4 - Grinding

Abstract

Grinding is a representative abrasive process in which a grinding wheel made of abrasives and bonding material is used. The grinding wheel is conditioned on the grinding machine before grinding. This is very characteristic of grinding because the conditioning process has a decisive influence on the result. The mechanism of material removal with abrasive cutting edges on the wheel surface is the same as that of cutting tools. In metal machining, for example, the material is removed mainly through shear deformation in both material removal processes. The size of chips removed in grinding is, however, much smaller than the case of cutting providing a better surface finish and machining accuracy. The order of chip thickness in grinding is far less than 0.1 mm, whereas it is larger than 0.1 mm in cutting. For achieving high accuracy grinding, which is the most important task of grinding, it is necessary to take the grinding force, elastic deformation of the wheel, and the stiffness of the grinding machine into consideration.