The Development of an Utrahard Abrasive Grinding Wheel which Suppresses Chatter

Abstract

Previous workers have shown that grinding with ultrahard abrasive wheels may be made substantially more stable by reducing the radial flexibility of the wheel whilst, at the same time, maintaining high values of the wheel natural frequency and damping. Theoretical work has shown that similar beneficial effects may be obtained by merely reducing the contact stiffness of the wheel, and that this could best be achieved by producing a conventionally manufactured wheel with a hub material which was flexible. This possibility was investigated and two wheels were manufactured with “Retimet” as hub material. These wheels had radial static stiffnesses which were an order of magnitude lower than conventional CBN wheels. They both performed well, giving stable grinding, good workpiece surface finish and a complete absence of waves around their periphery after periods of grinding in excess of 12 hours. There were no problems encountered with geometric accuracy of the workpiece or prolonged “spark-out” times.