A Kinematics Study on a Ni-D Electroplating Process for Enhancing the SuperAbrasive Grinding Wheel Quality

Abstract

AbstractThe new age development on material processing creates an acute need to establish innovations on the electroplating process particularly towards enhancing the process efficiency, uniformity and improving the adhesion strength between the substrate and the plating. The Nickel-Diamond (Ni-D) plating process for processing a super-abrasive grinding wheel uses a plating bath contain; suspended diamond particles, grinding wheel(cathode), Nickel(anode) and electrolytic solution. The applied electrical current dissolves the nickel anode ions and deposit them on the cathode surface, simultaneously, the suspended diamond particles are dragged by the movement of nickel ions and deposited on the grinding wheel surface. The low quality of electroplated grinding wheels is often a result of non-uniform coating or poor adhesion between the abrasive particles and the substrate. Often, this results in scrap of the Ni-D electroplated component and thus enhances the wastage of resources such as: material, time, and labour. Also, in the Ni-D plating process the particles are suspended in the electrolyte using: bath agitation and electrophoresis process. Past research investigations have found that increased agitation generally enhances the number of particles in the metal deposit, but excessive agitation leads to a turbulent flow which destabilizes the Ni-D plating process and lower agitation reduces the suspension of Ni-D particles. This manuscript unveils the kinematics of the diamond abrasives and nickel ions that facilitate a better bonding to the grinding wheel substrate while applying a newly devised propeller. The kinematics study includes the forces acting on diamond particle and its trajectory while using multiple nickel anodes and a single cathode (grinding wheel substrate). The effect of process parameters: agitation speed, agitation power, size and concentration of diamond particles in the electrolyte towards achieving a uniform adhesion along with an enhanced process efficiency were discussed.KeywordsElectroplatingGrinding wheelDiamondSuspension