Tool-free wheel changes save time

A red lever on the X-LOCK angle grinder releases spent wheels without the use of tools. Image provided by Bosch Power Tools

Little things on a shop floor make a big difference to productivity. Take swapping out angle grinder wheels, for example. Each standard wheel change can take an experienced professional an average of about one minute, or as many as three to five minutes if they have to search for a wrench or replace a lug nut that rolled out of reach.

Anastasia Llamas, channel/product manager at Bosch Power Tools, said that although it varies by job site, studies made by the company have indicated that up to two weeks of labor per year per fabricator could be attributed to the task of changing wheels.

“Changing a wheel can take a minute or so if everything is in place. It can take longer if you have to look for a tool to do the job or pry the old wheel off. It’s a multipart, multistep process that can leave room for human error,” Llamas said.

X-LOCK, a new interface technology from Bosch, takes a different approach to an angle grinder wheel change. A pair of locking jaws secure the wheel to the X-LOCK grinder without the need for any tools. An audible click indicates that the jaws on the grinder have locked the wheel in place.

There is only one way the wheel can attach to the grinder, reducing the possibility of an incorrect mounting. The dangers of overtightening or undertightening are also removed.

When the wheel needs to be replaced, a single lever retracts the jaws of the interface, releasing the wheel for a quick, tool-free change.

The aha! moment behind the technology was the click of a ski boot as it attached to the ski. “One day it just clicked when the engineers were thinking about ski gear. They thought, we can make something like this for angle grinding,” said Llamas.

“Being able to change a wheel quickly, without tools, makes it easy to handle a change on the job site. Instead of carrying around multiple angle grinders to avoid wheel change hassles, they just swap out the wheel and get back to work.”

Corded and cordless 18-V X-LOCK grinder models are available. Most wheels are backwards-compatible with standard 7⁄8-in. mounts.

As a built-in safety feature, the wheel interface will not open as the wheel is rotating. An X-Brake on the cordless model stops the wheel in under two seconds when the switch is turned off.

An expanding line of accessories for metalworking and concrete cutting include bonded wheels, diamond wheels, flap discs, wire wheels and cups, backing pads, and fiber discs.

New wheels snap into the angle grinder for a quick change.