Usually used as power tools or machine tools for grinding. Like other machine tools, this is a machining equipment that uses grinding wheels as cutting tools. Grinding machines, as a type of industrial power processing equipment, are characterized by grinding wheels used for cutting or removing chips from metal surfaces. It can also be defined as the process of metal cutting from the surface of a workpiece using a rotating grinding wheel.

There are many types of grinders, including cylindrical grinders, internal grinders, centerless grinders, and surface grinders. Here, we mainly introduce the differences between cylindrical grinders and centerless grinders. Centerless Grinding machines have high processing efficiency and can process multiple parts at once. External grinding machines require a small amount of product processing, but they are suitable for grinding larger and longer workpieces with relatively accurate precision, although each has its own characteristics. Next, we will introduce the differences between centerless grinders and cylindrical grinders.

The difference between centerless grinder and cylindrical grinder

1. Grinding principle: When grinding on an external cylindrical grinder, it is used to grind the outer cylinder, outer cone, and shoulder end face of shaft workpieces. When grinding with a centerless grinder, there are two grinding wheels: a guide wheel and a grinding wheel. The guide wheel drives the cylindrical workpiece to rotate on the shim, while the grinding wheel plays a grinding role on the workpiece.

2. Processing accuracy: If the precision of centerless grinding machines and cylindrical grinding machines is to be compared, it should not be arbitrarily determined. Both types of grinding machines are very precise, and it mainly depends on the origin and manufacturing accuracy of the grinding machine. Centerless grinding is mainly used for processing batches of shaft products, which is achieved by mutual compression grinding between the grinding wheel and the introduction. There is no fixed rotation center when the parts rotate, while cylindrical grinding requires a pin to fix the parts so that they can rotate around the axis for grinding.

3. Processing method: The workpiece of the external cylindrical grinder needs to be centered during processing, using head and tail frame centering or chuck centering clamping, etc. The centerless grinder relies on the self rotation of the outer circle for machining. Since it cannot center the machining, its roundness depends on the roundness of the workpiece itself, so the accuracy of machining into a circle is not as good as that of the outer grinder. Therefore, for workpieces with higher roundness requirements, it is much better to use the outer grinder to machine the circle before using the centerless grinder.

4. Workpiece concentricity: Both centerless and cylindrical grinders grind the outer circle, while cylindrical grinders can ensure the concentricity of the workpiece, while centerless grinders generally cannot guarantee the concentricity requirements of the workpiece.

5. Grinding machine application: External cylindrical grinding machine is mainly used for precision grinding of end faces, outer circles, and conical surfaces of batch shaft parts. It is suitable for processing shaft parts with small batch sizes and high precision requirements in military, aerospace, and general precision machining workshops. The main application scope of the centerless grinder is to polish the cylindrical surface of various ring, shaft, and pipe parts. The various step, cone, and centerless grinding machines are mainly used for through grinding of cylindrical and annular parts, as well as for cutting in grinding of conical parts.

6. Grinding machine structure: The cylindrical grinding machine consists of a bed and worktable, a grinding wheel frame, a headstock, a grinding frame, a longitudinal feed handwheel, a transverse feed handwheel, a reversing baffle, and other components. The centerless grinder is mainly composed of components such as the body, grinding wheel holder, guide wheel, headstock, spindle unit structure, and spindle rod automatic tool loading system.

7. Grinding machine features: The grinding wheel spindle bearing of the external cylindrical grinder adopts a conical shaped oil wedge dynamic pressure bearing, and the grinding wheel spindle still has high bearing stiffness at low speeds. The main characteristics of the centerless grinder are good universality, high modularity, high precision and rigidity, and high work efficiency of the centerless grinder.

The major difference between a centerless grinder and an external cylindrical grinder is that centerless grinders do not require fixtures and only use a cutting plate to support the workpiece, with an additional guide wheel to drive the workpiece for grinding. However, external cylindrical grinders do not require a cutting plate and require a top and fixture to clamp the workpiece for grinding, while external cylindrical grinders only require a grinding wheel without a guide wheel.

This article introduces the similarities and differences between centerless grinders and cylindrical grinders. Both centerless grinders and cylindrical grinders use grinding wheels for grinding operations, but there are also significant differences in the processing of various types of workpieces. Centerless grinders are suitable for mass production, while cylindrical grinders are suitable for high-precision single piece processing.