Grinding wheel balancing will make an immediate improvement in your surface finish and edge quality. As a result, you get happier customers and higher sales. Plus your throughput will be higher and wheels and spindles will last longer, reducing your costs. Balancing finished tools will improve their performance in high speed machining, again making your customers happy. We’ve got two very bright ideas for grinding wheel balancing:
Idea #1: The Equi’Z balancing machine
- Accurate: Easily detects an imbalance of less than 0.1g and compensates for any imbalance by >95%, achieving qualities of under G2.5
- Economical: Much less than competing systems of comparable capability
- Easy! Requires no PC or programming knowledge to operate. Automatically positions the spindle while a laser indicates where to make the adjustment
- Self-sufficient: Self-calibrating. Works on any stable bench
- Light enough to move without special equipment
- Versatile:
- Displays results as DIN quality grade, unbalance in grams, or unbalance in gmm with a resolution of 0.1 gmm!
- Handles a variety wheel sets and tool holders (e.g. SK40, HSK 40F, HSK 50F, etc)
- Offers 4 different corrective methods: Adjustable rings/weights, fixed position compensation, material removal, & material addition
- Change spindles in seconds
Many standard wheel adapters offer no mechanism for balancing. But many that do have mechanisms that are a hassle to use. We offer an excellent solution for virtually all adapters:
Idea #2: Clamping nuts with movable weights
- Simple: Just replace the existing clamping nut
- Easy: Your Equi‘Z or comparable balancing machine will tell you where to position the precision ground weights. They slide easily in the track and are secured with a standard hex wrench
- Effective: Depending on the wheel arbor you can add up to 200 gmm, and because the nuts are at the end of the arbor you’re correcting the imbalance of the entire setup
- Versatile: Balancing nuts are available for most major tool grinders, including Walter, ANCA, Rollomatic, Reinecker, Vollmer, Saacke, EWAG, & Schneeberger. See the flier for details
See how easy it is to balance a grinding wheel set on the Equi’Z
Why balance?
Benefits of Wheel Balancing
Wheel balancing tools ensures optimal performance in high-speed machining by minimizing vibrations and improving precision. This not only enhances tool life and cutting accuracy but also results in smoother operations, reducing wear on spindle bearings and machine components.
Properly balanced tools deliver consistent results, allowing for higher feed rates and improved surface finishes, which significantly boosts productivity. By eliminating imbalances, the overall machining process becomes quieter and more efficient, ultimately leading to better-quality outputs and increased customer satisfaction.
Centrifugal forces increase quadratically with changes in speed. So doubling the operating speed quadruples the force acting on the bearing! In one real world test, we ground 30 tools on a WALTER machine with an unbalanced wheel set (quality grade G25) and another 30 tools with a balanced set (quality grade G2). Spindle load decreased by 30% and wheel wear became almost unmeasurable.
Using conservative figures based on experience, balancing wheels and tools will also boost metal removal rates by 10%. This alone will pay for the Equi’Z within a year, even assuming a machine rate of only $115/hour and one shift per day.
