Centerless grinder having inside diameter size control and method therefor

A centerless grinding machine comprising:

• a disk for rotating a workpiece having an outside surface and an inner surface;
• a workpiece support element;
• a shoe for cooperating with the disk and the workpiece support element to hold the workpiece;
• a diameter detector that detects the outside surface of the workpiece and generates a detector signal;
• a grinder that grinds the inner surface of the workpiece during rotation;
• and
• a controller that receives the detector signal and determines a wall thickness such that the grinder engages and grinds the inner surface in response to the detector signal from the diameter detector to provide a selected internal diameter of the workpiece.

A centerless grinding machine comprising:

• a first disk that supports a workpiece having an outer surface and a grinding surface;
• a following disk;
• a shoe positioned relative to the first disk and the following disk, the shoe cooperating with the first disk and the following disk to hold and rotate the workpiece;
• a diameter detector that detects the outside surface of the workpiece by detecting a displacement of the following disk by the workpiece, the detector generating a detector signal;
• a grinder that grinds the grinding surface of the workpiece;
• and
• a controller electrically connected to the detector and the grinder that controls the grinder in response to the detector signal generated by the diameter detector.

A centerless grinding machine comprising:

• a first stationary workpiece support element, a second stationary workpiece support element, and a following workpiece support element adapted to cooperate to hold and rotate a workpiece;
• a diameter detector that detects an outside surface of the workpiece by detecting displacement of the following workpiece support element by the workpiece, the detector generating a measurement signal representative of the detected surface;
• a grinder for grinding an inner surface of the workpiece during the rotation;
• and
• a controller electrically connected to the grinder to control grinding of the inner surface in response to the measurement signal received by the controller from the diameter detector such that the workpiece has a selected wall thickness.