Thread Grinding

Thread Grinding

Thread Grinding - The production of threads by the grinding process is comparatively new. During the last 30 years, the method for producing threads has been developed to a high degree of perfection, sq that it is being accepted and used throughout the industry.

Where the hardness of the material makes it difficult or impractical to thread with normal thread cutting or rolling tools, or where the accuracy required is not attainable by such methods, thread grinding is not only practical but economical. On precision work, such as taps and thread gages, thread grinding is essential.

Ordinarily it is found advantageous to grind threads in materials harder than Rockwell C 27. Other methods for forming threads in materials harder than 36 Rc usually are altogether impractical. No commonly used work material is known to exist in so hard (or so soft) a state that it cannot be threaded by grinding. Certain materials softer than 17 Rc do not machine well and may best be threaded by grinding.

Grinding of threads frequently is specified in highly stressed parts subject to failure by fatigue, such as aircraft, tank, gun, and motor parts. Threading such parts by grinding avoids the minute torn areas which usually exist at the root of cut threads which become the focus of stress concentration contributing to progressive rupture by fatigue.

To conclude, grinding provides a means of producing very accurate threads and, in addition, it permits threads to be made on hardened materials.