Journal of Materials Processing Technology 185 (2007) 1723

Laser cleaning and dressing of vitrified grinding wheels

M.J. Jackson a, , A. Khangar b , X. Chen c , G.M. Robinson a , V.C. Venkatesh d , N.B. Dahotre b
a

Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Purdue University, College of Technology, 401 North Grant Sreet, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2021, USA
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, 326 Dougherty Hall, 1512 Middle Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
c School of Mechanical, Materials, and Manufacturing Engineering and Management, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
d Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Technology Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor Durul Tazim, Malaysia
b

Abstract
Grinding is an industrial process that produces engineering components with a desired surface finish. Prior to the development of continuous
dressing operations, the grinding efficiency of vitrified grinding wheels deteriorates as the sharp cutting edges become blunt due to the formation
of wear flats. Dressing is essentially a sharpening operation designed to generate a specific topography on the working surface of the grinding
wheel. The use of high power lasers is being explored as a non-contact cleaning and dressing technique. In the present study, a high power laser was
used to clean metal chips from the surface of the grinding wheel and to dress the wheel by causing phase transformations to occur on the surface
of vitrified grinding wheel. Experimental results indicated that laser modified grinding wheels are comparable in performance to conventionally
cleaned and dressed grinding wheels.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Vitrified grinding wheels; Laser materials processing; Grinding; Tool steels; Aerospace materials

1. Introduction
1.1. Conventional dressing of grinding wheels
Grinding wheels are used for grinding materials with poor
machinability because of their longer life, high grinding efficiency, and dimensional stability [1]. The grinding wheel also
gets loaded with metal chips during machining [2]. The existent
grinding tools wear at a very high rate and also generate high
frictional heat at the abrasive grain-metal chip contact region,
which leads to surface and sub-surface damage in the ground
components. Also, there is a loss of form tolerance and dimensional stability as grinding progresses over a large number of
grinding passes [3].
Ideally, the abrasive particles on the surface of the grinding
wheel should get automatically sharpened when worn out, by
either entirely detaching from the wheel face or by fracture,
thus exposing new particles with sharper cutting edges.
However, in practice both geometric and functional characteristics of the grinding wheel have to be restored periodically
by dressing [2]. Dressing is a sharpening operation designed to
generate a particular surface topography on the cutting face of

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 765 494 0365; fax: +1 765 494 6219.
E-mail address: jacksomj@purdue.edu (M.J. Jackson).

0924-0136/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2006.03.109

the wheel. Dressing of the worn out grinding wheel surface is

done by various means to modify its surface topography, which
in turn improves grinding efficiency [4].
Dressing significantly affects the quality of the ground product, as characterized by its size and shape, surface roughness
and integrity [5]. The conventional contact-type methods, like
mechanical dressing using a diamond dresser, results in excessive grinding wheel material loss.
The bond fracture and abrasive grain break-off, as a result
of crushing of the dresser are the material removal mechanisms
for contact type processes. In fact, only 10% of the wheel by
volume is removed during actual grinding, while the rest is
removed during dressing operations [6]. Mechanical dressing,
though effective, also induces stresses and causes deep cracks
and undercuts. These factors eventually cause loosening of the
chunks of grains and reduce the number of effective cutting
edges [2].
The conventional processes do not produce consistent grinding results due to dresser wear which affects the wheel surface
topography and its performance in grinding. A worn-out dresser
cannot produce sufficient protrusion of cutting grain edges [1].
To obtain consistent grinding outputs, either the dresser geometry has to be maintained or suitable dressing conditions corresponding to modified dresser geometry have to be selected,
which are impossible in contact type processes and also complicated because of dresser wear [4]. Yet in order to obtain

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M.J. Jackson et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 185 (2007) 1723

consistent grinding results, a dressing procedure, which is reproducible in nature, is essential.

