Grinding & Punching

Aerotherm Engineering ensure that your product is finished to the highest of standards and to tight tolerances. As part of our fabrication services, all our staff are trained to use the latest technologies and equipment in order to ensure the highest standard of quality at all times.

Conveyor Oven manufactured by Aerotherm Engineering, designed by Aerotherm Industrial

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Grinding is a finishing process used to improve surface finish, abrade hard materials, and tighten the tolerance on flat and cylindrical surfaces by removing a small amount of material. Information in this section is organized according to the subcategory links in the menu bar to the left.

In grinding, an abrasive material rubs against the metal part and removes tiny pieces of material. The abrasive material is typically on the surface of a wheel or belt and abrades material in a way similar to sanding. On a microscopic scale, the chip formation in grinding is the same as that found in other machining processes. The abrasive action of grinding generates excessive heat so that flooding of the cutting area with fluid is necessary.

Tolerances required preclude machining. Grinding can produce flatness tolerances of less than ±0.0025 mm (±0.0001 in) on a 127 x 127 mm (5 x 5 in) steel surface if the surface is adequately supported.

Machining removes excessive material.

Punching is the process of using a punch press to push a punch through the material and into a die to create a hole in the workpiece. A scrap slug from the hole is deposited into the die in the process. Depending on the material being punched this slug may be recycled and reused or discarded. The hole walls will show burnished area, rollover, and die break and must often be further processed. Punching is often the cheapest method for creating holes in sheet metal in medium to high production.