Profile Grinding of Superalloys with Ultrafine-Crystalline cBN Wheels

Abstract

This paper deals with the grinding characteristics of newly developed polycrystalline cBN (cBN-U) abrasives in creep feed profile grinding of nickel-based superalloys. Experiments for producing a V-shaped groove on a flat surface in one pass by creep feed grinding have been carried out using the new polycrystalline cBN-U and representative conventional cBN (cBN-B) grits. When grinding with cBN-U abrasives, both radial wear and profile wear are less, and hence the grinding ratio is around 10 times higher than that with the conventional cBN-B abrasives. Grinding forces in grinding with cBN-U abrasives are reduced by 20-30% compared with those in Grinding with cBN-B abrasives. The cBN-U abrasive is suitable for the applications with a high dimensional accuracy in creep feed profile grinding for nickel-based superalloys, because it gives less profile wear, and hence better form retention, than conventional cBN abrasive.