After nearly thirty years of development, sand belt grinding has become a relatively complete and self-contained new processing technology. Due to its high processing efficiency, wide application range, strong adaptability, low usage cost, and safe and convenient operation, it is highly favored by users. In foreign countries, sand belt grinding technology has made great progress, and its processing objects and application fields are becoming increasingly widespread. It can process almost all engineering materials, from general daily necessities to large aerospace equipment, and has become an important means of obtaining significant economic benefits. The reason why it has received increasing attention and rapid development as a processing technology is because it has the following important characteristics:

Sand belt grinding is a type of elastic grinding, which is a composite processing technology with multiple functions of grinding, grinding, and polishing.

The abrasive particles on the sand belt have stronger cutting ability than those on the grinding wheel, so their grinding efficiency is very high. The high efficiency of sand belt grinding is reflected in its high cutting rate, grinding ratio (the ratio of the weight of the workpiece to the wear weight of the abrasive), and machine power utilization rate. At present, the known sand belt grinding has a cutting rate of 700mm3/mm · s for steel, even exceeding turning or milling. The grinding ratio of sanding belts greatly exceeds that of grinding wheels, reaching up to 300:1 or even 400:1, while grinding wheels are only 30:1. The power utilization rate of sand belt grinding machine has reached 80% since the early development of sand belt grinding, ahead of other machine tools. Nowadays, it is as high as 96%. In comparison, sand belt grinding machine is only 52%, milling machine is 57%, and lathe is 65%. Therefore, sand belt grinding is still a good energy-saving processing technology.

The sanding belt grinds the surface of the workpiece with high quality. This is not only due to its multiple functions of grinding, grinding, and polishing, but also because:

Compared to grinding wheel grinding, sand belt grinding is known as "cold grinding", which means that the grinding temperature is low and the workpiece surface is less prone to burn and other phenomena.

The sand belt grinding system has low vibration and good stability.

Due to the light weight of the sand belt itself, the balance state of its grinding process structure system is easy to control, and all rotating components (such as contact wheels, drive wheels, tension wheels, etc.) wear very little, without dynamic unbalance factors like grinding wheels.

In addition, the elastic grinding effect of sand belts can greatly reduce or absorb the vibration and impact generated during grinding.

The grinding speed is stable, and the sand belt drive wheel will not slow down as the diameter decreases like a grinding wheel.

The high surface quality of abrasive belt grinding workpieces is mainly manifested in small surface roughness values, good residual stress states, and no micro cracks or changes in metallographic structure on the surface.

From the perspective of surface roughness, sand belt grinding can currently reach Ra0.01mm, achieving the effect of mirror grinding. However, for roughness values above Ra0.1mm, it is very easy to achieve.

The residual stress on the surface of the workpiece during sand belt grinding is mostly in the form of compressive stress, with values generally ranging from -60 to -5 Kg/mm2, while grinding with a grinding wheel is mostly tensile stress. Therefore, sand belt grinding is very beneficial for strengthening the surface of the workpiece and improving its fatigue strength.

Sand belt grinding has high precision. Due to the improvement in the quality of sand belt production and the level of sand belt grinder production, sand belt grinding has already entered the ranks of precision and ultra precision machining, with the highest accuracy reaching below 0.1mm.

Sand belt grinding has low cost. This is mainly manifested in:

Sand belt grinding equipment is simple. Compared with grinding wheel grinders, sanding belt grinders are much simpler, mainly because sanding belts are lighter in weight, have less grinding force, and experience less vibration during the grinding process. They require much lower rigidity and strength of the machine tool than grinding wheel grinders.

Sand belt grinding is easy to operate and requires less auxiliary time. Both manual and motorized sanding belts are very easy to operate. From replacing and adjusting the sanding belt to clamping the processed workpiece, everything can be completed in a very short time.

The sand belt grinding ratio is large, the machine tool power utilization rate is high, and the cutting efficiency is high.  

This reduces the cost of tools and energy required to remove materials of equal weight or volume, and takes up less time.

Sand belt grinding is very safe, with low noise and dust, easy to control, and good environmental benefits.

Due to the light weight of the sand belt itself, there is no risk of injury even if it breaks. Sand belt grinding does not suffer from severe sand removal like grinding wheels, especially during dry grinding, where the debris mainly consists of the material of the workpiece being processed, making it easy to recover and control dust. Due to the use of rubber contact wheels, sand belt grinding does not generate rigid impact on the workpiece like grinding wheels, resulting in low processing noise, usually<70dB. Therefore, from an environmental perspective, sand belt grinding is also worth promoting.

