An experimental study on mirror-form grinding of free-form surface by the use of coarse diamond grinding wheel

Abstract

In this paper, the mirror grinding of free-form surface was conducted by the use of coarse diamond grinding wheel. In this new grinding manner, the wheel moving direction is vertical to the wheel cutting direction, which is different from the traditional plunge grinding and traverse grinding. The aim is to realise mirror-form grinding without the polishing with loose abrasive grain and ultra-fine diamond grinding wheel. First, the mirror grinding experiment for high-speed steel was undertaken by means of plane grinding to investigate the formation of mirror ground surface and identify the mirror grinding parameters. Second, the arc-shaped diamond wheel trued by CNC arc interpolation was employed to realise the form grinding of free-form surface whose tool path is controlled by the equal-envelope height on CNC grinder. Finally, the mirror-form grinding of free-form surface was carried out with reference to the mirror grinding conditions. Experiment results showed that the ductile-mode grinding may be conducted and the mirror-form grinding of free-form surface can be realised when decreasing the wheel-axial-orientation moving speed, whose surface roughness Ra is less than 20 nm.