The effect of abrasive properties on the surface integrity of ground ferrous materials.

Abstract

The effect of the thermal properties of alumina and CBN abrasives on workpiece temperatures in grinding was investigated. A review of the literature revealed a lack of knowledge of the thermal properties of CBN limiting the accuracy of theoretical predictions of the heat conduction in CBN grinding. A grain contact analysis was developed to predict the energy partitioning between the workpiece and wheel. The analysis takes into account two dimensional transient heat transfer in the grain and maintains temperature compatibility at the grain wear flatworkpiece interface. The proportion of the total grinding energy entering the workpiece, termed the partition ratio, was estimated by correlating measured temperature distributions with theoretical distributions. The partition ratios when grinding with CBN were substantially lower than grinding with alumina wheels for a range of ferrous materials. The lower partition ratios with CBN grinding were attributed to the higher thermal conductivity of the CBN abrasive. The effective thermal conductivity of alumina and CBN grains were quantified by correlating the theoretical partitioning model with the measured results. The effective thermal conductivity of CBN was found to be considerably lower than the reported theoretical value albeit much higher than the effective thermal conductivity of alumina. A model to predict the background temperature in grinding was proposed based on the experimental findings. The thermal model takes into account a triangular heat flux distribution in the grinding zone, the real length of contact and experimentally validated grain thermal properties. The input parameters to the thermal model were specified. To avoid temper colours on the workpiece surface the maximum background temperature must not exceed 450 to 500deg. C. for commonly used ferrous materials.