Initial situation
After a short period of time, even sanding belts of the best quality and when used correctly suffer from unavoidable, small damages, grit outbreaks and irregularities due to wear and clogging. Such small damages cause on conventional widebelt sanding machines with parallel units evident imperfections reducing the quality of the sanding image. This is an inherent flaw of the parallel sanding process which becomes visible especially with delicate surfaces such as lacquer, veneers of any kind and plastics.
Oblique sanding provides better results
Brilliant intermediate lacquer sanding
Our Engineers found that such undesirable irregularities may be avoided if the sanding belt does not rotate parallel to the feed direction. Using a pivoted sanding head, the defects on the belt are shifted slightly sidewards with each rotation and do not show on the workpiece.
No oscillation traces
Even a new sanding belt has a grit structure which is not completely homogeneous. As a result the oscillation of the belt tracking causes tracks or traces along the length of the workpiece, which will impair a high quality surface. With oblique sanding such traces become blurred and are no longer visible.
Better sanding image
With traditional widebelt sanding the abrasive grits create a structure of parallel lines on the workpiece. Grit outbreaks show as unsanded areas. With oblique sanding, the sanding lines overlap to create a consistent sanding image making the grit outbreaks no longer visible.
Better cutting capacity
Just like a knife or a plane in a slightly angled position, the drawn cut of the abrasive belt is more efficient and effortless than a 90 degree frontal cut. Therefore one can work with less pressure on the abrasive. As a result, belt clogging and belt consumption are radically reduced hence not only improving the life of the abrasive but also the profitability when oblique sanding.
Also important is that with oblique sanding less uncut fibres are left on the surface.
Improved profitability
Oblique sanding improves the profitability in different ways. First of all, the lifetime of the sanding belts are substantially increased as they may be used much longer thanks to the tolerance of oblique sanding towards irregularities of the sanding belt. Secondly, profitability is increased due to the nature of the sanding process: i.e. the reduced power consumption when pivoting the sanding belt can be directly shown on the machine’s ammeter. And thirdly, the consumption of lacquer with the intermediate lacquer sanding is considerably less thanks to the fibre-free surfaces.