The scientists from Saint-Petersburg Mining University hammered out and patented a new invention – a method of magnetic-abrasive polishing taps, which are used for threading.
It has been revealed that on January 17th the oldest technical university in Russia was granted with a few patents for inventions aimed at increasing competitiveness of domestic engineering. One of the inventions is a method of magnetic-abrasive polishing. This method allows improving the efficiency of metal-cutting tools and, by doing so, improving the quality of the parts processed by these tools.
According to Vyacheslav Maksarov, the Dean of Electromechanic Faculty and the Head of Engineering Department, "This method’s particular feature is that a magnetic-abrasive brush is built up within the working area of the machine between the pole tips by the use of magnetic field and abrasive powder. Work tools are subsequently immersed in that brush. Movements of the brush and its speed are controlled by CNC machine tool system".
The Dean mentioned that through the use of aforementioned technology tool durability increases by 2.5 times and tapping speed increases by 50-60%. An imported machine tap, constructed from engineering materials, costs about 100 euros. Its operating life lasts for a week or two on average. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of these taps are used by Russian manufacturers. While a newly invented technology does not require much investment, it is possible to save as much as 150 euros for each item purchased, and on a national scale probably tens of millions of euros could be saved.
In Saint-Petersburg, a few large industrial enterprises have already shown an interest in this invention, including "Power machines", which is a power engineering company, one in the top ten of the world leaders according to amounts of installed equipment, and "Izhorskiye Zavody" (a part of the OMZ Group), one of the world leading heavy engineering companies.
