The Importance of Abrasive Grinding Wheel Hardness Control for the Productivity of Production Grinding Operations

Abstract

The productivity of certain types of grinding operations in industry is very sensitive to the variations in abrasive grinding wheel hardness. Such operations characteristically involve relatively long times for wheel changes and wheel dressing and machine set up. The through feed centerless grinding of precision cylindrical components is identified as one such operation. This paper illustrates the use of the quantitative technique of the measurement of the Modulus of Elasticity of abrasive grinding wheels for wheel hardness control. The data presented reveals that the rubber bonded regulating wheels, most commonly used in the industry today, may contain fairly noticable hardness inconsistencies. It is also shown that these hardness variations can and do indeed result in measurable productivity losses through higher wheel wear rates of softer wheels resulting in more frequent wheel dressings and wheel changes with possible difficulties in component size holding during production grinding. The E modulus can thus provide a useful incoming wheel duality control tool for minimizing this lost productivity and improving the consistency of the ground product.