The present invention relates to a truing apparatus of a grinding wheel installed in a cylindrical grinding machine for truing the grinding surface of the wheel.
While a grinding machine is being operated to grind a workpiece, the grinding wheel of the machine is deformed at its grinding surface or grinding particles of the wheel are rounded. This causes deterioration of the machining precision or cutting performance of the wheel. It is therefore needed to restore the grinding surface of the wheel. The restoration of the grinding surface is carried out by truing the grinding surface to an accurate shape or dressing the grinding surface for restoration of the cutting performance.
In a cylindrical grinding machine having a work spindle supported on a work head for rotation with a workpiece carried thereon and a grinding wheel supported on a wheel head for grinding the workpiece, the work head is mounted on a bed of the machine for movement in a Z-axis direction parallel with the axis of the work spindle, while the wheel head is mounted on the bed for movement in the X-axis direction perpendicular to the Z-axis direction. In a tooling area (shown by a reference character R in
Disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2002-283235 is a truing apparatus of the type which includes a diamond truer of the disc type placed beside the wheel head adjacent to the work head to be rotated about an axis-line in parallel with the X-axis direction. In the truing device, an end surface of the grinding wheel is trued by the outer periphery of the diamond truer when the wheel head is forwarded in the X-axis direction in a condition where the table of the work head has been moved in the Z-axis direction and positioned in place. When forwarded in the X-axis direction in such a truing operation, the wheel head is stopped for a short time to form a shallow groove in the end surface of the grinding wheel.
As the truing device is located adjacent to the work head, the amount of relative movement between the work head and the wheel head in the Z-axis direction becomes large when the grinding operation is changed to the truing operation of the workpiece. For this reason, the positioning precision between the work head and the wheel head is deteriorated. As the splash extent of coolant necessary for the grinding and truing operations becomes wide, the maintenance of the apparatus is deteriorated, and the sealing portion for preventing leakage of the coolant becomes large in size and complicated in structure, resulting in increase of the manufacturing cost.
Disclosed also in Japanese Patent Laid Open-Publication No. 2749154 is a rotary dressing apparatus installed adjacent to a work head. The rotary dressing apparatus comprises a support-drive device composed of a surface plate and a chuck device, a cylindrical rotary dressing body concentrically fixed in place between the support-drive device and an end surface of a work spindle and a conical dresser formed on the outer periphery of the rotary dressing body. The distal end of the dresser is protruded radially outward from an outer peripheral portion of the chuck device. When the rotary dressing device is used to dress internal and external grinding wheels, the work spindle is driven to rotate the dresser of the rotary dressing body and is traversed in condition where the internal and external grinding wheels are respectively pressed to the dresser. As the dressing apparatus of grinding wheel is installed in a position adjacent to the work head as described above, the amount of relative movement of the work head and the wheel head in the Z axis direction for transfer from the grinding position to the truing position can be decreased to enhance the positioning precision of the work head and the wheel head. This is useful to make the rotary dressing apparatus small in size as a whole. As the splash extent of coolant becomes narrow, the maintenance property of the apparatus is enhanced, and the sealing portion of coolant can be simplified in size and structure.
However, the relative rotation speed of the dresser and the grinding wheel is increased due to the facts that the rotation speed of the grinding wheel is 8˜9000 r.p.m. while the rotation speed of the work spindle with the dresser is 4000 r.p.m. and that the circumferential speed of the outer periphery of the dresser is much smaller than that of the grinding wheel. For this reason, acute corners once formed by coarse crush in the grinding surface are ground and flattened, resulting in deterioration of cutting performance of the grinding wheel. To overcome such a drawback, it is needed to decrease the rotation speed of the grinding wheel thereby to decrease the relative rotation speed of the outer periphery surface of the dresser and the grinding surface of the wheel dressed by the dresser. If the rotation speed of the grinding wheel was decreased, the time required for truing or dressing the grinding wheel would be increased, resulting in a decrease of productivity of the grinding machine.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a wheel truing apparatus capable of overcoming the problems discussed above.
