Parametric Analysis of Cylindrical Plunge Grinding on Micro-Alloyed Steel Using Taguchi Analysis

Abstract

In the automotive industry, grinding of round diameters is an important process, to achieve desired tolerances and finish. While the effect of grinding parameters namely cutting velocity, work velocity and infeed (or downfeed) on grinding forces and surface integrity (that includes finish, residual stresses and subsurface damage) have been studied extensively in the literature, the effect on material removal rate (MRR) and dimensional accuracies has been given very limited attention. This work involves the analysis of effect of grinding parameters namely cutting velocity, work speed and infeed on MRR, surface finish (Ra) and dimensional accuracies by performing experiments on micro-alloyed steel bars. A series of cylindrical plunge grinding experiments were performed on round bar using CBN grinding wheel. The results show that, to achieve minimum surface roughness (Ra), infeed is the most influencing input parameter, whereas to achieve maximum MRR, work speed influences the most. An increase in infeed and a reduction in cutting velocity and work speed, leads to an increase in finish on ground surface. Also, an increase in infeed and cutting velocity, and a reduction in work speed results into an increase in MRR. The results show that, dimensional accuracies such as diameter, ovality and taper of ground surfaces have not been affected significantly.