Resin Bonded Diamond grinding wheels conditioning using SiC rotary dresser

Abstract

Superabrasive grinding of advanced materials parts with complex geometry is a critical issue for aerospace or energy industry. Likewise, conditioning of superabrasive is a key process in order to obtain the most effective grinding. While from industrial point of view the conditioning parameters and dressers are designed from the experience, from scientific point of view the last works are focused on achieving guidelines for optimising conditioning process. In this sense, the present work is focussed on the conditioning process of diamond resin bonded grinding wheels. To this end, SiC rotary dressers of different hardness and applying down-cut and up-cut are tested in order to achieve the best conditions. On the one hand, the wheel surface is deeply analyse. A software is developed in order to analyse the grain pull out, the new abrasive grains and the size evolution and grain concentration during conditioning. On the other hand, the wheel geometry is also measured due to the importance of geometry loss during the conditioning process on profile grinding wheels. The results shown that down-cut conditions are more aggressive obtaining a better wheel surface recovery and the wheel geometry of the incidence edge is lost, requiring a subsequent truing process to obtain the wheel profile. Finally, it is noteworthy that the methodology developed for the analysis of the diamond resin bonded grinding wheels is suitable for all types of grinding wheels even rotary dressers.