Cleaning Up Aluminum Weld

Aluminum has low weight, high strength, excellent malleability, and great corrosion resistance. It makes great material for various applications. Aluminum components can be joined through welding. The weld beads can be cleaned up to tidy up the joints, improve or fix fitment issues, remove surface flaws that can weaken the bead, or prepare it for finishing.

There are various tools for cleaning aluminum weld. An already neat weld would only require a wire brush to remove surface bumps. Weld beads that are protruding too much can be fixed with diamond grinding wheels or grinding points.

The grinding wheels are used for smoothing flat and accessible joints like butt joints, edge joints, and even corner joints. The diamond grinding points are used for angled joints like lap joints and tee joints, or joints in tight spots that are impossible to reach with grinding wheels.

Why used diamond grinders? Diamond grinders provide the fastest and easiest way of cleaning up aluminum welds. The diamond abrasives used in grinders cuts into the aluminum weld material rather effortlessly. This allows the user to use the grinders without using so much strength for adding pressure, resulting to better control which ultimately leads to more precise work. Also, some aluminum welders use weld materials that are much stronger and harder than aluminum to produce very strong joints. In such cases, other grinder materials are unable or struggle with the cleaning up the beads.

Diamond Grinders

Grinding is a type of machining process that uses abrasive grains to remove material from the work piece. Abrasive grains are made into discs, wheels, or points mounted on a machine with a rotating motor. Together with the motor, the entire machine is called a grinding machine or grinder. The grinder can be a power tool or machine tool. A power grinder is operated by hand and portable. A machine grinder is a fixed structure with constraining mechanism that holds the work piece in place and guiding mechanism that moves the grinding discs, wheels, or points about. Grinders are used for various applications such as forming, sharpening, surface finishing, and deburring.

Between grinding discs, wheels, and points, the latter two are more similar to each other and makes use of actual grinding action in which material is grinded off from the work piece whereas grinding discs are primarily used for cutting apart work pieces.

The main difference between grinding wheels and grinding points is that grinding wheels are operated as machine tools while grinding points are operated with power tools.

Diamond is one of the hardest materials available. It can be grounded into tiny fragments that can be used as abrasives. Diamond grinding tools are excellent for working with raw materials that are too hard for traditional grinding tools.

Diamond grinding wheels and diamond grinding points provide faster processing. However, diamond is not an all-in-one solution for grinding. The tools cannot be used on steel and certain carbon-rich materials. Minerals on steel and steel alloys can react with the diamond particles. So does the carbon from the carbon-rich materials.

Diamond Grinding Wheels And Points

Grinding tools are essential to any work shop. Grinding wheels are used for producing pieces that have precise outer geometry and high quality finish. Grinding points are used for removing surface imperfections of interior surfaces. Both grinding wheels and points have functional surfaces covered with abrasive particles that removes materials off the work piece. As the grinding tools spin, these abrasive cut into the work piece and removes materials bit by bit to achieve the desired shape or finish. The type of abrasive material used on the grinding tools vary.

The hardness of diamond makes it an excellent choice for abrasives on grinding tools. Its hardness allows it to cut materials more efficiently than conventional tools. Diamond grinding wheels and points are used for working on materials like carbide alloys, hard and abrasive non-metallic materials, and non-ferrous metals.

Diamond tools are more expensive than their conventional counterparts. Using them properly is essential to keeping them in good working conditions. The right speed, pressure, and suitable work piece materials are required to prevent the tools from getting damaged. Take diamond grinding points for example, using too much pressure can cause the pointed tip to break. Using the wrong speed setting can cause the functional surface to overheat and cause glazing which renders the tool useless or inefficient at cutting. Diamond tools are not ideal to be used for steel as carbon from the diamond can react with the elements found in most steels and steel alloys.

Disc Brakes On Trucks

The use of disc brakes on trucks is fairly new. Do not get me wrong. The technology has been around for a quite some time. Despite the high expectations when the technology was first introduced, it has not been received well by truck operators. It is unlike the air suspension truck which, despite early skepticism, has continued to grown in number.

Due to the amount of energy involved in stopping or slowing a large vehicles, the brakes are exposed to some very damaging forces. This is the reason why despite new regulations regarding stopping distances that should have propelled disc brakes as the preferred braking system, many truck operators still use drum brakes due to their ability to withstand braking forces.

