A grinding dresser or wheel dresser is a tool to dress the surface of a grinding wheel. Grinding dressers are used to return a wheel to its original round shape, to expose fresh grains for renewed cutting action, or to make a different profile on the wheel's edge.
True the wheel by knocking abrasive particles from the wheel's surface and making the wheel concentric. This minimizes vibration and improves surface finish, eliminating the vibration of the out-of-balance wheel across the workpiece's surface. It is not unusual for grinding wheels to become out of round with use. This is partially from loaded areas of the wheel wearing at different rates from less loaded areas. It can also be exacerbated by grinding when the wheel is not under power, such as using the work to apply braking action to the wheel to stop it from coasting. Dressing restores the roundness. When bench grinders vibrate excessively, it is usually because the wheels have worn out of round and are thus out of balance. Truing them by dressing resolves this problem.
Dislodge these abrasive particles to expose fresh abrasive from the wheel's surface. Each abrasive grain is a small cutting tool; a worn grain has its edges dulled and loses its effectiveness. Exposing the fresh grains is thus a sharpening process. Glazing of the wheel is evidence of rounded grains and is noticeable by a reflective surface on the spinning wheel.
Clean the wheel. If a workpiece is softer than the grade for which the wheel is designed, the abrasive particles will not be dislodged in time to present fresh, sharp grains. The wheel therefore appears to lose its edge especially as the pores between grains fill with fragments of the workpiece. The wheel is then said to be loaded. This is one reason why the selection of wheel is extremely important.
Types
Star dressers — A long handled tool with a row of free running, hardened and serrated, wavy discs or star-shaped cutters running at right angles to the handle. These are presented to the grinding wheel as it is turned off and slows down. Force is applied to the face of the slowing wheel with the result that the hardened discs match speed with the face of the wheel allowing the fingers or undulating surface of the dresser, to knock the abrasive grains out.
Diamond dressers — Shorter handled diamond tools that either have a matrix of small diamonds bonded to a broad surface on the end of the dresser or a single diamond mounted in their face. As the diamond is introduced to the wheel's face, the harder diamond remains attached and the looser grains fall away.
Dressing sticks — A stick of hard material, usually made from the same materials but with a stronger bonding agent. NorBide is one brand of dressing stick made by Norton Abrasives from boron nitride.
Also an abrasive wheel type that has a small "grinding wheel" in a holder that is held against the spinning grinding wheel to dress and clean the face of the grinding wheel.
Grinding complex shapes
Four types of dressers are used to dress the wheels of CNC grinders used for grinding complex shapes. This type of dresser is mainly in use on CNC grinding machine tools to automatically dress the grinding wheel via computer control in specialist areas requiring complex shapes such as grinding bearing raceways.
Stationary dressers — a stationary dresser is a metal blade with a single diamond brazed into the tip. A CNC dressing program moves it across the face of the wheel, moving in and out to create the desired profile.The grinding wheel's profile is controlled by the CNC program used to dress the wheel, rather than by the profile of the dresser itself.
Crush rolls — a crush roll is a high-speed steel or tungsten carbide wheel. Its profile is the mirror image of the desired profile of the grinding wheel. It is forced against the grinding wheel, while spinning at the same surface speed as the grinding wheel. Doing so breaks the bond between the abrasive particles on the surface of the wheel, exposing a new surface as particles fall away. One disadvantage is that the wheel profile cannot be adjusted except by replacing the roll with one having a different profile.
Diamond crush rolls — a diamond crush roll is a crush roll coated with diamond particles. It wears more slowly and less wear mean they can be used to achieve tighter tolerances than plain crush rolls.
Rotary dressers — a rotary dresser is a disc with a hard material - usually diamond - attached to the edge. The grinding wheel's profile is controlled by the CNC program used to dress the wheel, rather than by the profile of the dresser itself.
