Performing in-feed type centerless grinding process on a surface grinder

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In our previous study, a new centerless grinding method using surface grinder was proposed. In this method, centerless grinding operations are performed by installing a compact centerless grinding unit, consisting mainly of an ultrasonic elliptic‐vibration shoe, a blade and their respective holders, on the worktable of a surface grinder. During grinding, the cylindrical workpiece is held on the ultrasonic shoe and the blade, and its rotational motion is controlled by the elliptic motion of the shoe end‐face. An actual unit had been produced and its performance in tangential‐feed type centerless grinding using a surface grinder had been confirmed in the previous workd. In this paper, the performance of the grinding unit in in‐feed centerless grinding operation was confirmed, and the effects of the main process parameter, i.e., eccentric angle, on the workpiece roundness was investigated experimentally. The obtained results showed that: (1) the centerless grinding unit performed well in in‐feed type centerless grinding; (2) the eccentric angle affects roundness significantly, and its optimal angle is 6°; (3) the workpiece roundness can be further improved by varying the eccentric angle during grinding, and the final roundness reached 0.65 μm after grinding as the eccentric angle varied from 9° to 6° and to 3°.