To achieve these requirements, methods have been developed to maintain an optimized grinding wheel. These methods
include: slurry and steel roll application, pressurized jet dressing using abrasive slurries, and air jet abrasive dressing. In air
jet dressing, the dressing rate is controlled in three ways: (a) by
controlling the pressure of the mixed air, (b) by controlling the
ejecting nozzle traverse speed, and (c) by controlling the number of traverse passes across the grinding wheel. Therefore, the
dressing rate will control the optimum grain protrusion height.
1.2. Laser cleaning and dressing of grinding wheels
High power lasers that are currently used as a non-contact
type machining tool for various manufacturing applications
such as welding, drilling, cutting, etc., can also be used as a
non-contact type dressing tool. The salient features of a laser
include high intensity fluence, directionality, and spatial coherence, which can be used to process hard and brittle materials
efficiently. Laser induced thermal processing leads to effects
such as melting, vaporization, and plasma formation on the material of the grinding wheel, which can be exploited during the
dressing procedure.
When a laser beam irradiates the surface of a grinding wheel,
it may be considered that the energy flows in one direction in a
semi-infinite body. If there is no convection, or heat generation,
the basic equation governing the flow of heat is,
2 T
1 T
=
2
z
t

(1)

Where T is the temperature in the grinding wheel, z the depth

from the wheel surface, the thermal diffusivity of the grinding
wheel, and t is the time after laser irradiation commences. If it is
assumed that the laser power flux input into the wheel is q, with
no radiant heat loss or melting, then the solution to Eq. (2) is,




2q
z

Tz,t =
(2)
t ierfc
K
2 t
Where K is the thermal conductivity of the grinding wheel material, and ierfc is the integral of the complementary error function.
Eq. (2) indicates that both q and t contribute to elevating the temperature of the surface of the grinding wheel. The depth of laser
energy penetrated into the wheel surface is constrained by the
duration of the laser pulse. Increasing irradiation time will allow
the laser energy to penetrate deeper into the grinding wheel. For
the purpose of laser dressing, a higher temperature is needed in
order to remove metal chips and re-shape individual grinding
grains.
During laser dressing, the wheel surface topography of the
grinding wheel is modified by melting of the material and subsequent re-solidification of a portion of the molten layer. During
the process, rapid heating and cooling induces cracks in the
re-solidified layer. The microcracks help remove the re-melted
layer during grinding after a few initial grinding strokes, which
then exposes new cutting edges. In laser dressing, the grinding
wheel is subjected to high power laser intensity, which produces

craters on the surface and also induces microcracks in the re-cast

molten layer. By using different laser powers during dressing,
the extent of the re-cast molten layer can be controlled and controlling the dressing feed can vary the surface topography. Laser
dressing removes the wheel material by ablation of the bonding material to expose sharp grains. When the heating time and
energy density is selected correctly, the vitrified bond (glass
phase) of the wheel is softened and even melted thus facilitating
the removal of the bonding material [1].
Dressing of the grinding wheel by laser generates welldefined grooves and tracks on the surface of the wheel. Essentially, laser dressing produces microcutting edges due to the
formation of microcracks on the worn-out grains. When these
craters are formed on the bond, the grits are loosened and subsequently removed due to insufficient volume of load surrounding
the grain [4]. Laser dressing thus has the advantage of being a
non-contact type process in which selective removal of clogged
material alone is possible by appropriate focusing of the laser
beam on the selected portions of the wheel surface. Also the
material wastage in terms of the debris produced during dressing operation, can be substantially reduced by the use of a laser
as a dressing tool. Thus environmentally benign grinding operations can be made possible, which will help reduce the problem
of disposing contaminated grinding debris.
There are several inherent advantages associated with the use
of laser for dressing applications. Laser dressing is a very fast
process and it can be easily automated. Also, selective removal
of the clogged material alone is possible and desired surface
structure (roughness, grain morphology and porosity) can be
generated. Furthermore, consistent dressing conditions can be
produced by the use of laser and this can help achieve grinding
reproducibility. As the laser beam can be delivered using a fiber
optic cable, remote dressing operation without discontinuation
of the grinding process during laser dressing is possible. Thus the
downtime in the grinding operation associated with conventional
methods, can either be eliminated or substantially reduced in
laser dressing.
Earlier studies [2,4,7] used pulsed laser to compare the
laser dressing process with conventional mechanical dressing
methods. The pulsed laser powers used were of the order of
15 1010 W/m2 and most of the work concentrated on comparison of the grinding performance of laser dressed wheels
with that of diamond dressed ones. Laser-assisted simultaneous
truing and dressing has also been attempted, to overcome the
problems associated with mechanical dressing [8]. Though useful, the studies did not deal with the nature of physical changes
taking place in the grinding wheel during interaction with laser
energy, which happens to be a fundamental aspect to contribute
towards its dressing performance.
Prior to any dressing operation, the grinding wheel tends to
load with metal chips that need to be removed. Wheel loading
is one of the most common problems in grinding operations,
particularly for grinding aerospace materials. As grinding continues, removed chips may adhere in the spaces between abrasive
grains and deteriorate the cutting ability of the grinding wheel.
A common method used to prevent the wheel from loading is
achieved by delivering a large amount of coolant to the grinding

