Prediction of Contact between Grinding Wheel and Workpiece (Detection of Reflected Laser Intensity from Grinding Fluid)

Abstract

Automatic prediction of contact between a grinding wheel and a workpiece has been required from production engineers. The appearance of a trailing flow of grinding fluid, which passes through the clearance between the grinding wheel and the workpiece, will change from transparent to white as the clearance decreases. Since the reflected intensity of diffused laser beam from the trailing flow will depend on the degree of transparency of grinding fluid, the intensity change can be used for the estimation of the clearance and the prediction of contact. Firstly, the effects of grinding wheel peripheral speed, grain volume percentage, grain size and grinding fluid flow rate on the intensity of the defused laser beam are investigated experimentally. As a results, higher wheel speed, lower grain volume percentage, larger grain size and higher flow rate causes higher intensity. Secondly, the estimation of the clearance using the diffused laser detection and the prediction of contact between the grinding wheel and the work piece are demonstrated. An automatic wheel-approach system using the prediction system has been satisfactory developed.