What Is Thread Grinding Machinery?
As the name implies, thread grinding machinery is a machine tool for grinding screws. Screws are produced by grinding a specified groove in a metal material called “threading.” Thread grinding machinery is used to perform this process. Therefore, it is an indispensable machine tool for manufacturing screws.
Uses of Thread Grinding Machinery
Thread grinding machinery is a machine tool used to perform a process called “threading,” which is necessary when manufacturing screws.
Threads are created by either “rolling” or “cutting.” Each method is introduced below.
- Thread Rolling: Thread rolling is a method developed for the mass production of screws. As the name implies, a groove is dug by rolling the material between dies. This method utilizes plastic deformation, meaning the material will not return to its original shape if a certain amount of force is applied.
- Cutting: Cutting is the method used in thread grinding machinery. This method also literally digs thread grooves by cutting away metal. It is highly accurate, and many screws are made using cutting. The disadvantage is that cutting scraps are produced due to the grinding process.
Principles of Thread Grinding Machinery
This section describes the production of screws by cutting. As mentioned above, cutting is a method of manufacturing screws by grinding metal. The most significant advantage of cutting is that it is highly accurate. Rolling is a plastic deformation method by pressing a die, so the accuracy depends on the temperature at the time and the durability of the die, which can make it difficult to achieve accuracy. With cutting, each piece can be machined to an accuracy of a few millimeters so that accuracy can be significantly achieved. For this reason, screw machining by cutting is used for small-lot production and prototyping that requires precision. However, it is unsuitable for mass production because it produces chips requiring more processing than thread rolling. Thread grinders are machine tools that can produce considerable accuracy by automatically grinding screws.