M.J. Jackson et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 185 (2007) 1723

zone. However, this consumes huge amounts of energy in coolant

delivery, especially for high speed grinding processes. Maintaining and disposing of coolant is also an environmental issue and
the costs involved are substantial. Another method, which is
often used, is to remove loaded chip materials by dressing the
wheel periodically, to restore a sharp wheel surface. However,
dressing of grinding wheels with diamond not only causes excessive wheel loss but also interrupts grinding during dressing. In
addition, the dresser wears away with time due to its direct contact with the wheel surface. Frequent use of dressing wheels is
also not acceptable for super-abrasive wheels whose cost is considerably more than conventional grinding wheels. Lasers have
been successfully applied to material removal processes such as
laser cutting, and drilling. Laser cleaning techniques have been
used in removing pollution layers from valuable artifacts and
without damaging the delicate patina of the substrate [9]. This
suggests that a laser cleaning technique may provide a solution to
prevent or minimize wheel loading and maintain a sharp wheel
surface. Research on utilizing lasers to dress grinding wheel
surfaces has been reported [2,4,10]. The results demonstrated
that the use of a laser can be an option used in grinding wheel
dressing. However, laser dressing did not show a great advantage over conventional dressing. The possible reason is that a
high powered laser not only removes wheel bonding materials
but also damages the abrasive grains which then causes higher
grinding forces to occur and results in higher wheel wear. A
large degree of wheel wear is not acceptable for super-abrasive
grinding wheels. It should be noted that the research has also
pointed out that clogged chips can be removed through evaporation caused by laser radiation [2,4]. This suggests that a laser
cleaning technique may be used to prevent, or minimize, wheel
loading and maintain the sharp wheel surface created by techniques such as touch dressing. By continually irradiating the
loaded wheel surface with a particular degree of laser energy,
it is possible to remove clogged chips without deteriorating the
wheel surface.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
Chromium-doped alumina was selected as the abrasive grain material as
it is commonly used for grinding tough engineering materials such as microalloyed steels, and is used in a wide variety of industrial applications such as roll
grinding, camshaft grinding, crankshaft grinding, and other automotive component grinding operations [3]. The abrasive grains were bonded together in
the form of a cylindrical grinding wheel by mixing a bonding system with the
abrasive grains. The grains were coated in dextrin and mixed with water to form
a sticky, wet mass. The mass of bonding ingredients was pressed to shape at
a pre-determined density such that a porosity level of about 40% volume was
achieved. After manufacturing the wheels by firing the bond constituents in a
high temperature furnace, the wheels were graded as having a K-grade (medium
hardness), six-structure (relatively open wheel), and possessing a single grain
size of approximately 220 m diameter (60 mesh grain size). The relative proportions of grain, bonding system, and porosity, by volume were 50, 9.5, and
40.5, respectively. The workpiece materials to be ground during the grinding
experiments to test the effectiveness of laser dressing includes a number of steel
materials such as: high speed steels M1, M2, M15, M42, T1, T4, and T15; die
steels D2 and D3; oil-hardening steel O1; and a powder metallurgical material
known as ASP23.

