M Puvi /2014-15

II Year Mechanical Engineering/IV Semester/ ME 6402 /MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY II

UNIT IV
ABRASIVE PROCESS AND BROACHING
9
Abrasive processes: grinding wheel specifications and selection, types of grinding process
cylindrical grinding, surface grinding, centreless grinding and internal grinding- Typical
applications concepts of surface integrity, broaching machines: broach construction push, pull,
surface and continuous broaching machines

Grinding Process
Grinding is a metal cutting operation performed by means of a rotating
abrasive tool, called "grinding wheel".
Such wheels are made of fine grains of abrasive materials held together by a
bonding material, called a "bond'. Each individual and irregularly shaped
grain acts as a cutting element (a single point cutting tool).

A magnified view of a grinding wheel and its cutting operation is shown

in Fig. The projecting grains of the abrasive material are held firmly by
the board.
The grains during rotation of the wheel remove very thin chips whose crosssection is similar to that obtained in milling. For this operation high wheel
speeds are normally employed (upto 75 m/s).
As the section of the chip removed during the process is small, and high
cutting speeds are involved, this operation results into very good finish and
high accuracy.

Grinding is done on surfaces of almost all conceivable shapes and materials

of all kinds.
The grinding operation can be: (i) Rough (or non-precision) grinding and (ii)
Precision grinding.
"Rough grinding" is a commonly used method for removing excess material
from castings, forgings and weldments etc.
PANIMALAR ENGINEERING COLLEGE, Ch. 123. / Department of Mechanical Engineering

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M Puvi /2014-15

II Year Mechanical Engineering/IV Semester/ ME 6402 /MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY II

"Precision grinding" is the principal production method of cutting materials that

are too hard to be machined by other conventional tools or for producing surfaces
on parts to higher dimensional accuracy 'and a finer finish as compared to other
manufacturing methods.
Grinding, in accordance with the type of surface to the ground, is classified as:

External cylindrical grinding.

Internal cylindrical grinding.
Surface grinding.
Form grinding.

External cylindrical grinding

It produces a straight or tapered surface on a workpiece.
The workpiece must be rotated about its own axis between centres as it passes
lengthwise across the face of a revolving grinding wheel.
Internal cylindrical grinding
It produces internal cylindrical holes and tapers.
The workpieces are chucked and precisely rotated about their own axes.
The grinding wheel or, in the case of small bore holes, the cylinder wheel rotates
against the sense of rotation of the workpiece.
Surface grinding
It produces flat surface.
The work may be ground by either the periphery or by the end face of the grinding
wheel.
The workpiece is reciprocated at a constant speed below or on the end face of the
grinding wheel.
Form grinding
This operation is done with specially shaped grinding wheels that grind the
formed surface as in grinding gear teeth, threads, splined shafts, holes etc.

PANIMALAR ENGINEERING COLLEGE, Ch. 123. / Department of Mechanical Engineering

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M Puvi /2014-15

II Year Mechanical Engineering/IV Semester/ ME 6402 /MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY II

Advantages of grinding process over other cutting processes:

1. It is possible to achieve very accurate dimensions and smoother surface
finish in a very short time.
2. It is the only method of removing material from materials after hardening.
3. Owing to large number of cutting edges on the grinding wheel it is possible to
produce extremely smooth surface desirable at contact and bearing surfaces by
grinding operation.
4. Complex profiles can be produced accurately with relatively inexpensive
turning templates.
5. Grinding unlike conventional machining need not cut through the hard skin
of forgings etc.
6. Since the grinding wheel has considerable width therefore no marks as a
result of feeding are there.
7. In this process little pressure is required, thus permitting its use on very-light
work that would otherwise tend to spring away from the tool. This
characteristic permits the use of magnetic cluck for holding the work in many
grinding operations.
Special Features of Grinding Process
1. The grinding operation is intermittent in nature, and produces discontinuous
chips.
2. The grinding wheel has a self sharpening character (i.e., the dull or worn out grains
of the grinding wheel during the operation are removed either by fracture or tearing
of the bond, thus exposing fresh new grains).
3. The load acting on individual cutting grains is non-uniform.
4. The geometry of the grain is highly random and the time of contact between the
chip and an abrasive grain is very small.
5. The grinding action depends strongly upon the characteristics of the grinding
wheel.
6. High temperatures to the tune of lOOOC to 1400C are usually encountered in
grinding resulting into rapid grain wear and high induced surface in the workpiece.
7. The effective rake angle of abrasive grains is highly negative.
8. Grinding is associated with high specific cutting energy as compared to that
encountered in conventional cutting operations.
PANIMALAR ENGINEERING COLLEGE, Ch. 123. / Department of Mechanical Engineering

