What Led to the Development
Controlling the Arrangement of Abrasive Grains, a Challenge for Many Years
Electroplated wheels are characterized by a high abrasive grain protrusion and excellent cutting performance. However, factors such as an increase in active abrasive grains due to wear during machining and clogging can lead to reduced cutting performance and dimensional defects. An investigation of conventional electroplated wheels revealed that, of the embedded abrasive grains, only a fraction were actually active.
Based on this, it was relatively easy to predict that arranging a smaller number of abrasive grains more efficiently would lead to improved cutting performance and reduced clogging. However, improving this required the development of new technology that differed fundamentally from existing manufacturing processes—a challenge that had long been considered difficult to overcome. Although not an urgent matter, it was an issue that Asahi Diamond—which constantly strives for better manufacturing—could not afford to ignore.
Conventional Electroplated Wheels
Abrasive Grain Arrangement Specifications
Initiatives
The catalyst for innovation was
—a technology that had been rejected in the past.
While it is easy to arrange abrasive grains on tools with simple shapes, it was difficult to arrange abrasive grains of different sizes for each specification on a wide variety of shapes—such as those found in electroplated wheels—which are produced in small quantities and in many varieties. As a result of extensively exploring ideas for new technologies to solve this problem, the solution ultimately adopted was, surprisingly, a technology that had been rejected once before. Technological innovation made its implementation feasible.Although we struggled with detailed trial and error due to the novelty of the technology, we were able to complete a satisfactory prototype relatively early on.
However, when it came time for mass production, a problem arose where the abrasive grains fell off during the manufacturing process. Days followed in which we identified the cause and tirelessly tested and verified solutions one by one. Ultimately, we were able to resolve the issue by abandoning conventional technology and adopting a fundamentally different manufacturing process.
Initiatives
Unexpectedly Long Service Life
The performance of the "AG Wheel" with the new technology was truly innovative. For example, one product showed outstanding sharpness with less than half the grinding resistance of a conventional electroplated wheel, even with the same machining accuracy. This is expected to reduce grinding burning and support high-efficiency machining.
The AG Wheel is also effective in smoothly discharging chips generated during machining and preventing clogging. Because the AG Wheel is designed with an emphasis on sharpness, it has fewer abrasive grains than conventional products, and there was concern that its wear resistance would be low. Nevertheless, when the AG Wheel was introduced at one customer's site, the wheel actually tripled its service life because it reduced machining defects caused by clogging. Both the customer and the development team could not hide their surprise at this fact.
Unparalleled sharpness
Compared to conventional electroplated wheels, even at the same surface roughness,
it boasts outstanding cutting performance with approximately half the grinding resistance and effectively suppresses grinding burn.
High chip evacuation performance
Prevents tool clogging and maintains good geometric accuracy
Development Results
A new technology full of potential that can meet the needs of many customers
One of our current challenges is to increase productivity of AG Wheels, since they take a long time to manufacture due to the use of special processes. Currently, AG wheels are mainly used for automotive parts and hydraulic parts of construction machinery, but we are considering expanding sales to other industries. At the same time, we are also considering the possibility of expanding to larger sizes.
To begin with, the AG Wheel is characterized by its ability to control the number and arrangement of abrasive grains. In other words, we can provide optimal specifications for each customer. AG Wheels will continue to evolve in order to meet the needs of more and more customers.
Click here for product information