Design of Floating Distribution of Abrasive Grains in Magnetic Fluid Grinding.

Abstract

Magnetic fluid grinding has been developed as a new process which can remove materials more rapidly than the lapping process that is conventionally used. However, sufficient data on the relationship between the floating distribution of abrasive grains in magnetic fluid and the removal rate are not available for optimum design of the floating abrasive grains. This paper presents an new non dimensional parameter h*(=he/te), which is the ratio of the distance he between the minimum height of the lower surface of the floating abrasive grain layer and workpiece to the maximum thickness te of the abrasive grain layer, which indicates the relative position of the workpiece to the abrasive grain layer floating in magnetic fluid. It was found that larger removal rate is obtained for magnetic fluid grinding of an aluminium alloy ring at 0≤h*≤1. The method of calculating floating height of the abrasive grain layer is also proposed and verified by comparing calculated and observed results.