The sand belt grinding process has great flexibility and strong adaptability. This is manifested in:

Sand belt grinding can be conveniently used for grinding flat surfaces, inner and outer circles, and complex curved surfaces. Design a sanding belt grinding head device as a functional component that can be installed on a lathe for rear grinding, or on a planer for use. It can also be designed as various specialized grinding machines. The use of the characteristic of sand belt grinding can easily solve the precision machining of some difficult to machine parts, such as ultra long, super large shafts and flat parts.

There is a wide range of choices for the substrate, abrasive, and binder of sand belts, which can meet the needs of various applications. There are also various specifications for the particle size, length, and width of sand belts, and there are various forms such as roll and ring available for selection.

For the same workpiece, sand belt grinding can be processed using various different grinding methods and process structures.

The application range of sand belt grinding is extremely wide

The superior grinding performance and flexible process characteristics of sand belts determine that they have an extremely wide range of applications, from daily life to various industries in industrial production. Sand belt grinding is almost ubiquitous in all fields. Its diverse application forms and wide range are incomparable to any other processing method. Specifically manifested in:

Sand belt grinding can grind almost all engineering materials. In addition to materials that can be processed by grinding wheels, it can also process non-ferrous metals such as copper and aluminum, as well as non-metallic soft materials such as wood, leather, and plastic. Especially the "cold state" grinding effect of sand belt grinding makes it more advantageous in processing heat-resistant and difficult to grind materials.

Sand belt grinding can process various shapes of workpieces with high surface quality and precision requirements. Sand belt grinding can not only process common flat, inner and outer circular surfaces of workpieces, but also efficiently process large or irregular parts with high surface quality and precision requirements. For example:

Grinding and polishing of large-area boards. The maximum width of the grinding wheel is only 1000mm, while the sanding belt can achieve a width of over 2500mm. The widest known sand belt grinder currently uses a sand belt width of 4900mm. In practical use, sand belt grinding commonly has a processing width of 50-2000mm and a processing thickness of 0.4-150mm. Its productivity is as high as 1000m2/h. This wide sand belt grinding can be widely used for surface processing of steel plates, stainless steel plates, silicon steel sheets, aluminum plates, copper plates, particleboard, plywood, medium density fiberboard, leather, insulation boards, ceramic plates, as well as various high-precision and low roughness large plates used in aerospace equipment, ships, and nuclear physics research devices. The precision machining of intermittent flat surfaces such as engine and gearbox sections can also be formed by one-time grinding with a wide sand belt, ensuring better sealing than traditional milling and planing surfaces.

Continuous polishing and grinding of metal strips or wires. Due to the development of wide sand belt grinding, thin strip materials have the same grinding conditions across the entire width, preventing local excessive stress and stress deformation. Therefore, the surfaces of cold rolled steel strips, copper, aluminum strips, and other alloy strips are suitable for continuous grinding with sand belts. The processing width is 600~2100mm, the processing thickness is 0.1~2.2mm, the surface roughness value is Ra3.2~0.1mm, and the strip running speed is 3~80m/min. Planetary sand belt grinding provides a highly effective and economical processing method for polishing coiled wires of stainless steel or other materials. The known wire grinding diameter ranges from 0.8 to 20mm. The continuous operating speed is 6-150mm/min

Grinding of inner and outer circles of workpieces with a large aspect ratio. The use of sand belt grinding is very convenient for the processing of the outer circle surface of various large shaft workpieces and the inner circle surface of pipe workpieces with large aspect ratios in modern industry. Generally, adding a sand belt grinding device to large standard equipment can achieve this. For large batches, specialized sand belt grinders can be used. Processing the outer circle of workpieces such as large generator rotors, rollers, paper dryers, and the inner circle surface of workpieces such as cylinders, oil pipelines, and pressure vessels.

Grinding and polishing of complex irregular workpieces. The forming grinding of curved workpieces is quite difficult. However, the flexibility of sand belts can be easily used to process various complex curved surfaces, with inner rounded corners with a curvature radius of only 3mm, which can also be polished by sand belts. Aircraft engine blades, turbine blades, navigation blades, spotlight bowls, reflectors, tableware, handles, plumbing appliances, and more can all be efficiently and high-quality polished using sand belts.