An external cylindrical grinder generally consists of a cast iron bed body, a worktable, a headstock and tailstock that support and drive the workpiece to rotate, a grinding wheel rack (grinding head) that installs the grinding wheel, a transverse feed mechanism that controls the size of the grinding workpiece, and electrical and hydraulic devices that control the movement of the machine tool's moving parts.
Machine tools are mainly used for grinding outer cylindrical surfaces and conical surfaces. There are two basic grinding methods: longitudinal grinding and cutting in grinding. During longitudinal grinding, the grinding wheel rotates as the main motion, and the feed motion includes: the workpiece rotates for circular feed motion, the workpiece moves back and forth along its axis for longitudinal feed motion, and at the end of each longitudinal or reciprocating stroke of the workpiece, the grinding wheel periodically performs a transverse feed motion, gradually grinding away all excess in multiple reciprocating strokes.
When cutting into the grinding wheel, the workpiece only undergoes circular feed without longitudinal feed motion, while the grinding wheel continuously undergoes transverse feed motion until all the remaining material is ground to the required size. On some cylindrical grinders, the grinding wheel end face can also be used to grind the step surface of the workpiece. During grinding, the workpiece rotates and slowly moves along the coaxial line to complete the feed motion.
The cylindrical grinder is mainly used for precision grinding of end faces, outer circles, and conical surfaces of batch shaft parts, and is the main equipment in industries such as automotive engines. It is also suitable for the processing of shaft parts with small batch sizes and high precision requirements in general precision machining workshops.