CUTTING FLUIDS FOR OPERATIONS ON METAL WITH FLEXIBLE ABRASIVE BELTS Available to Purchase

IMMEDIATELY after the war it was generally believed that flexible abrasive belts could only be used for marginal applications and for several years they were still considered to be useful only for finishing operations with minimal removal of material. Following a wider usage of hard‐to‐grind new alloys together with a parallel progress in flexible abrasive belts, these cutting tools started to be used in a once precluded field, ie “integral operations” by abrasive belts. In fact, for these applications, flexible abrasive belts offer among others, the advantage of not needing reconditioning by the grinder wheel dresser—an operation frequently necessary when using traditional abrasive wheels. Dr Ghio discusses the use of correct cutting fluids for this work and the problems associated with their selection. He concludes that as always, the cutting fluid has to be a compromise between production requirements, quality of finish, and other relevant costs.