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II Year Mechanical Engineering/IV Semester/ ME 6402 /MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY II

Classification of Grinding Machines:

Methods of Specifying Grinding Wheel/ Marking of Grinding Wheel:

PANIMALAR ENGINEERING COLLEGE, Ch. 123. / Department of Mechanical Engineering

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II Year Mechanical Engineering/IV Semester/ ME 6402 /MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY II

Specification: (The American Standard)

1. Abrasive type: A for Alumina, S for Silicon carbide etc.
2. Grain size: mesh number.
3. Grade: Letters A for very soft, and Z for very hard.
4. Structure: 15 for very dense structure.
5. Bond type: V-vitrified, R-rubber etc.
6. Manufacturer's owned private mark.
Thus, a wheel marked as follows: A-50 Q 8 V-30 represents an alumina wheel with
50 grit size, medium hardness, medium structure and vitrified bond.
The number 30 at the end is manufacturer's own identification number.
Manufacture of Grinding Wheels.
Grinding Wheel
A grinding wheel is a multi-tooth cutter made up of many hard particles known as
'abrasive' which have been crushed to leave sharp edges which do the cutting.
The abrasive grains are mixed with a suitable bond, which acts as a matrix or
holder when the wheel is in use.
The wheel may consist of one piece or of segments of abrasive blocks built up into
a solid wheel.
The abrasive wheel is usually mounted on some form of machine adapted to a
particular type of work.
The performance of a grinding wheel is usually evaluated in term of the grinding
ratio (G) which is defined as :

For fine grinding operations such as horizontal surface grinding, the value of G is
usually in the range of 10 to 60, while for rough grinding operations it is much less
than 10.

Characteristics of the grinding wheel:

Wheel parameters that influence the grinding performance are :
1. Abrasive material.
2. Abrasive size.
3. Bond
4. Grade.
5. Structure.
PANIMALAR ENGINEERING COLLEGE, Ch. 123. / Department of Mechanical Engineering

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II Year Mechanical Engineering/IV Semester/ ME 6402 /MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY II

1. Abrasive material :
An 'abrasive' is a substance that is used for grinding and polishing operations.
Abrasives may be classified as follows:

Natural abrasives:
Almost all of the natural abrasives, except diamond are now considered obsolete.
The "sandstone" is used only for the sharpening wood-working tools.
"Emery and corundum" are the materials which were widely used formerly but
now these have been replaced completely by artificial abrasives.
"Diamond" is largely used for dressing the grinding wheels and as an abrasive for
grinding hard materials.

Artificial abrasives:
(i) Silicon carbide (SiC) :
Silicon carbide abrasive is manufactured from 56 parts of silicon sand, 34 parts of
powered coke, 2 parts of salt, and 12 parts of saw dust.
There are two types of silicon carbide abrasives :
(a) Green grit which contains at least 97% silicon carbide.
(b) Black grit which contains at least 95% silicon carbide.
It follows the diamond in order of hardness, but it is not as tough as aluminium
oxide.
It is employed for grinding materials of low tensile strength such as cemented
carbides, stone and ceramic materials, grey cast iron etc.
(ii) Aluminium oxide (Al203):
It is manufactured by heating mineral bauxite, hydrated aluminium oxide, clay
containing silica, iron oxide, titanium oxide etc., and mixed with ground coke and
iron shavings in an arc-type electric furnace.
As it is tough and is not easily fractured, it is better adopted to grinding materials,
high tensile strength, such as carbon steels, high speed steels, tough bronzes etc.
2. Abrasive size:
Choice of the grain size depends upon the properties of the work material, surface
finish desired rate of metal removal etc.

