Experimental study of thermal behaviour of face grinding with alumina angular wheels considering the effect of wheel wear

Abstract

The grinding industry is a high added-value manufacturing sector that is subject to ongoing improvements due to the increasing demands for productivity, accuracy and surface integrity. Although angular wheels are commonly used for face grinding in both automotive and aeronautical manufacturing, there is little information available regarding the specific details of applying this process. For this particular process, the effect of the wheel angle on process performance, the influence of kinematic parameters during the appearance of grinding burn or wheel wear is still unknown. This paper presents an experimental study of the thermal behaviour of face grinding with alumina angular wheels when considering the effect of wheel wear. The effect of grinding parameters has been examined using the concept of aggressiveness, which has been adapted to the kinematics of the process of face grinding with angular wheels. Special attention has been paid to the effect of the geometry of the wheel and to the dressing conditions. Through an extensive experimental study of power measurements and acid etching surface inspections complemented with temperature simulations, the behaviour of this process in response to grinding burn has been analysed in order to optimize the wheel duration towards grinding burn.