Transportation Industries

In recent years, transportation industries have increasingly turned to aluminum as they look to “lightweight” their products. As a result, metal fabricators need new tools for working with this challenging material.

Aluminum alloys offer improved strength-to-weight ratio when compared to traditional steel alloys. The lightweighting trends across the transportation sector bring the need for fast and efficient tools for grinding aluminum. Typical right-angle grinder wheels designed for steel are not for use on aluminum because the wheel’s surface can rapidly become clogged with metal chips that stick to the abrasive.

By investigating the mechanisms by which metal chips can become stuck (loaded) to the abrasive wheel’s surface, strategies to avoid metal loading can be applied to the abrasive design. This then leads to new aluminum grinding products with greatly improved grinding speeds and longer-lasting performance, without the need for waxes or lubricants.