19

Fig. 1. Arrangement of laser cleaning procedure.

2.2. Laser cleaning

A carbon dioxide laser was used to explore the effects of laser irradiation on
the surface of the grinding wheel and on clogged metal chips. The laser output
from the machine can be continuous wave, or pulsed. For the investigation of
the effects of laser energy transfer the pulsed output mode was used. As shown
in Fig. 1, a laser beam passes through a convex lens and irradiates a moving
grinding wheel surface. The wheel travel speed is 25.4 mm/s.
A focused laser with high power density will cut through the wheel removing
both cutting grains and clogged chips. Such a case can be considered as a laser
dressing procedure. For laser cleaning, however, the aim is for the laser beam to
remove clogged metal chips without damaging the wheel surface. This may be
achieved by controlling laser irradiation on the wheel surface.
Two important parameters noted in this study are the laser beam energy flux,
and the duration of laser irradiation. By adjusting the focal offset, l, between the
lens focus point and the wheel surface, the laser irradiation energy flux can be
controlled. A large focal offset will provide a large laser spot on the surface of
the wheel. Hence, the laser power flux will be lower.
Control of laser pulse duration and pulse frequency can also adjust the level of
laser irradiation power. Longer laser pulse durations and higher pulse frequencies
will impart more laser energy onto the wheel surface. Grinding wheel surfaces
were examined using a microscope.

2.3. Laser dressing

The edges of the grinding wheels were dressed with a laser using various
power intensities. A 2.5 kW Hobart continuous wave Nd:YAG laser equipped
with a fiber-optic beam delivery system was used for dressing the Al2 O3 grinding
wheel. The laser beam was focused at a height of 0.5 mm above the surface of
the wheel.
The lenses within the output-coupling module of the fiber optic delivery
system were configured to provide 3.5 mm 600 m line in spatial distribution
onto the sample surface. Such configuration provides rapid processing speed
and limits the overlap between laser strokes to 20%. Laser power intensities of
500, 750 and 1000 W were employed. Dressing of the entire surface was done
by scanning the laser beam in parallel tracks at a speed of 50 cm/min.
In order to analyze the dressed samples in detail using microstructural and
other techniques, small pieces were cut out of the dressed grinding wheel. A
slow speed diamond cutter was used for this purpose. Microstructural analysis of the samples was performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
To minimize charging during SEM analysis, a low vacuum (30 Pa air) was
maintained in the SEM chamber.

2.4. Grinding experiments

Grinding experiments were designed so as to replicate the conditions under
which bond fracture is the dominant mechanism of wear [11]. The method used
to measure wear of laser dressed grinding wheels was the razor blade method.
The method involves grinding a sample workpiece that is less narrow than the
workpiece material.
A groove is worn into the profile of the grinding wheel that was measured
with reference to the non-grinding portion of the wheel using the razor blade.
The blade was lowered into position with the grinding wheel just touching the
blade. The table was then traversed until the wear profile was replicated onto
the razor blade.

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M.J. Jackson et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 185 (2007) 1723

The wear parameter used for quantifying the effectiveness of the grinding
process is referred to as the grinding ratio (G-ratio)
G=

Vw
Vs

(3)

Eq. (3) is simply the ratio of the volume of the workpiece removed, Vw , and the
volume of the grinding wheel removed, Vs . To replicate the conditions of bond
fracture during grinding [11], the depth of cut was set at 10 m, and the machine
table and grinding wheel speeds set at 0.2 and 30 m/s, respectively.
The grinding system used for the experimental work was based on the
Abwood 5025 surface-grinding machine retrofitted to measure grinding temperature and forces using fast thermocouples and piezoelectric sensors. The
maximum spindle speed was rated at 3400 rpm with a maximum spindle power
of 10 kW.
Laser dressed samples were compared to conventionally dressed samples that
used a single point diamond dresser. The details of the conventional dressing
and grinding procedures are described by Jackson [12].

