The lapping machine is a maintenance tool of capital importance in the hydraulics industry. Our automated Lapping machine LAP – Loose Abrasive process – allows us to keep up with the latest technology advancements in our industry, making you save time, money and nerves. We invested only in the best technology available, Bosch Rexroth performance and know how guarantee improved performance levels and the highest level of precision in our work. The lapping machine we are currently using from our partners Bosch Rexroth is the most performant one in the Romanian market.
What is Lapping?
The term “lapping” comes from LAP the acronym for “Loose Abrasive Process” and is used to describe several surface finishing operations. Lapping is basically a surface finishing process that improves surfaces that have previously been ground or fine turned. Loose abrasive powders are employed as grinding agents at usually low speeds. This complex process is reserved for products that demand very tight tolerances of flatness, parallelism, thickness or finish.
Lapping Process Basics : how does it work?
The lapping process implies using abrasive particles in order to modify several types of work-pieces.
The abrasive particles used are micron-sized, not mesh nor grit sized abrasive, therefore it’s not an aggressive process but more a precision focus type of work.
It uses a very passive form of grinding : low pressure, low speed, low removal rate. The movement is required on the part of the tool the lap plate, the workpiece or both of them. Usually lapping is performed on flat surfaces, not spherical shapes or contours.
Lapping is most of the time a “wet process” : the abrasive particles are mixed with a water-based or oil based liquid, forming an abrasive fluid “slurry” or “lapping slurry”which is a liquid cutting tool. The slurry is then placed on a rotating motorized platform, the “Lap Plate”. Afterwards the work-piece is placed against the slurry on the rotating lap plate and the surface of the work-piece is modified, resulting in a smoothened surface by sliding actions of abrasive particles between the plate and the work piece.
The work-piece never contacts the lap plate.Only a small amount of material is removed from each side of the work, from 5 microns up to 500 microns. Lapping can produce dull grey semi-reflective finishing depending on the material being lapped and the lapping method.
What happens actually during the lapping process?
The surface finish is modified and improved in surface and sub-surface qualitative values, meaning that it becomes smoother and more efficient for further use. The geometry or flatness of the surface becomes flat or spherical in contour as a result of lapping process. A small amount of material is removed from the lapped surface of the work, depending on the compound material structure and the abrasive particles used.
The material to be lapped determines the type of abrasive which needs to be used. Also, the abrasive grain size depends on the quantity of material that needs to be removed and the specified surface finish.
It’s important to know which abrasive particles best suite your needs, since there are important differences to be taken into account between the types of abrasives in function of their size and cost.
Extremely hard materials such as sapphire, carbides, and some ceramics require diamond or boron carbide. The medium hard materials, which include harder metals and some aluminas, can be lapped with silicon carbide. Aluminum oxide is widely used in the glass and silicon industry because of its softer cut and lower cost.
Lapping Automation : what is the real value for you?
The lapping machine is a maintenance tool of capital importance in the hydraulics industry. Our automated Lapping process from Bosch Rexroth allows us not only to keep up with the latest technology advancements in our industry but also we can make you save time, money and nerves.
Despite its’ complexity behind the scenes, the automated lapping process brings clear benefits for everyone which can be very simply explained in a few ideas as here below:
#1 Time : A manual lapping process can last 2 hours or more, the automated one takes up to 4 min.
#2 Process : A simplified way of determining the degree of wear in function of hydraulic pump’s family and model selected
#3 Solution : automatically the machine sets up the parameters to be corrected / timing/controls ecc
#4 Tracking: Rectifying information is stored on iCloud therefore the advantage of traceability
#5 Cost saving: the machine can anticipate with a high level of precision if the spare parts are to be corrected or replaced
#6 Precision: Data accuracy is at it’s highest levels of precision due to the automation of the process
We invested only for the best solutions available, Bosch Rexroth technology performance and know how guarantee improved performance levels and the highest level of precision in our work. The lapping machine we are currently using in our HCG Service Centre from our partners Bosch Rexroth is the most performant one in the Romanian market.
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