Chamfering workpieces
In structural steel and mechanical engineering work, special-purpose vehicle engineering and in shipyards, workpieces regularly need chamfering for butt jointing work. A chamfer is defined as an angled face applied to a workpiece edge and the angle chosen is typically either 45° or 30°.
One of the main reasons for chamfering metal – such as (stainless) steel – is to prepare the metal for welding. This is because the quality of a welding seam also depends on the quality of the work done in preparing the weld. With an angle grinder and the right cutting disc specially designed for the material, almost any type of steel or non-ferrous metal can be worked with without any problems.
A chamfer is also often used to make a later stage in assembly easier – specifically the joining of two workpieces. While chamfering or rounding off an edge is primarily intended to avoid the risk of injury to workers, it can also be done for cosmetic reasons. Paint also adheres much better to a smoothed-out edge.
Chamfering to prepare for welding
Taking the time to ensure a well-prepared welding seam can help to ensure that the seam has high dimensional conformity and the required stability.
Grinding, chamfering and smoothing edges
Sharp edges are often chamfered or rounded down for reasons of safety. Any burr created during cutting work could cause injuries during assembly. These sharp burrs are removed by chamfering or smoothing off the edge, avoiding any risk of serious laceration injuries to workers.
Chamfering and edge grinding – which disc is the best?
Roughing discs with high bond strength offer an attractively long lifetime. Hard roughing discs are the ideal choice for edge grinding work. RHODIUS roughing discs feature a specialised top layer. This layer minimises any breakage around the rim of the disc.
However, too much pressure should be avoided when working with the roughing disc: this will only produce a lot of heat instead of increasing stock removal. A flap disc can then be used to reduce the secondary burr created to a minimum. Anyone who has worked with a flap disc knows how easy these are to use: discs with closely interleaved flaps keep disc ‘chatter’ to a minimum.
With a ‘flat’ flap disc, it’s also very easy to maintain a stable angle of attack – and therefore avoid the creation of ripples while grinding. Fibre discs are especially powerful here: if you choose a zirconia and ceramic grain fibre disc, you’ll enjoy optimum results on really high-powered angle grinders offering machine output upwards of 1400 W. And it’s OK to increase contact pressure here. When working on titanium, fibre discs with ceramic grain are the best option here.
