Circuit Board Drill Blanks | Glebar DD-7
Challenge
The challenge was to develop an end-grinding process for printed circuit board carbide drill blanks used by a major tool manufacturer to qualify blanks prior to fluting. The existing batch process required stacking parts in a fixture for surface grinding, making length control highly dependent on individual batch setup, and length adjustment and perpendicularity correction were particularly cumbersome for small-diameter components. Available machines on the market capable of handling the application were disproportionately large for the small part size and carried a significant cost premium.
Process
Glebar’s DD-7 Double Disk Grinder, configured with a bowl feeder, provided a continuous, automated solution that loaded blanks into a vertical carrier plate at more than one part per second. Two opposing grinding-wheel slides with 0.1-micron position accuracy maintained a precise, consistent gap between parts, ensuring tight length control throughout the process. A post-grinding contact gauge verified perpendicularity and length accuracy to better than 0.00015 inches at the same high throughput rate, providing real-time quality assurance without interrupting production.
Changeover to larger-diameter parts required only a simple carrier plate exchange using four bolts and a gap adjustment on the grinding wheel slides, a straightforward operation that minimized downtime between runs. The transition from a batch-based process to a continuous, unattended operation dramatically increased both productivity and throughput, delivering a significant improvement over the customer’s existing method.
Contact an EngineerSolution: Glebar DD-7 Double Disk Grinding Machine
The Glebar DD-7 Double Disk Grinder has the smallest footprint of any double disk grinder on the market. It is designed for grinding small components, accurately controlling their length and perpendicularity. Common applications include printed circuit board drill blanks, carbide pins, ceramic blocks, alumina tubes, and roller bearings for the aerospace, automotive, medical, metals, and mining markets.
