Dressing App
App optimizes dressing process
Dressing is one of the most important steps in the sanding process. If the grinding wheel is dull or its pores are clogged, it has been damaged during the previous process. If it is new but not yet adapted to the required conditions, the quality of the sanding process will suffer. A new app helps to optimize the dressing process.
If you can't dress, you can't sand. To this day, many machine manufacturers neglect this fact, as they assume that good tools and machines are the actual core of an efficient sanding process. This often overlooks the fact that the tools and machines must first be conditioned before they can be used. Dressing is therefore essential for grinding processes with dressable grinding wheels, as the most economical combination of grinding wheel service life, workpiece quality and machine cycle time can only be achieved with the correct dressing parameters.
React quickly to changed parameters
However, parameters are transient - they change every time different tools are used or the requirements for the workpiece to be produced change. For machine operators, this has so far involved an enormous amount of time and effort, as they have to recalculate the dressing parameters for each process using sometimes quite complex formulas and then pass these on to the machine.
Various apps for smartphones and tablets are already making this more convenient and safer. They already calculate dressing parameters very reliably. However, the work remains complicated for the machine operator. They first have to manually enter parameters such as grinding wheel diameter and speed into the app - and then manually transfer the calculated results to the machine control system. On the one hand, this is cumbersome, on the other hand, it is prone to errors - and thirdly, it does not correspond to the modern and digital way of working that should be common practice on a CNC machine in the age of Industry 4.0.
New dressing app automates the dressing process
This gap has now been closed with the Dressing App from Okuma and Dr. Kaiser Diamantwerkzeuge. The companies have joined forces to develop a solution for challenges in the grinding process. The control app calculates all dressing parameters, independently reads all available data from the machine and transfers the calculated values automatically and without manual intervention directly to the NC program and the Dr. Kaiser dressing spindle.
The details are as follows: Instead of using a smartphone, the dressing app is opened and operated directly from the main view of the control system. The user enters the geometry of the dresser and the desired values for the degree of coverage, infeed depth and speed ratio. The app then automatically transfers the values for feed and infeed to the NC program and the dressing speed and direction of rotation to the inverter. This ensures maximum user-friendliness - and prevents errors caused by manual intervention.
At the same time as the Dressing App was being developed, Okuma Europe was carrying out a test cut for a major automotive supplier. On an Okuma GP26W, an external cylindrical grinding machine with a straight grinding wheel and a maximum grinding wheel diameter of 610 millimetres, a complex contour was to be profiled into the grinding wheel using a rotating dresser from Dr. Kaiser.
This test cut was also used to put the functionality of the dressing app to the test. The first step was to check the calculation. There were no complaints: The grinding wheel speed and the grinding wheel diameter were read out automatically by the control unit and the peripheral speed was calculated from this. This value was used to determine the speed of the dressing roller, taking into account the selected speed ratio.
Contour-controlled speed adjustment
With a grinding wheel into which a large contour is profiled, the cutting speed also varies in the different areas due to the different diameters. However, the speed ratio between the grinding wheel and dressing wheel has only been adjusted for the area for which the grinding wheel diameter is stored in the control system. This is usually the largest diameter. For small profile steps with a difference of only a few millimetres, these variations have almost no influence. However, with profile steps of 30 millimetres or more, for example, the changes in the cutting parameters are significant. In order to ensure a constant speed ratio and therefore constant cutting conditions across the entire grinding wheel, the speed is now adjusted at every point in the contour with the help of the dressing app and converted directly and continuously by the dressing spindle. This means that the desired speed ratio is kept constant even with large steps in the contour or when dressing end faces.
The Okuma Dressing App can be used on all Okuma grinding machines with a dressing spindle system from Dr. Kaiser Diamantwerkzeuge. The app installation can be ordered directly with the machine on request. Retrofitting to existing machines is also possible with minor mechanical modifications.
Dorian Wilger, Application Department at Okuma / ag
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