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Laser cleaning

Fig. 3. Grinding wheel surface after laser irradiation at the specified operating
conditions.

A grinding trial was carried out on a cutting tool grinding

machine to obtain a loaded wheel surface for further laser cleaning experiments. A vitrified grinding wheel was used to grind
samples of inconel. Fig. 2 shows inconel material (bright shaded
areas) attached to the surface of the grinding wheel after a sample
had been ground.
Grains of grinding wheel appear to be transparent using
reflected light. A selection of control parameters is used for
the laser cleaning experiments. Fig. 3 shows the effect of laser
cleaning on the loaded wheel surface, where laser pulse duration is 20 105 s and laser pulse frequency is 19.9 Hz. When
the laser is irradiated on the surface of the wheel, the metal
chips absorbed the laser energy and melted. The chips also possess a dark color due to oxidation. For the focal offset length of
l = 10 mm, most metal chips were melted by the laser beam and
the wheel material was not damaged.
However, a large chip could still be seen clogged in the wheel
surface. By shortening the focal offset distance to 5 mm, the
higher density laser power flux removed the chips but also damaged the wheel surface, as shown in Fig. 4. Results presented in
Figs. 3 and 4 indicate that effective laser cleaning can only be
achieved by applying a suitable laser power flux density.

The laser pulse frequency can also control the level of

laser irradiance. Fig. 5 shows that effective laser cleaning was
achieved when the laser pulse frequency was set to 98 Hz. The
molten chips became dark spheres, scattering under the surface,
and would tend to be expelled from the wheel when it was rotated
at high speed. This demonstrated that wheel cleaning could be
achieved through chip fusion and evaporation. However, when
the laser pulse frequency was increased to 192 Hz, damage to
the wheel surface material could clearly be seen, as shown in
Fig. 6. This means that too much energy was irradiated on to the
wheel surface.
Some interesting observations were discovered during the
experiments. Clogged chips remained in the wheel if a longer
laser pulse length was used but with a low power flux. This was
due to the fact that the heating process is gradual. The long pulse
duration could however, ultimately lead to a high overall temperature on the wheel surface, which may harm the structure of

Fig. 2. Enlarged view of the surface of a loaded grinding wheel.

Fig. 4. Damaged wheel surface after laser cleaning at the specified conditions.

M.J. Jackson et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 185 (2007) 1723

Fig. 5. Effective laser cleaning using an adequate laser power flux.

the wheel. Some metal chips clogged in surface of the wheel are
difficult to clean with low laser power flux, even using longer
pulse durations. Longer laser irradiation may cause wheel damage rather than contribute to chip removal. When a laser beam
irradiates the wheel surface, it may be regarded that energy flows
in one direction in a semi-infinite body. If there is no convection
or heat generation the basic equation shown by Eq. (1) is applicable. If it is assumed that the laser power flux input into the
wheel is q, with no radiant heat loss, or melting, then a solution
is shown using Eq. (2).
Eq. (2) indicates that both q and t contribute to the elevation
of the surface temperature. The depth to which laser energy penetrated into the wheel surface is constrained by the duration of
the laser irradiation. Increasing irradiation time will allow laser
energy to penetrate deeper into the wheel in order to raise the
wheels temperature. For the purpose of laser cleaning, higher
surface temperature rise is desirable for the chip removal. However, elevation of temperature under the wheel surface may
damage the wheel structure that should be prevented. There-

Fig. 6. Higher irradiation frequency provides more energy on the surface of the
grinding wheel.

