Applications of Grinding Wheel in the Soft Rubber Thread Grinding

Because of the properties and cutting characteristics of soft rubber material, it is quite difficult to cut or process thread or spiral groove on this kind of material, and is more difficult to process some general small lead screw. If you choose grinding wheel for grinding, it is very easy to meet the requirements.

Soft rubber has some mutual features of non-metallic materials, such as low intensity（σb=19.6～24.5MPa）and poor heat conductivity (thermal conductivity k=0.2W/（m•k）], which respectively accounts for 1/27 and 1/350 of steel, whose important characteristics are good elasticity, flexibility and resilience within - 50 ~ 150 ℃. The elastic modulus of soft rubber is very small, only 1.9 ~ 3.9 MPa, which accounts for about 1/50000 of steel. It also has good elongation (δ =500%～700%), about 30 times that of steel.

It is extremely difficult to cut and process all kinds of thread on the above materials with great performance. But if we use grinding wheel for grinding, it will become very easy and has high efficiency. What’s more, the thread after grinding does not have burrs, and the roughness value of tooth surface is also low. When grinding, we can install an adjustable electric or pneumatic grinding head for grinding, and can also grind in thread grinding machine or relieving lathe.

What calls for special attention is that when the diameter of the machined workpiece is greater than 150 mm and the screw thread is greater than 300 mm, the minimum speed of lathe spindle is also high, and it must slow down, or it will affect the quality of the grinded thread, increase emotional tension of operators and damage the parts of lathe. Water is recommended as grinding liquid for cooling lubrication. It not only eliminates the dust, and operators can't have the smell of rubber.