The present disclosure includes charging members for charging abrasive particles into the surface of a lapping plate. The charging members include one or more channels to permit abrasive slurry to flow through when the charging member is in contact with the lapping plate.

The present disclosure describes an apparatus and a method to detect a polishing pad profile during a polish process and adjust the polishing process based on the detected profile. The apparatus can include a polishing pad configured to polishing a substrate, a substrate carrier configured to hold the substrate against the polishing pad, and a detection module configured to detect a profile of the polishing pad. The detection module can include a probe configured to measure a thickness of one or more areas on the polishing pad, and a beam configured to support the probe, where the probe can be further configured to move along the beam.

An endless abrasive belt for a sanding machine includes a flexible support structure, on an upper side of the support structure, an active layer with a binder and abrasive grains held in the binder. A transponder device is affixed to an underside of the endless abrasive belt, the transponder device including an attachment region and a flag, the attachment region being glued onto the underside by an adhesive layer, the flag being held by the attachment region and projecting laterally away from the endless abrasive belt, and a transponder including a transponder chip and an aerial for a wireless data connection with the sanding machine is arranged in the flag.

A computing system may send and receive data from a variety of other devices, such as abrading tools and consumable abrasive products. The computing system may use this data for various purposes, such as tracking worker vibration dosage, monitoring inventory, promoting use of personal protective equipment, and other purposes.

A computing system may send and receive data from a variety of other devices, such as abrading tools and consumable abrasive products. The computing system may use this data for various purposes, such as tracking worker vibration dosage, monitoring inventory, promoting use of personal protective equipment, and other purposes.

Provided is a disclosure for a cutting device configured to control a linear speed of a cutting wheel as the cutting wheel gets smaller with use.

A method is disclosed for grinding grooves on workpieces using a profiled grinding wheel, the profile of which is crushed. A reshaping crush process includes driven crush rollers, each being controlled on the basis of a rotational speed and current consumption. Thus, relative advancement between the grinding wheel and crush roller is controlled according to the speed and current consumption. A grinding machine is also disclosed for grinding a workpiece, wherein the workpiece is held by means of a workpiece spindle head. A crush device comprising a crush roller with a dedicated rotary drive is provided on the grinding machine. The grinding wheel is applied to the crush roller in order to dress the grinding wheel profile. The crush roller has a profile-crushing portion for profile-crushing the grinding wheel with a first dressing volume and a reshaping profile-crushing portion for profile-crushing the grinding wheel with a second dressing volume.

A method of machining a workpiece using a machine tool, the machine tool comprising a tool mount carrying a tool, a workpiece mount carrying a workpiece, a drive mechanism for moving at least one of the tool mount and the workpiece mount relative to the other, and a control arrangement for controlling the drive mechanism. The method comprises moving at least one of the tool mount and the workpiece mount with the drive mechanism under the control of the control arrangement so that the tool contacts a portion of the workpiece to commence a machining operation, and the tool then removes material from the portion of the workpiece until completion of the machining operation, the movement being such that the relative velocity between the tool and the workpiece decreases continuously during the majority of the time that the tool and the workpiece are in contact with each other during the machining operation.

A floor grinder (100), comprising at least one motor (110, 120) arranged to rotatably drive one or more abrasive grinding tool holders (130), and a control unit (140) arranged to monitor an operating characteristic of the floor grinder, wherein the control unit is arranged to compare the monitored operating characteristic to a pre-determined set of operating characteristics indicative of a tool glazing condition, and to trigger an action in case the monitored operating characteristic is indicative of a tool glazing condition, wherein the control unit is arranged to monitor the operating characteristic of the floor grinder using a machine learning technique and a glazing model configured using a plurality of examples of floor grinders which have experienced various degrees of glazing.

Generating a recipe for controlling a polishing system includes receiving a target removal profile that includes a target thickness to remove for a plurality of locations on a substrate that are angularly distributed around the substrate, and storing a first function defining a polishing rate for a zone from a plurality of pressurizable zones of a carrier head that are angularly distributed around a the carrier head. The first function defines polishing rates as a function of pressures. For each particular zone of the plurality of zones a recipe defining a pressure for the particular zone over time is calculated by calculating an expected thickness profile after polishing using the first function, and minimizing a cost function that incorporates a first term representing a difference between the expected thickness profile and a target thickness profile.