Effects of feed direction on material removal behavior in belt grinding of titanium alloys

Abstract

For abrasive belt grinding, although machine processing selection has been well studied to achieve good machinability, there is still a lack of understanding regarding the influence of feed direction and its mechanism, even though it is a common matter. This paper investigates the differences between up- and down-grinding in belt grinding of TC4, where the grinding forces, material removal performance, surface quality, and chip morphology are captured for the grinding process evaluation and mechanistic analysis In up grinding, it was observed that approximately 21.1 % more material removal can be achieved due to the larger penetration depth of scratching grains when maintaining a constant normal grinding force. Furthermore, the higher tangential grinding force resulting from increased cutting behavior and an additional sliding phase leads to more severe abrasive belt wear, as evidenced by a 22.7 % higher grinding ratio. Comparatively, down grinding mode generates a machined surface with lower roughness in the transverse and longitudinal direction, which can be explained by the minimum chip thickness effect and undeformed chip thickness model. The microscopic characteristics of chips and ground surface provide more evidence on the different chip formation mechanisms between two grinding modes.