Lapping
Hyprolapping/Flat Honing/Double-Side Lapping
Flat Honing is a type of double sided "fine grinding" where two opposed grinding wheels are used to remove stock from both faces of a flat part at the same time. Component/parts are held between the two wheels with carrier fixtures throughout the grinding cycle. Double-side lapping is similar except that instead of fixed abrasive grinding wheels, free abrasive lapping compound is used between two precision ground cast iron lapping plates. These processes are the method of choice on small, non-ferrous parts and will deliver random-pattern or matte surface finishes, typically in the 8 - 16 RMS range on most materials.
We use these machines for both long or short runs, on ferrous or non-ferrous metals, annealed or hardened to 62 RC. Flat and parallel results typically fall within 0.0002, and dimensional tolerance frequently requested is ±0.001. Surface finishes as low as of 4 RA can be achieved on some materials.
Norton Hyprolaps
Our two Norton Hyprolaps compliment our waterjet cutting and grinding departments, as this is often the first process on smaller non-ferrous or refractory metals components after being cut to -near-netshape on the waterjet. Part geometries are limited to .030 thickness and 8-inch diameter, but this accommodates a vast array of part sizes typically seen in manufacturing today.
Double-Side Lapping
The four machines in this department were once dedicated solely to lapping quartz crystal for internal purposes, but we have now expanded the scope of our work to include customer service work on metal components. Applying years of process experience from the quartz operation, we are quickly becoming equally adept at processing metal components requiring high degrees of flatness and surface finish specifications.