In manufacturing, workers grind metal and wood pieces to size or remove any excess material before they place the pieces onto the finished products. Equipment such as a centerless grinding machine rotate the piece using a regulating wheel while a grinding wheel works to grind the piece. Through-feed grinding, end-feed grinding and in-feed grinding are three types of centerless grinding and have certain disadvantages to the production process.

Through-Feed Grinding Disadvantage

Workers use through-feed grinding to grind cylinder type objects by rotating them between the grinding and rotating wheels. The wheels are slanted horizontally, allowing for pieces to be auto-fed between the wheels without the aid of the worker manually pushing the pieces into the grinder. A disadvantage to this type of centerless grinding is that it cannot grind complex shapes. The through-feed mechanism can grind only cylindrical pieces with right circular surfaces.

In-Feed Grinding Disadvantage

In-feed centerless grinding can work on objects that do not need to be right circular cylindrical. The grinding wheel can be adjusted for any shaped object. Yet the in-feed is not suitable for manufacturing plants that specialize in mass-producing products. The grinding wheel must be set up for the size and shape for each individual piece, taking a longer preparation time. Also the worker must feed in each piece manually, unlike the auto-feed feature of the through-feed grinding machine.

End-Feed Grinding Disadvantage

End-feed grinding can work on any shape of the object. It also allows for the object to auto-feed between the grinding and regulating wheel. The object becomes grounded and then moves forward from the wheels. The problem with end-feed grinding is that, once the object is fed into the machine, its diameter becomes gradually smaller from the grinding process instead of just one single aspect of the piece. This only works well for objects with tapered surfaces.

Centerless Cylindrical Grinding Disadvantage

Other disadvantages for centerless grinders include that if the object is perpendicular, such as having a right angle, the grinder has difficulties working on and improving the object. Centerless grinders also have control problems concerning certain work pieces. Objects that are short but have large diameters are difficult to control between the grinding and regulating wheels.