Tube Grinding & Cutoff Case Studies

Current ProcessZirconium tubes are cut one at a time using carbide tools on a lathe. A lathe cutoff leaves burrs requiring deburring to achieve a smooth surface finish. Carbide tooling wears quickly when cutting zirconium and is expensive. ChallengesDeliver a cost-effective process to cut zirconium tubes which reduces the numbe...

Challenge: The customer was outsourcing grinding of components and came to Glebar looking for a way to reduce lead times on parts, reduce costs, and bring grinding capability in-house.Original challenge was to thrufeed 1-½” diameter, 15’ aluminum tubes removing 0.003”-0.006” per pass. The second requirement was for the ...

Challenge: To accurately grind alumina spacers used in nuclear power plant control rods. The length of the components are extremely critical to the efficiency of the fuel rod. The components need to be processed at a high rate and length verified for all parts.SolutionA DD-7 double disc grinder was configured with 0.1 micron cl...

Current ProcessA high-powered laser beam cuts the tubing by melting it leaving a rough edge and slag. Tubes and other parts are typically cut one at a time limiting production rates.ChallengesHeat sensitive applications may limit the use of the laser for cutting. Laser cutting leaves recast and heat-affected zones, affecting the tube’s quality an...

ChallengeTubes are cut one at a time using a standard abrasive cutting saw which leaves burrs. Requires secondary process of wire brushing and tumbling to deburr tubes and remove any debris. Older machines have poor accuracy and outdated safety features. Debris from abrasive cuts cause frequent maintenance issues.Design a process that can cut m...

ChallengeNumerous manufacturers around the world find themselves with legacy equipment incapable of meeting the changing environmental and safety standards recommended by regulatory standards. The customer in this case was operating an outdated grinding system lacking mist control with minimal safety features.Maintain CE safety...

Current Process:A legacy thrufeed centerless grinder with a narrow work wheel is used. Multiple passes to grind the Nitinol tubes to size are required. Highly skilled technicians are necessary to ensure proper setup.Challenges: Long cycle time limits output per shift. Multiple passes can reduce the quality of the tubes. Short...

Challenge:  To size thin walled tubing used for surgical instruments insuring a mirror-like 3Ra finish.SolutionUsing the GT-610 machine and leveraging the 8-5/8” wide grinding wheel, we were able to use 3 grinding wheel segments with progressively finer grit where the first segment would remove the material by roughing it, ...

Manufacturers use grinding machines with a narrow work wheel requiring several passes to reduce the diameter and achieve acceptable surface finish. Thus creating longer cycle times. Machines are difficult to adjust for setup and changeovers requiring highly skilled technicians. Heavy material removal in a short distance deforms thin walled tubi...

To establish a process whereby pre-sintered carbide drill blanks processed in a hot isostatic press (HIP) can be pre-sized to produce straight rod stock for long blanks. The existing method of manufacture involves sintering the carbide rods in a hot isostatic press then grinding them to size in a hard state before the fluting op...

Challenge: To grind burnishing and expander rolls used in manufacturing tubes for a multitude of applications ranging from oil and gas tubes to automotive. Due to the shape of the parts which includes several tapers, the material removal is dramatic requiring several operations. Additionally the rolls are custom shapes so changeover between pa...

Challenge: Quality, cost control, and lead time issues of outsourcing the pre-sizing of titanium and steel bars.SolutionA GT-610 machine equipped with a wide 8-5/8” super abrasive grinding wheel can efficiently pre-size titanium or steel bars to +/-0.0001” over the length of the material for use on Swiss turning machines o...

A top tier technical glass OEM required a precision grinding solution for quartz glass rod components which will be transformed into fiber optic cable cores. They needed to improve their existing process to increase output while maintaining a small footprint in their factory. Precision is paramount as the glass will ultimately n...