Grinding apparatus and method

Abstract

An apparatus for grinding a workpiece on a support surface includes a rotatable and vertically movable grinding wheel having an abrading surface and at least one cylinder coupled to the grinding wheel. The cylinder includes a piston, a stepper-motor coupled to the piston, and a converter coupled to the piston and to the stepper-motor for converting rotary movement of the stepper-motor to linear movement of the piston to vertically move the grinding wheel. A measuring device provides a representation of the distance between the support surface and the abrading surface. A controller is coupled to the measuring device and to the stepper-motor for receiving the representation and applying an activation signal to the stepper-motor to vertically move the grinding wheel to reach a predetermined distance between the support surface and the abrading surface.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.