discs and wheels.
Abrasive Belt Machines Ideal for Coated and Non-woven Nylon Belts
Dynabrade, Inc.’s (Clarence, NY) Dynastraight® Series of portable air-powered abrasive tools feature an ergonomically designed, lightweight composite housing which reduces tool vibration and is thermal-insulated to prevent cold air transmission to the operator. Specific applications of Dynastraight tools include paint and rust removal, refining before final finishing, medium and fine grain finishing and final finishing.
Available from .4 – 1 hp, the tools are ideal for use with coated abrasive belts, abrasive impregnated non-woven nylon products, coated abrasive flap wheels, buffs, and non-woven nylon belts mounted on Dynacushion® inflatable pneumatic wheels. Use the inflatable pneumatic wheel for finishing work surfaces of virtually any shape, contour, or material; excellent for finishing stainless steel and other metals. Wheel conforms to the contour of the work surface.
Work on a variety of materials including stainless steel, aluminum, carbon steel, copper, brass, plastic, fiberglass, composites, wood and much more. The straight-line tools feature high quality air motors ranging from 950 rpm up to 18,000 rpm. The tools also feature an adjustable speed air motor and a standard muffler, which reduces noise levels in the workplace. Made in the U.S.A.
Dynabrade has been supplying quality industrial abrasive power tools for use in industries worldwide for more than 50 years.
Cut Down Grinding Time and Extend the Life of Abrasives
Ceramic aluminum oxide has long been known in the abrasive world to be the longest-lasting and most aggressive of all the abrasive grains. This makes the ceramic grain ideal for sanding and grinding numerous metal and steel applications, from carbon steel to mild steel and even stainless steel. Using the know-how of KLINGSPOR Abrasives, Inc.’s (Hickory, NC) 130 years of grinding experience as a manufacturer, the company has developed a new high-performance abrasive known as Cevolution (pronounced Sev-o-lution).
The Cevolution technology is ceramic in its sharpest form. The specialized manufacturing process features optimized grain blends, adjusted grit sizes, ideal grain quantities, and an improved resin coat that locks the grain in place. Cevolution also has certain products that feature a multi-bond lubricant that helps keep your metals cool while you are grinding, which is great for stainless steel.
KLINGSPOR’s Cevolution products include:
- Belts and Discs: PS 61F, CS 931 JF, GX 931 JF, CS 631 XF, CS 922 Y and CS 920 Y.
- Flap Discs:
SMT 674 – The Efficient One: The price-performance ratio has a new name: SMT 674. With this model, KLINGSPOR introduces a ceramic flap disc at a cost-effective price while not sacrificing the performance of the ceramic grain.
SMT 974 – The Solid Performer: The SMT 974 also boasts the new Cevolution ceramic abrasive grain. The combination with a blended cotton backing transforms the flap disc into a grinding powerhouse. The extra thick layer of abrasive material gives the product an exceptionally long service life. Excellent for various types of steel materials and delivers exceptional stock removal.
SMT 976 – The Cool One: The SMT 976 flap disc features the Cevolution grain with a multi-bond lubricant. The lubricant reduces heat, making it great for aggressive grinding on stainless steel.
SMT 975 – The Long-lasting One: The SMT 975 Titan flap disc brings the Cevolution grain to our Titan line. The Titan flap disc features a firm plastic fan-shaped trimmable backing with a ⅝”-to-11” hub (no wrench needed).
Fast Metal Removal and Fine Finishing in One Step
Saint-Gobain Abrasives (Worcester, MA), one of the world’s largest abrasives manufacturers, offers the Norton Vortex® Rapid Blend Coarse Grit Wheels and Discs. The products feature a finishing process solution that takes down and blends welds in a single operation, providing a 30%-to-50% improvement in productivity, while leaving smear-free finishes. The products are an extension of the Vortex Rapid Blend medium grit offering.
A proprietary engineered Vortex aluminum oxide aggregate grain stays sharper longer, resulting in an increased cut rate while producing a fine finish. Also, the new coarse grit offering features Clean Bond®, a special resin chemistry that resists shedding when used on sharp edges, making it ideal for deburring with no smearing. For versatile multi-dimensional deburring and finishing that minimizes wheel changes, Vortex Rapid Blend coarse grit has a unified 3D construction allowing operators to use them on the top, bottom or side. The strong unified construction is formed by compressing multiple layers of non-woven web material and bonding together, making the abrasives extremely durable as well as waterproof, washable, conformable and non-loading.
The Vortex Rapid Blend coarse grit addition is ideal for aluminum, mild steel, carbon, Inconel, titanium and stainless steel materials found in axle and thread deburring, finishing and blending applications in industries such as oil and gas, metal fabrication, aerospace, automotive and welding/MRO.
These wheels and discs are available in densities from high to low, depending on the application. Harder density wheels offer more heavy stock removal, and softer density wheels are suitable for mild finishing applications.
Automation Service Delivers Robotic Solutions for Metalworking Industry
WALTER Surface Technologies (Windsor, CT) has launched a new service to expand its automation and robotic solutions for industrial manufacturers. WALTER has partnered with a large network of North American system integrators and end-of-arm tool manufacturers that specialize in robotic systems and material removal operations in order to craft a fast but thorough automatization process that involves a readiness assessment, the evaluation of requirements and objectives, the selection of the right technology, and the design of the new system, as well as its testing and integration, performance review, training, and ongoing maintenance.
These partners include renowned brands such as PushCorp, ATI Industrial Automation, and Effecto, formerly Applied Robotics, and enable WALTER to better support end users from beginning to end, from the quoting and conceptualization stage to the installation and optimization of the system. To further customize the solution and design the perfect system based on the end user’s needs, WALTER works closely with all parties involved to ensure product availability, ensuring seamless integration.
“Our joint ability to provide these solutions on an expedited time schedule has not only enabled critical automation projects to stay on time but has also instilled confidence through to our partnership as market leaders within the automated material removal industry,” said Maximiliano Falcone, vice president of sales engineering at PushCorp.
“Whether it be to mitigate workforce shortages, increase production output, or improve safety in manufacturing and industrial plants, choosing robotic solutions allows users to enhance productivity and efficiency as well as increase quality and consistency, all while reducing re-work, costs, changeovers and downtime,” said Cédrik Rochon, R&D Engineer, WALTER Surface Technologies.
WALTER offers a broad array of abrasives, tooling, and anti-spatter solutions that can be adapted and tailored to a wide breadth of robotic applications that include heavy grinding, deburring, drilling, and finishing, on all types of materials such as carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum and more.
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