Make Your Centerless Grinder More Productive

| | Centerless Grinders
ID Grinder Parts and Components

Keeping your centerless grinding machine operating at peak efficiency sounds like a no brainer. More parts = more dollars, right? That’s good for everyone.

Fortunately, productive centerless grinding can be achieved by adopting some simple habits:

  1. Change the oil regularly

    Clean oil is the most important factor to keeping the components of your centerless grinding machine operating properly. Not regularly changing the oil is one of the most common reasons why components fail, causing time-consuming and costly machine repairs. Check and change your oil – and the oil filter – on a regular basis. 
     
  2. Check the gibs

    Gibs keep machine components operating properly.Make sure gibs are adjusted according to OEM specifications. Movement or wear on the gibs can cause misalignment, leading to poor part quality and finish. 
     
  3. Clean off grinding swarf

    Swarf from your grinder’s coolant can build up over time in places it shouldn’t be as a centerless grinder is turned off at the end of each shift. As coolant drains out of the grinding machine, swarf remains and starts to harden. Allowing this to continue for many cycles without cleaning out the swarf inevitably leads to unplanned downtime when the machine door no longer closes properly because of the accumulated swarf or when a bearing fails prematurely because swarf worked its way under a seal, allowing coolant to flow in places it shouldn’t. 

    These abrasive metal shards can work their way to the internal components of the centerless grinder, shortening the life span of those parts. 

    It’s important for machine operators to take 10 minutes at the end of their shift to spray the machine and wipe it down to eliminate unnecessary downtime and potentially expensive machine repairs.
     
  4. Conduct preventive maintenance

    Adopting a preventive maintenance schedule enables you to stay ahead of expensive centerless grinder machine repairs that can occur at the worst possible time. Tracking machine wear will enable you to resolve minor issues before they become bigger problems. Implementing a preventive maintenance schedule will help:
    • Extend machine life
    • Reduce emergency repairs
    • Increase machine efficiency and reliability
       
  5. Visually inspect hoses, belts and cables 

    Before each shift, take a look around the machine and examine hoses, belts and cablesfor wear patches and loose connections.
     
  6. Keep critical parts in stock

    Take stock of your centerless grinders and the jobs they’re doing. How long could each machine be down before it jeopardizes deadlines for product shipment? Identify which parts you need to have in stock vs. ones you can acquire easily.

Let GCH Tool help you with your preventive maintenance and spare parts plan.  Download our Centerless Grinding for Pros E-Book, which provides a step-by-step preventive maintenance schedule and spare parts plan to keep your machines running smoothly.       

About Ellen Kominars

Ellen joined GCH Tool in 2013 as director of marketing. She is responsible for digital marketing, media relations, website development, event planning, advertising, communications and graphic design. A long-time resident of Mexico City, Ellen speaks Spanish fluently, and often assists with the many GCH customers located in Latin America. Ellen has worked in industrial marketing for over 20 years. She’s now added grinding components and grinders to the list of products she’s marketed, which includes induction furnaces, hand tools, magnetic separators and diesel-truck axles.

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