Dynamic characteristics of abrasive grains and machined surface features for variable axis diamond grinding of quartz glass

Abstract

There is a fine application prospect for multi-axis grinding of hard and brittle materials with diamond ball end tool. The effects of tool inclination angles and grinding modes of multi-axis grinding of quartz glass on the dynamic characteristics of the diamond abrasives, surface topography, surface fragmentation phenomenon, and surface roughness were investigated in this work. Material removal characteristics and surface formation conditions would be significantly affected by the effective cutting speed, material stress characteristics, and movement space path derived from different grinding modes and tool inclination angles. The surface texture direction is mainly determined by feed direction of the cutter and initial cutting moment and geometry feature of the engaged diamond abrasives. The surface fragmentation phenomenon of the formed surface is apparent when the corresponding surface roughness values are relatively larger. The machined surface with significant surface fragmentation phenomenon is mainly produced by materials' brittle fracture modes, such as larger positive lead and smaller negative tilt under conventional grinding and smaller negative lead angles and larger positive tilt angles under down grinding. Ideal surface evenness could be obtained by using lead or tilt 0° for conventional and down grinding. The ground surface with smaller surface roughness could be produced when employing tool postures, such as negative lead or positive tilt under conventional grinding and positive lead or negative tilt under down grinding condition.