21

fore, high power flux and short irradiation laser pulses are likely
to be required for laser cleaning purposes.
Chip fusion could play an important role in wheel cleaning.
The melting points of materials may provide an indication to
achieve effective cleaning. A nickel alloys melting point is less
than 1500 C while that of Al2 O3 is higher than 2000 C. This
indicates that there is a temperature range that allows chips to be
removed without damaging the wheel material. In addition to the
melting point, other differential factors relating to the interaction
of the laser beam with the constituent parts of the loaded wheel
should also be considered. The wheel grain, bonding material
and the embedded metal, in addition to their melting points, will
have other properties that vary between them. These properties
include optical reflectivity, thermal and optical conductivity, and
specific heats capacities. Understanding in detail how the laser
reacts to these variations can be exploited to optimize the cleaning process. Therefore, selection of correct parameters for laser
irradiation is very important for an effective and reliable cleaning
process.
3.2. Laser dressing
The dressed wheel surface has relatively large particles
(100150 m) with considerable porosity in between. The particles are irregular in shape with a few bonding bridges between
them. Within the range of laser power employed, the sample
surface underwent a transformation ranging from liquidsolid
to solidsolid. Depending upon the laser processing parameters
used, the high thermal energy produced during laser processing
caused melting and/or vaporization of the grinding wheel material on surface. Thus both melting (followed by re-solidification)
and/or vaporization resulted in modification of surface topography. The newly formed re-solidified layer had grains with a
modified geometry, and these grains are characterized by multifaceted surfaces. Also, it was observed that laser dressing
reduced the porosity on the region near to the surface of the
grinding wheel. Complete densification of the surface was not
observed, which is a desired feature of the surface of grinding
wheels. This is because the grinding grains at the surface of
wheel should break away once they become blunt, and expose
the sharp particles that are present immediately below the surface, thus maintaining a high grinding efficiency at all the times
(high G-ratio).
A wide distribution of the size of the grinding grains
was seen, but the shape of the grains appeared to be regular
or equi-axed with well-defined vertices and edges on each
grinding grain. The vertices and edges can provide excellent
cutting edges for improved grinding processes. Fig. 7 shows
one such multifaceted grain on the surface of the sample. A
change in the direction of dendritic growth can be seen across
the cutting edges and at the vertex. Owing to the fact that
the laser is a concentrated high-energy source, and that the
dressing process is fairly rapid, the solidification of the molten
material on the surface is extremely fast. This results from near
instantaneous solidification of molten material that produces
a structure that is distinctly observed on the surface of the
sample.

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M.J. Jackson et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 185 (2007) 1723

Fig. 7. Morphological features on the surface of a laser dressed grinding wheel

showing vertices and cutting edges.

Dendritic growth can be observed on the faces of the grinding

grains. The refinement in microstructure due to laser dressing is
not a characteristic feature of the surface alone. In fact, the refinement is on a much smaller scale in the layers below the surface.
Owing to the fact that laser induced dressing is a rapid solidification process; thermal stresses are generated in the sample
during dressing. These stresses are concentrated in the near-ridge
region, and the results of which show themselves as cracks in
the re-solidified layer. Different shapes of dendrites are present
in this near ridge region.
Detailed discussion of the interaction of the laser beam with
the ceramic grinding wheel has been reported in Refs. [13,14].
3.3. Grinding experiments for laser dressed wheels
Laser dressed grinding wheel samples were compared to
conventionally dressed grinding wheel structures. The workpiece materials selected for use in comparative experiments were
chosen on the basis of their ability to grind under the stated
experimental conditions, and to exploit the nature of the carbides contained within their structure. M1, M42, T1, and T4
were used to study the effects of cobalt on grinding ratio. M1,
M2, and M15 were used to study the effects of vanadium on
grinding ratio, whilst O1 and D3 are rich in chromium. The
effect of carbon content is not compared since it is purposely
controlled to allow the correct amount of complex carbides to
precipitate during heat treatment.
The presence of complex carbides had a significant effect on
grinding ratio. The quality and hardness of the carbide particles
can be classed as one of the most important factors in determining the grindability of tool steels. The combined effects of
complex carbides can be expressed linearly to give an abrasive
number, which is a weighted average of the Vickers hardness
numbers of the complex carbides contained in the workpiece.
Hence,

