THE GRINDER
The grinder is setup to surface grind the brake pad to a specific thickness.  This machine utilizes a two stage diamond-grinding wheel.  The first stage is a coarse grinder and the second stage is a fine grinder. The two wheels have been offset by approx .080 between stages. Both grinding wheels are height adjustable from the control panel to accommodate different size parts and thickness. A manual height adjustment is made using the hand wheel located at the side of the grinder. The fixtures are manufactured to different heights to allow the final grind position of the grinding heads to remain at a single position for all parts.

THE SLOTTER
The Slotter in this machine is setup from the factory to center slot brake pads. Slot depth is adjustable from the control panel depending on the customer’s specifications. The settings can be made manually or entered using the recipe management system.

THE CHAMFER
The chamfer is designed to produce simple and compound angled parts. This operation is accomplished using two chamfer wheels with angles as indicated in the specifications section.  The chamfer is height adjustable from the control panel. The chamfer has two degrees of freedom, vertical and horizontal. The settings can be made manually or entered using the recipe management system.

This feature was incorporated in this design to allow the parts to be chamfered at an angle perpendicular to the brake pad circumference. This is possible by using a compound angle bar that is placed on the sides of the conveyor before the chamfer wheels. This bar will guide the fixture wheels and raise the parts on an angle. The compound angle chamfering operation is selected through the recipe management system for each part number.

The automated pick and place mechanism is used to unload the parts from the conveyor and stack them onto a tray. It is composed of pneumatic driven cylinders and ball screw drives that are controlled by the PLC. This feature replaces the need of an operator having to unload each part one at a time hence a safer and more efficient operation. Once the trays are full the operator will unload the trays and reload empty ones into the storage unit. 

The stacking mechanism is composed of an elevator and a storage unit. The elevator is responsible to move each tray in and out of the storage container and position the required tray at the loading position for the magnetic pick and place system.