PANIMALAR ENGINEERING COLLEGE, Ch. 123. / Department of Mechanical Engineering

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II Year Mechanical Engineering/IV Semester/ ME 6402 /MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY II

Coarse grains (grit size 10-24) give faster rate of metal removal, but yield a poor
surface, whereas fine grits (grit size 70-180) are used for finishing operation but
the metal removal is slow.
Coarse grain wheels are normally suitable for soft and ductile materials; for hard
and brittle materials finer grains are preferred.

3. Bond:
To ensure an effective and continuous action, it is imperative that the grains of
abrasive material should be held firmly together to form a series of cutting edges.
The material used for holding them is known as bond.
The principal bonds are enumerated and described below :

(i) Vitrified bond:

It is a clay bond, reddish brown in colour.
The base material is Felspar which is a fusible clay.
The bond, itself is very hard and acts as an abrasive.
It is not affected by water, oil, acids, temperature or climatic conditions.
The structure of the wheel is uniform due to wet mixing of different components.
Most of the grinding wheels possess this bond.
Such bonds are abbreviated as V.
(ii) Silicate bond:
The base material of this bond is silicate of soda.
Wheels possessing this bond are light grey in colour.
In this case, the cutting action of the wheel is smoother and cooler.
Extra hard wheels cannot be produced with this bond.
Such wheels are designated by the letter S.
(iii) Oxychloride bond:
It is a mixture of oxide and chloride of magnesium and setting takes place in cold
state.
This bond provides a cool cutting action, but grinding is usually done dry.
Such bonds are abbreviated as O.
(iv) Resinoid bond:
It is made out of synthetic or organic resin.
It is strong and flexible.
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M Puvi /2014-15

II Year Mechanical Engineering/IV Semester/ ME 6402 /MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY II

Wheels made from such a bond can be used for high speed cutting at low
temperatures.
The bond is addressed by the letter B.
(v) Shellac bond:
This bond is used for high finish work.
It is designated by the letter E.
(vi) Rubber bond:
Rubber bonded wheels are composed of hard vulcanized rubber.
Such wheels are hard flexible and can have very thin sections and are useful in
cut-off operations.
Use of cutting fluid is essential with such wheels.
Rubber bond is abbreviated as R.

4. Grade:
'Grinding wheel grade' refers to the strength with which the bond holds the grains
together.
The strength or hardness of the wheel depends upon the volume of the bonding
material used.
As the volume of the bonding material in a wheel increases its hardness improves.
The wheel hardness is designated as soft, medium or hard. Wheel with hardness
rating
A to I are classified as soft, those having a rating of J to P are medium and wheels
with hardness rating Q to Z are hard.
5. Structure :
'Structure' of a grinding wheel refers to the relationship between the volume of
the abrasive material, volume of bond and the volume of voids present in a
grinding wheel.
A wheel would have a dense structure when the percentage volume of the
abrasive is large.
The following steps are involved in the manufacture of grinding wheels:
1. Reduce the abrasive material to small size using roll and jaw crushes.
2. Remove the iron compounds with the help of a magnetic separator.
3. Wash the material to remove dust etc.
4. Grade the abrasive material grains by passing them over vibrating standard screen.
5. Select proper sized grains.
6. Mix grabs with bonding material, mould or cut the wheel to proper shape and heat.
7. The wheels are then bushed, trued and tested.
PANIMALAR ENGINEERING COLLEGE, Ch. 123. / Department of Mechanical Engineering

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