Work support shoes for centerless grinding machines

Claim 1

For use in a centerless grinding machine having a grinding wheel, a plate secured to a frame of the machine in general alignment with the circumferential grinding surface of said wheel and extending transversely with respect to the wheel axis, said plate being adapted to be in alignment with a workpiece to be ground by the wheel, chuck means to hold the workpiece between said plate and said wheel in the grinding position, said plate being adapted to extend generally laterally and downwardly of the workpiece in the grinding position, support arms adjustably mounted on said plate and having inner ends adapted to extend toward the workpiece in the grinding position, work support shoes having outer ends adjustably mounted to respective inner ends of said support arms; the improvement comprising: said work shoes each having a workpiece contact portion and a shank portion, each shank portion having an outer and an inner end, said outer ends of said shank portions defining the outer ends of said work support shoes, each shank portion being made of a phenolic base material having sufficient degree of flexibility to dampen vibrations imparted to its outer end by the grinding machine during the grinding operation whereby vibration of the inner end is substantially eliminated, each contact portion being mounted on an inner end of a respective shank portion, the periphery of the inner end of the shank portion being at least substantially coextensive with the periphery of the contact portion, and each contact portion having an inwardly facing surface arranged for contacting and supporting the workpiece, said contact portion being made of a high density, low porosity, wear resistant ceramic material.