Mechanical characteristics of abrasive composite materials characterised by the impulse excitation technique

Abstract

Abrasive composites are widely used in industrial machining, for example as grinding tools. Grinding wheel hardness expresses the retention capacity that the binder has over the abrasive grains and is important to optimise grinding processes, and can associate the stages of grinding and cut off. The hardness of the abrasive tools can be characterised by the determination of Young's modulus using the impulse excitation technique (IET). In this work, Young's modulus is determined with the IET, which is a non-destructive method with good objectivity, low equipment expenditure, and short measuring time. The results were compared to destructive bending tests. Resin bond composite abrasives with different grit/resin ratio structures were prepared and evaluated on microstructure and density. It was observed that increasing the grit/resin ratio also increases Young's modulus, except for higher porosity samples, where the hardness decreases because of the larger binder volume within the sample.