The team at Boston Centerless knows that there are countless factors that come into play when selecting the right material for your precision grinding projects. We want to ensure our customers have the resources and data they need to make informed decisions regarding materials acquisition. For this reason, we provide a collection of free online tools to aid our customers in their manufacturing decisions. The remainder of this article explores each of the following tools and explains how our customers can utilize them when making manufacturing choices.
- Material Specification Search
- Material Property Data
- Hardness Conversion Table
- Metric Tolerance Chart
- Conversion Tools
Material Specification Search
Our Material Spec Search tool enables our customers to find materials that meet particular specifications and standards. To use this tool, select the “Originator” from the drop-down menu then select the corresponding “Specification”. For example, select ASME for Originator then SB152 for the Specification. The tool will provide a list of the Grades and Family that meet ASME SB152. This tool helps our customers to quickly determine which materials meet the standards required for their specific application – saving lots of time they would have spent on research.
At Boston Centerless, our precision ground bar stock is machined using best-in-class equipment to ensure our customers’ specifications are met every single time. We can precision grind material to your exact specifications from our extensive inventory. Our team is able to perform our centerless grinding services on raw materials that we procure as well as materials procured by our customers.
Material Property Data
The Material Property Data tool provides customers with information on material characteristics and property data for steel, aluminum, titanium and more. To utilize the tool, simply select a “Family” from the first drop-down menu then select the “Grade” from the second drop-down menu. For example, select Titanium as the Family and then 3.2-5 as the Grade. The tool then provides various data for this specific material combination including principal design features, applications, machinability, mechanical properties, and various methods of manufacturing such as forming, forging, annealing, welding, etc.
Our material property database is vast and offers extensive information to our customers regarding a wide range of materials – something other precision grinding partners simply do not offer.
Metric Tolerance Chart
The Metric Tolerance Chart provides ISO 286-2 Round Bar Tolerances. The tolerances are provided for various sizes of round bar within the “h series”. Our customers can utilize this chart to specify the desired requirements for their precision round bar that enable Boston Centerless to precision grind the bar with the necessary tolerances.
At Boston Centerless, we provide industry-leading centerless precision grinding services that ensure your precision ground materials meet the most stringent tolerances. Due to its simple setup, our centerless grinding techniques offer faster turnaround times than other grinding methods – making it an excellent choice for large volume production.
It is important to understand ISO 286-2 in order to properly design, machine, and assemble parts. ISO 286-2 is an international standard that defines tolerance grades for round bar and establishes tolerances for how much bar can deviate from its nominal dimension and still be able to fit within a given hole. The key benefit of utilizing ISO 286-2 is that standardization eliminates confusion and ambiguities regarding tolerances, ensuring design and machining alignment across all parties. Additionally, the use of ISO 286-2 ensures components will mate properly regardless of the manufacturer or country, allowing for interchangeability of parts.
ISO 286-2 specifies various alphabetical tolerance grades, or series, that vary in the degree of exact fit. The Metric Tolerance Chart is for the H Series, which is known for delivering a precise fit. Further, ISO 286-2 provides a range of fits for round bar: clearance, interference, and transition. Clearance fits are more loose, interference fits are tighter, and transition fits are in the middle. The fit for precision round bar is defined numerically, ranging from H5 to H12 in the Metric Tolerance Chart below.
Interested in utilizing a myriad of tools to help your team make manufacturing decisions?
Contact the Boston Centerless team today to learn more about our precision grinding services, the various markets we serve, and the tools we offer our customers.
Conversion Tools
Being a global company, Boston Centerless understands that our precision grinding customers utilize a range of units of measure. Our Conversion Tools enable our customers to quickly and easily convert between units. There are conversion drop-down menus for length, volume, area, weight, and temperature. Simply enter the numerical value and select the unit of measure from the drop-down menu as well as the unit of measure you wish to convert to – and the numerical conversion will be provided instantly. Our conversion tools help ensure we are speaking the same language as our customers and reduce the potential for miscommunication.
Hardness Conversion Chart
Hardness testing measures the resistance of a material to deformation, or hardness, and is an important physical property in manufacturing as it directly correlates to material strength. A variety of hardness testing methods are available including the Brinell and Rockwell tests. Thus, our Hardness Conversion Chart is used to convert hardness values between testing methods as well as estimate tensile strength.
At Boston Centerless, our material testing and validation program is second to none – and we stand behind our products. Along with a long list of existing value added services, such as ultrasonic testing, chamfering, laser marking and just in time supply offerings, we recently added equipment to test material hardness and micro-hardness as well as tensile strength. Our ability to perform all testing and validation services in-house is an area that sets us apart from the competition. This is a considerable advantage for our precision grinding customers as we are able to avoid significant time and money spent on the transport of products to a 3rd party location for these services – enabling our team to deliver unparalleled lead times.
Additionally, as an integrated product and service provider, Boston Centerless is able to perform 100% product testing as opposed to testing a small sample size. This is another significant benefit for our customers, especially those that supply critical products to industries like the medical and aerospace
About Boston Centerless
Boston Centerless provides solutions that enhance our customers' manufacturing processes. With over 65 years of experience with precision grinding, we grind the tightest tolerances in the industry. We have proven experience with an extensive range of materials, and our manufacturing solutions include:
- AccuRod® Precision Bar
- BC Medical Grade
- Grinding Services
- Value-Added Services
- Material Testing & Validation
- Supply Chain Management
- SwissAssist
Contact us today at (781) 994-5000 to see how we can help with your next precision bar material project, or click here for a quote.