For shops machining nickel- and cobalt-based superalloys, engineered ceramics, ferrous alloys, and tungsten carbide, electroplated tools deliver high material removal rates while reducing power consumption and minimizing thermal damage to the workpiece — a critical consideration when overheating can compromise a turbine component's metallurgical integrity. It's a technology that provides precision and durability without the higher upfront investment of other bonding systems.

Two applications of this electroplated technology stand out for turbine work:

Plated CBN is nearly as hard as diamond but far better suited to grinding ferrous and high-nickel alloys, which tend to react chemically with diamond at high temperatures. Plated CBN wheels are especially effective for short production runs and close-tolerance form grinding, making them a natural fit for the lower-volume, high-precision work typical of turbine manufacturing. They're engineered to machine notoriously difficult materials — nickel, cobalt, and titanium alloys — without sacrificing dimensional accuracy.

Form wheels address a different challenge: reproducing complex, contoured profiles, like those found on turbine blades, consistently across thousands of parts. Tailored for both creep-feed and high-speed grinding applications, they're engineered to handle impressive material removal rates while holding tight tolerances and intricate forms. Because the abrasive particles are mechanically locked into a single electroplated layer rather than continuously exposed through wear, form wheels retain their profile from the first cut to the last, with little to no need for time-consuming wheel dressing. That translates into less downtime and more consistent part quality. When a wheel does eventually wear, the core can often be stripped and replated instead of replacing the whole tool, extending its usable life.