Due to the few number of trucks using discs brakes, there are also fewer resources that operators can rely on for important information regarding maintenance practices. The upkeep for disc brakes for smaller vehicles like cars and for large trucks is very different. Truck parts tend to require more frequent replacements. As already mentioned, the amount of forces that truck brakes are exposed to are vastly greater than that of the cars. There is also the fact that trucks tend to travel longer distances. In cars, it would be possible to remanufacture worn components while truck brakes tend to require replacement.

Overheating Of Diamond Tools

Overheating is the most common culprit for ruined diamond tools. The intense heat can cause deformation, glazing, cracking, and graphitization of the blade. A diamond tool is made of diamond particles sintered together with specific metal alloys. Overheating can cause the metal component of the tool to become malleable and prone to deformation.

The excessive heat can also cause a reaction often referred to as glazing in which the metal component melts and ends up covering the diamond particles. The diamond particles have to be exposed in order for the tool to cut through materials. The glazing reaction causes the tool to become inefficient or totally incapable of cutting the material.

Cracked blade is another effect of overheating. The metal component in diamond tools can be made of two or more metal alloys. The different metal alloys, when exposed to heat, expand at different rates and can lead to the formation of cracks.

Graphitization is what happens when the diamond particles is exposed to so much heat and carbon-containing material. The  molecular structure of the diamond rearranges and transform into soft and brittle graphite.

Diamond tools can be very expensive. It is unlike a magnet tool that can be affordably replaced. Knowing how to prevent overheating from happening can help protect the diamond tools. A proper cooling system, using the correct speed configuration and type of tool for a certain material can help prevent overheating and increase the life of the tools.

Non-Ferrous Cutting Applications

The development of new work piece materials resulted to new range of products that perform in various demanding conditions. The aerospace industry is the leading industry in material development as scientists and engineers in this sector are always trying to find stronger and lighter materials to be used on airplanes. The search for better materials has resulted to many nonferrous materials that are now being used in different industries.

Diamond tools are the most preferred machine tools for many nonferrous  applications. Its hardness gives it an extremely efficient cutting ability and makes it very resistant to wear and allows the tool to produce consistent results over a long period of time. Its long service life reduces downtime due to parts replacements or repairs, boosting the productivity of the operation. Diamond is the most effective tool for applications involving high speeds, high volumes, or materials such as aluminum or graphite.

There are two main types of diamond tools. The poly-crystalline diamond offers hardness, strength, and abrasion resistance of natural diamond without its weakness to fracturing. This type of tools are manufactured using synthetic diamond particles that are created using a high pressure and high temperature process. The diamond particles are integrally bonded to a cemented tungsten carbide substrate for mechanical strength and resistance to shock or impact.

The second type of diamond tools are those that use chemical vapor deposited diamond. This technology is relatively new. Instead of using diamond particles that are held together by a binder, the cutting tip or edge is made of one solid diamond. The absence of a chemical binder results to lower heat and more efficient cutting.

Dulling Of Diamond Tools

It is normal for any cutting tool to become dull after a good amount of use. How long the tool is able to retain its sharpness and cutting power depends on the material used. The harder the material the better the tool is at retaining its sharpness. Diamond is one of the hardest substances known to man. That is why it makes the perfect material for cutting tools. Diamond tools are used for materials that are impossible or too time-consuming for traditional cutting tools. However, these tools can be very expensive. And although the diamond is very hard, diamond tools are not immune to premature dulling. The reason for this has to do with how the tools themselves are made.

Tools like diamond grinding wheels are made of very small diamond particles held together by a bonding agent. In a normal use, the worn and dulled outer diamond particles fall off to reveal the sharp particles underneath. This process happens repeatedly throughout the life of the tool, until the tool is completely worn out.

Although the diamond particles themselves are very strong and able to retain their sharpness, the bonding agent that holds them together is vulnerable to thermal and physical damages. Using the grinding wheels at speed well-above what is recommended by the manufacturer can produce excessive heat that can cause the bonding agent to become so malleable that it forms a layer over the outer diamond particles, dulling the tool.