ID or OD Grinding Process

Grinding process

Grinding is a process of removing metals using bonded abrasives, forming a rotating wheel. When moving abrasive particles come into contact with the workpiece, it acts as small cutting tools, cutting a small chip off the workpiece with each particle. Abrasive grinding wheels are expected to remove material through rubbing, yet, the procedure is just a

cutting action like lathe turning, milling, and drilling. All these machining processes could be performed at precision machine shops.

ID Grinding 

ID grinding is also called inner diameter grinding, inside diameter grinding, bore grinding, or internal grinding. It is the technique of precisely removing material from the inner diameter of any conical or cylindrical workpiece.

ID Grinder

An ID grinder is also known as an “internal grinding machine.” It can grind cutting tools, gear parts, bearings, hydraulic components, and non-round discs.

Applications

ID Grinder is used in the following applications:

• Military tank parts
• In automotive engines, hydraulic tappets are used.
• roller rocker arms
• Bearings

OD Grinding

It’s not simply about shaping OD, the outside diameter of a piece, when it comes to OD grinding services. It is a kind of cylindrical grinding and necessitates the presence of a central rotational axis in the work being ground. OD grinding takes place on the workpiece’s exterior surface between both centers — and this is a crucial difference.

OD Grinder

An OD grinder performs precisely as its name suggests; it grinds a cylindrical workpiece’s outer diameter.

Applications

OD Grinder is used in the following applications:

• Hydraulic components
• Transmission components
• Axles
• Crankshafts
• Camshafts

The Advantages of OD Grinding

OD grinding is a simple procedure unless you require varied diameters over a length or need an incredibly high material removal rate; in such a case, you’ll need a creep-feed grinder. It’s comparable to through-feed centerless grinding as both are designed to improve an object’s outside.

However, OD grinding has a significant benefit in that it requires you to locate the true center of a circular item. Users could make something flawless out of something that’s not round. Of course, there’s a caveat; the grinding process removes material, making the piece smaller.

Unlike centerless grinding, OD grinding allows you to eliminate undesirable geometry and restore precise circularity to a part. That implies the procedure could create or regain roundness, resolving difficulties like concentricity, ovalness, and circular defects.

Cylindrical Grinder

A centered OD grinder is also known as a cylindrical grinder because the workpiece is fixed between cone-shaped centers and rotated by a drive system. Although our understanding of a cylindrical grinder is confined to centered grinding, several different cylindrical grinder types exist, such as a system with a single spindle set to grind various diameters.

Universal Grinder

ID and OD precision grinding are done with a universal grinder. These systems are programmed to carry out each set of actions sequentially. Universal grinders are typically used in tool rooms and are best suited for low-volume pieces. For high-volume applications, separate OD and ID grinders are required.

It is one thing to understand how various grinders work, but it’s quite another to be equipped to design a precision grinding procedure that satisfies customers’ specific requirements.

ID/OD Grinding Applications

The ID/OD grinding procedure can ensure a refined and high-quality finishing on the following applications.

• Automobile bushings
• Shives
• Gear bores
• Cams

Elements Involved in the Designing of ID or OD Grinding Process

To design the best grinding process, many critical factors must be considered. One of the very first factors to be considered is project capacity. An application used to grind ten pieces annually at precision machine shops requires a different approach than one used to grind thousands of components per hour.

Moreover, another essential factor is the material; hardened steel must be treated differently than soft brass. These considerations influence the stiffness and rigidity of the workpiece by determining the fixturing to use. The faster a part can be ground, the harder it is kept in place.

Part tolerances also influence process design. Specific sensitive applications may have ID tolerances between +/- 60 millionths of an inch, necessitating extreme precision.

The level of automation against the quantity of labor involved should be considered. The procedure for a project of 10-piece annually can easily handle hand feeding, whereas the project processing thousands of pieces per hour necessitates a higher automation level, such as:

• Infeed conveyors
• Loading and unloading systems in the gantry style
• Robotics
• Post-process gages

Designing a precision grinding process is complex and necessitates a thorough understanding of precision or centerless grinding and the part being ground.

Do I Need OD or ID Grinding?

Various factors influence the results you obtain when you perform OD or ID grinding at precision machine shops, just as there are other centerless grinding procedures. For example, the surface produced will be influenced by:

• The material hardness of the workpiece
• Grain fineness and wheel type
• The wheel’s condition (e.g., minimal clogging, appropriately dressed)
• Machine rigidity
• Feed rate
• Lubricant quality

Also, the right supplier can help you understand your piece requirements and decide if OD or ID grinding fits your project perfectly. Both ID and OD grinding can be done at precision machine shops.

Contact Us For the Best Grinding Services

With 30 years of experience and professional expertise in the manufacturing industry, O’Hare Precision Metals, LLC has established itself as a leading company. We believe in our ability to handle your precision grinding needs. Our goal isn’t just to supply grinding services that fit a customer’s needs; we want to assist customers in boosting productivity, dependability, and precision while improving efficiency. Request a quote today!