Grinding wheel regrinds offer economic option

"Wheels can be re-dressed four or even five times, enormously increasing the life of an individual wheel and substantially decreasing consumable costs," underlines Winterthur managing director Chris Harford. "In addition to the reduced cost of wheel-replacement, by redressing the wheel, tolerances are preserved without affecting speed and feed rates, thus maintaining cycle times and minimising scrap. This helps our customers retain their margin while remaining competitive". Wheels are redressed to as-new specification, with a turn-around of typically two days. In addition, wheels can be modified to suit a specific application or – if necessary – adapted to allow production to continue whilst a dedicated wheel is awaiting delivery. All types and makes of wheels can be reground, including EDM (metal bonded) and diamond/CBN (resin bonded) wheel dressing, up to a diameter of 500 mm. Any profile can be dressed, because EDM electrodes are produced on site, including Flat and Harris and Pencil Edge wheels. "Our ability to provide customers with a `quick fix' is proving very important. With customers under pressure to maintain production, we are finding that more and more companies look to redressing to reduce production costs or to maintain production short term whilst they source a more permanent solution," concludes Mr Harford.