After several years of research and development, Meister Abrasives has introduced new HPB (High Performance Bonding) technology capable of making vitrified CBN grinding wheels that can decrease grinding cycles by up to 25% and improve wheel life by up to 100%. This technology is fully commercial and grinding wheels manufactured by this process are available from Meister Abrasives USA. According to Bruce Northrup, general manager of Meister Abrasives USA, the new HPB technology, which was available on a limited basis in 2006, is now applicable to the Company's full product line.

These products include internal and external CBN wheels from diameter 1mm to 700mm diameter and lapping plates up to 1200mm diameter.

They are manufactured to customer specifications in the United States.

Northrup said, 'Meister has the flexibility to adapt the HPB bonding technology to make grinding wheels that last longer, machine cycles that run shorter or both, depending on the application.

The wheels also perform better, running cooler and producing more precise surface quality.' He added: 'Some early users have saved tens of thousands of dollars by adapting the new grinding wheel technology to their manufacturing processes.

Now that HPB is available across our entire product line, we anticipate that many manufacturers who could not justify superabrasive grinding in the past will be able to now.' Vitrified bonds are the most recently developed and advanced bonding systems for superabrasive grinding wheels.

The bondings themselves are composed of sintered glass and are initially mixed in powdered form along with the CBN or Diamond abrasive.

Each component of the mix is precisely determined by the required characteristics of the final wheel.

After pressing to shape, the vitrified bonded wheels are fired in a high-temperature kiln.

Unlike other bonding systems such as resin or metal, the resulting bond structure is both very porous and very wear resistant.

HPB technology represents a major advance in this approach.

It involves both a new bonding material chemistry and modified manufacturing processes.

The result is a stronger bond that wets completely to fully envelope each abrasive crystal.

Because the bond is so strong, less bonding material may be used to create more porosity in the wheel for faster, cooler cutting.

Conversely, using conventional amounts of bonding material results in super-longevity wheels that do not sacrifice manufacturing cycles.

In addition to improving the bond strength and porosity, Meister has also developed curing cycles that enhance the properties of the CBN abrasive crystals themselves.

The HPB process results in CBN crystals that fracture more readily to stay sharper.

This helps shorten cutting cycles and improve surface quality.

Northrup said, 'Meister's standard vitrified wheels are consistently rated as good as or better than competitive products in on-site customer trials.

I think this new technology will prove to be twice as cost-effective as our standard product and two to four times more cost effective than competitive products we have been matched up against in the past.' Meister routinely provides samples for prototyping and product benchmarking (field trial) assistance on a short-term basis.

* About Meister Abrasives - Meister Abrasives Corporation is an international manufacturer of high precision industrial abrasive products.

We offer superabrasive grinding wheels, peripheral equipment, and free technical support to provide our customers with complete, customized turnkey solutions to their grinding requirements.