Prediction of workpiece surface texture using circumferentially grooved grinding wheels

Abstract

This paper investigates the ability of circumferentially grooved grinding wheels to create parallel ridges on a workpiece providing a textured surface that may be advantageous for certain applications. In this paper, the effect of wheel speed, workpiece feed rate, grinding direction, and groove factor on the height, spacing, and angle of these ridges were investigated. In addition, an analytical model based on the kinematics of grinding with circumferentially grooved wheels, as well as a corresponding simulation method to predict the patterns on the resulting ground surface were developed. A wide range of workpiece textures predicted by the analytical and simulation results were compared with experimental results. When comparing the experimentally measured texture angles on the workpiece, the angles predicted by both the analytical model and the simulation model had an average difference within 3.4 %. When comparing the experimentally measured spacing between ridges on the textured workpiece, the spacing predicted by both the analytical model and the simulated model had an average difference within 2.4 %. Finally, when comparing the experimentally measured heights of the ridges on the textured workpiece, both the analytical and simulation models differed from experiments by, on average, only 2.3 μm.