A growing number of new external/OD grinding machine systems are being designed to take advantage of superabrasives. Meister Abrasives USA, well known for its expertise in internal bore grinding, has also developed a line of external abrasive products in parallel with this trend to maximize grinding performance and minimize costs. Bruce Northrup, General Manager of Meister Abrasives USA said that his company’s early focus on small internal grinding wheels made it necessary for the company to pay very close attention to the consistency and quality of superabrasive materials and bonding system performance. Even small variations in these attributes show up quickly in internal grinding because the life of a small wheel is relatively short to begin with. Now that this expertise has been transferred to large wheels, users are experiencing quantifiable cost/performance advantages not only versus conventional wheels but also competitive superabrasive products. Users are reporting cycles up to 20% faster and/or cost per part reductions up to 30%. He said, “In the past, many manufacturers were wary of upgrading to superabrasives for their external grinding applications due to the relatively high cost of these products as compared to their conventional counterparts. In addition, there has only been a relatively small population of grinding machine systems with the proper stiffness, speed, accuracy, repeatability, and rotary dressing capabilities needed to fully utilize the advantages of superabrasives. That situation is changing rapidly.” “Manufacturers who considered but rejected the idea of using superabrasive wheels in the past now have a good reason to reconsider. In addition, there is a growing category of precision parts being manufactured from exotic materials that can only be ground with superabrasives. In both these situations Meister’s premium quality external wheels may provide the best fit for the manufacturers’ specific application.”

Examples of Meister External Wheels

(from left to right): Cylindrical Grinding, Turbine Blade Grinding, Cam Grinding, Fine Grinding, Wafer Grinding, Tool Grinding

He said, “In the past, many manufacturers were wary of upgrading to superabrasives for their external grinding applications due to the relatively high cost of these products as compared to their conventional counterparts. In addition, there has only been a relatively small population of grinding machine systems with the proper stiffness, speed, accuracy, repeatability, and rotary dressing capabilities needed to fully utilize the advantages of superabrasives. That situation is changing rapidly.” “Manufacturers who considered but rejected the idea of using superabrasive wheels in the past now have a good reason to reconsider. In addition, there is a growing category of precision parts being manufactured from exotic materials that can only be ground with superabrasives. In both these situations Meister’s premium quality external wheels may provide the best fit for the manufacturers’ specific application.”

Meister external wheels are customized for each application relying heavily on the company’s proven design expertise; exceptionally consistent, top shelf raw materials; and state-of-the-art bonding technologies, including its newest high performance bond, HPB. As a result, these wheels deliver the long wheel life, consistent wheel to wheel performance, and low cost per manufactured part comparable to the company’s internationally respected line of internal grinding wheels. Furthermore, wheel specifications can be tuned to provide ultra-consistent high volume manufacturing or the versatility that allows smaller shops to use a single wheel on a number of different applications. The Meister external line includes vitrified CBN and diamond wheels from Ø100mm(4”) to Ø700mm(28”) and lapping/fine-grinding plates up to Ø1220mm(48”), most of which are manufactured in its state-of-theart production facility in Rhode Island to provide competitive pricing and delivery. Applications supported include O.D. cylindrical, creep feed, surface, double disk, wafer backgrinding, as well as fine grinding and lapping. The most active markets for these products include the medical, aerospace, semiconductor, optical, tool & die, and automotive industries. Meister also supplies a line of ancillary products including dressing tools, cups, and discs.