An = Vmatrix Hmatrix +
(Vcarbide Hcarbide )
(4)
Where Vmatrix is the volume of the matrix structure, Hmatrix the
hardness of the matrix structure, Vcarbide the volume of the car-

Fig. 8. Grinding ratio as a function of abrasive number for tool steel workpiece
materials.

bides in the matrix, and Hcarbide is the hardness of the carbides

in the matrix. The characteristics of the complex carbides in the
workpiece materials are contained in Ref. [12]. Fig. 8 shows the
comparative relationship between grinding ratio and abrasive
number for diamond dressed and laser dressed grinding wheels.
It can be seen that there is little difference in the way both wheels
perform after dressing. From the results, it is clear that the effect
of carbide content on grinding ratio has a more pronounced
effect, although the mechanisms of grinding wheel wear are
rather different when using optical energy to re-structure the
grinding wheel rather than using diamond.
It was observed that vitrified bonding bridge appearance and
failure was markedly different in laser dressed grinding wheel
samples than in conventionally dressed samples. Traditional vitrified bonding bridges are glassy structures that separate abrasive
grains with a pronounced meniscus. Laser processed bonding
bridges are replaced by blocky-shaped bonding bridges that are
crystalline in nature but appear to possess such strength as to
release abrasive grains at the same rate as conventionally dressed
grinding wheels. Observations of the type of grinding wheel
wear at high and low laser intensities appear to produce a wide
variety of possibilities. In terms of bond bridge failure, low intensities tend to produce traditional fracture patterns in bond bridges
(i.e. mirror, mist, and hackle patterns), whereas at high intensities the crystalline and blocky nature of the bonding between
abrasive grains allows the grains to be held in place until the
grain is dislodged due to crystal plane fracture in the blocky
bonding bridge.
The mechanism of grain fracture is a little more complicated
to explain as it is not clear what is causing grain fracture to
occur in some grinding wheel samples and not in others, at both
high and low intensity levels. The lack of clarity is interesting
as it appears to reveal itself as subtle changes in the grinding
ratio, as shown in Fig. 8. The lower grinding ratio values are

M.J. Jackson et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 185 (2007) 1723

dominated by bond bridge failure, whilst higher grinding ratios

appear to be governed by abrasive grain fracture, which is the
preferred mode of wear of grinding wheels from an economic
viewpoint.
4. Conclusion
A feasibility study has been carried out to investigate the
application of laser cleaning technology to the grinding process. By irradiating a laser beam on to the surface of a loaded
grinding wheel using carefully selected control parameters, it
is possible to remove clogged metal chips without deteriorating the wheels cutting surface. Both fusion and evaporation
of chips are important for the laser cleaning process. Suitable
laser parameters are identified and it was suggested that high
power flux and short irradiation laser pulses would be ideal
for laser cleaning. The application of high power lasers can
be developed into an important dressing tool, if the processing
parameters are precisely controlled. The study so far gives very
strong indication towards this, as a refinement in the microstructure is seen immediately after laser dressing. Cutting efficiency
is increased as a result of the formation of sharp points on the
surface of grinding grains, possessing a multifaceted structure
with individual cutting edges on them. The nature of bonding
between grinding grains after laser dressing allows the grains
to adhere to the surface just long enough so that, after loosing their cutting efficiency, they appear to become detached
from the surface of the grinding wheel and expose new sharp
particles below them. X-ray analysis indicates that strong texture formation on the surface of the grinding wheel occurs
after laser dressing. In some cases even dual texturing effects
were observed. Laser processing has a very prominent effect on
the morphological structure of the surface of alumina grinding
wheels.

23

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