RHODIUS | Dressing spot welds cleanly

Appearance is everything – grinding spot welds and welding seams

For body making, car repairs, furniture engineering, trade fair stand construction or food container manufacturing – the challenge to create a finish with the best-possible visual appearance is always the same: how can I grind the welding seams and spot welds as cleanly and as gently as possible for the material – and what tool is the best choice for my application? The weld seam must ultimately be invisible and no traces of working the material should be left in place. An extremely uniform surface finish is required.

Grinding – not polishing

Unlike the polishing step, some structuring of the surface may still be visible here. We can still see that the material has been ground.

Getting an angle on spot weld and welding seam grinding

Specialised flap discs with cut-outs can offer an unobstructed view of the workpiece and full visual control of the grinding process for the operator. The disc’s cut-outs become invisible due to the speed of rotation. Users can see where and how much they are grinding. This makes it possible to make precise corrections to the abrasive disc position and angle. The continuous grinding movement creates the uniform surface finish that is required.

Grinding spot welds and welding seams with a clear view of the workpiece

Grinding spot welds and welding seams with controlled material abrasion

As a result, users only grind the areas they need to and are in full control of material abrasion at all times. This decisive advantage is offered by no other kind of abrasive. If a conventional disc is used, the machine needs to be moved backwards and forwards all the time (or what’s worse, actually set down) so the user can judge what – and how much of it – is being removed.

Are there alternatives?

If you need to grind spot welds and welding seams, you can opt to use a fibre disc. This disc offers good working results for crosswise grinding on both flat and profiled surfaces. Of course, a conventional flap disc can also be used for grinding spot welds or welding seams. The danger of heavy grinding – i.e. removing too much material – is much higher here, however. This disc also reduces your working speed.

Useful tips!

The smaller the angle of attack used for the flap disc with cut-outs, the bigger the ‘window’ effect. Keep your machine down – and make sure you use a much flatter working angle than usual.
Flap discs with cut-outs from the RHODIUS VISION series are not merely well-suited to working in metal but are also an excellent choice for processing wood and plastics. Basically: everything except glass and stone.