According to the present invention, the primary object is accomplished by providing a wheel truing apparatus adapted for use in a cylindrical grinding machine wherein a work head with a work spindle for support of a workpiece and a wheel head with a grinding wheel for grinding the workpiece are mounted on a bed for relative movement in a Z-axis direction parallel with the rotation axis of the work spindle and in an X-axis direction across the Z-axis direction, wherein the wheel truing apparatus comprises a rotary drive portion mounted on the work head or a member united therewith, and a wheel truing tool supported on the rotary drive portion for rotation therewith, the wheel truing tool being provided at its outer periphery with a truing portion for truing a grinding surface of the wheel brought into contact therewith, wherein the rotary drive portion is located adjacent to the work head in a tooling area defined by a stroke of the relative movements of the wheel head and the work head in the Z-axis direction and apart from the work spindle radially outward and is arranged in such a manner that the rotation axis line of the truing tool is oriented toward the rotation axis line of the grinding wheel in a condition where the truing portion is retained in contact with the grinding surface of the wheel, whereby the truing portion of the tool is brought into contact with the grinding surface of the wheel by relative movement of the wheel head to the work head for truing the grinding surface.
As the wheel truing apparatus is arranged adjacent to the work spindle in such a manner as to avoid contact with the workpiece and apart from the work spindle radially outward, the truing apparatus is installed without any interference with a tentative support, a workpiece rest, a measuring device even in the tooling area. With such arrangement of the truing apparatus, the amount of relative movement of the work head and the wheel head in the Z-axis direction for changing the grinding operation to the truing operation can be decreased to enhance the positioning precision of the work head and the wheel head. This is also useful to make the grinding machine small in size as a whole, to make the splash extent of coolant narrow, and to make the sealing portion of coolant small in size and simple in construction. As the rotation axis line of the truing portion of the tool is oriented toward the rotation axis line of the grinding wheel in a condition where the truing portion is placed in contact with the grinding surface of the wheel, a crossing angle between the circumferential speed of the truing portion and the circumferential speed of the grinding surface of the wheel becomes zero or a slight value in an area where the truing portion is brought into contact with the grinding surface of the wheel. This is useful to prevent deterioration of the cutting performance of the grinding wheel after truing.
In a case that the workpiece is supported at its opposite ends by means of the work spindle of the work head and a spindle of a tailstock mounted on the bed of the grinding machine, even a workpiece of long length can be ground in a stable condition.
In a practical embodiment of the present invention, the rotary drive portion of the truing apparatus may be substituted for a rotary drive portion placed adjacent to the tailstock in the tooling area in such a manner as to avoid contact with the workpiece and apart from the tailstock spindle radially outward. Alternatively, in addition to the rotary drive portion placed adjacent to the work head, a rotary drive portion for the truing tool may be placed adjacent to the tailstock in the tooling area and apart from the tailstock radially outward. The rotary drive portion of the truing apparatus may be placed under the work spindle or the tailstock spindle or above the work spindle or the tailstock spindle. In such a case, an interference with a transfer device provided above or under the work spindle and the tailstock can be avoided in the tooling area.
In the truing apparatus, it is desirable that the truing portion of the tool comprises a first truing portion in the form of a thin disc extending radially outward from the outer periphery of a disc base driven by the rotary drive portion and a second cylindrical truing portion protruding in axial line direction. In such a case, different grinding surfaces of the wheel can be efficiently trued by the first and second truing portions.
In a case that the grinding wheel is supported on the work head for rotation about a rotation axis line perpendicular to the X-axis direction while the wheel truing tool is supported on the rotary drive portion for rotation about a rotation axis line perpendicular to the rotation axis line of the grinding wheel and that the wheel head is moved in the X-axis direction relatively to the work head, an end surface of the grinding wheel crossing perpendicularly to the rotation axis line can be trued by the outer periphery of a truing portion protruded radially outward from the truing tool.
In a case that the wheel truing apparatus further includes a rotary support member mounted on the work head or a member united therewith for supporting the rotary drive portion in such a manner that the rotary drive portion is rotated about a rotation axis line perpendicular to the rotation axis line of the grinding wheel and is rotated about a rotation axis line parallel with the rotation axis line of the grinding wheel, the rotary drive portion is rotated by the rotary support member to change the direction of the truing tool for truing different grinding surfaces of the wheel.
