INSIGHT & OUTLOOK Case Study many parts per dressing routine than conventional aluminum oxide. This improved performance impacts the overall grinding process not just by lowering per-part abrasive costs, but, also by reducing wheel dressing time by as much as two-thirds. Assuming workpiece grinding time for both types of wheels is the same, the total cycle time can be reduced by one-third. Consider a production run of This chart shows the savings possible with Quantum ceramic aluminum oxide wheels.
Compared to seeded gel aluminum oxide shown here, the Quantum has smaller grains and more cutting points within a given area.
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10,000,000 fasteners. According to the company, centerless grinding machine cost constitutes the largest portion of overall fastener production expense, and wheel dressing accounts for almost 50 percent of that portion. If wheels require dressing after every 60 or 70 parts, the production run will include approximately 150,000 dressing cycles. If each of these cycles takes an average of five minutes, overall dressing time will take approximately 13,000
hours. Assuming a conservative, fully burdened labor rate of $60 per hour, that amounts to a nearly $800,000 expense for non-value added dressing operation, or about 38 per cent of the total production cost. However, because Quantum wheels require less total dressing time, they can provide a cost savings of more than $500,000 (26 per cent) over the production run, the company says. Courtesy: MMS magazine