In the drawings,
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of a wheel truing apparatus in accordance with the present invention will be described with reference to
In a space between an end surface of the work head 12 from which the work spindle 13 is projected and an end surface of the tailstock 14 from which the tailstock spindle 15 is projected, there are provided a tentative support for temporarily supporting the workpiece W transferred inward and outward, a workpiece rest for receiving a grinding reaction force applied to the workpiece, a measurement device for measuring a ground portion of the workpiece W during grinding operation, and accessory devices. The space between the work head 12 and the tailstock 14 is provided as a tooling area permitting entry of the grinding wheel 17 for grinding the workpiece W. In this embodiment, a wheel truing apparatus 20 is provided on the end surface of work head 12 in a position under the work spindle 13.
As shown in
As shown in
Hereinafter, the operation of the first embodiment will be described. For truing the end surface 17c of the grinding wheel 17, the grinding wheel 17 and the truing tool are rotated, and the work table 11 is moved by activation of the Z-axis motor 18 in the Z-axis direction. The work table 11 is stopped at a position where the outer periphery of truing portion 24 is cut into the side surface 17c of grinding wheel 17 in a slight amount. Subsequently, the wheel head 16 is moved by activation of the X-axis motor 19 in the X-axis direction and forwarded by quick traverse to a position where the grinding wheel layer 17b approaches the truing portion 24 of tool 22. Thus, the wheel head 16 is transferred at a truing speed so that the side surface 17c of the grinding wheel layer 17b is trued by the outer periphery of the truing portion 24. In this instance, the circumferential speed Vt of the outer periphery of truing portion 24 is set slightly less than that of the side surface 17c of grinding wheel 17, and the feed amount of the wheel head 16 in the X-axis direction per one rotation of the grinding wheel 17 in truing operation is about a small fraction of the thickness of the truing portion 24. For truing the opposite side surface 17d of the grinding wheel 17, the truing tool 22 is rotated in a reverse direction by the rotary drive portion 21, and the outer periphery of the truing portion 24 is cut into the side surface 17d of grinding wheel 17 in a slight amount in the same manner as described above.
In the first embodiment, the rotary drive portion 21 of the wheel truing apparatus is arranged in such a manner that the rotation axis line O2 of the truing tool 22 is oriented toward the rotation axis line O1 in a condition where the truing portion 24 is placed in contact with the side surface 17c or 17d of grinding wheel 17 as described above. Accordingly, in an area S where the outer periphery of the truing portion 24 is brought into contact with the side surface 17c of grinding wheel 17, the circumferential speed of the side surface 17c of grinding wheel 17 is in a direction along a length L shown in
As in the first embodiment, the workpiece W is supported at its opposite ends by means of the work spindle 13 and the tailstock spindle 15, even a workpiece of long length can be ground in a stable condition. It is, however, noted that the present invention can be applied to grind a workpiece supported at its one end by means of a chuck device attached to the work head.
In the first embodiment, the rotary drive portion 21 of the wheel truing apparatus 20 can be installed without any interference with the transfer device provided above the work spindle 13 and the tailstock spindle 15 in the tooling area since it is placed in a position spaced from the work spindle 13 radially downward as described above. In another practical embodiment, the rotary drive portion 21 may be arranged in a position apart from the work spindle radially upward in such a manner as to avoid an interference with the transfer device.
Although in the first embodiment, the rotary drive portion 21 of the wheel truing apparatus is provided adjacent to the work head 12, the rotary drive portion 21 may be installed in a position adjacent to the tailstock 14 and apart from the tailstock spindle 15 and the workpiece W radially outward as shown by two-dots chain line 22A in
Illustrated in
Illustrated in
Although the foregoing embodiments were applied to a grinding machine of the table-traverse type wherein the work head 12 is mounted on the work table 11 movable on the bed 10 in the Z-axis direction while the wheel head 16 is movably mounted on the bed 10 in the X-axis direction, the present invention may be applied to a cylindrical grinding machine of the other type such as a grinding machine of the wheel-traverse type wherein a work head is fixedly mounted on a bed while a wheel head is mounted on the bed for movements in the Z-axis direction and the X-axis direction for machining of a workpiece.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2005-370928 | Dec 2005 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP2006/325414 | 12/20/2006 | WO | 00 | 7/30/2009 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2007/072879 | 6/28/2007 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20090305618 A1 | Dec 2009 | US |