Introduction
Material Removal
Mechanisms
Indentation tests
• With the help of so-called indentation tests with
singular cutting edges, the material behavior to a
static stress can be observed without the
influence of the movement components typical
for grinding.
• On the basis of these indentation tests, elastic
and plastic behavior as well as crack formation
can be observed in the case of brittle-hard
materials at the moment the cutting edge
penetrates the material.
• In the case of grinding, the investigation of removal
mechanisms is ccomplicated due to many different factors.
• The surface formation is the sum of these interdependent
cutting edge engagements, which are distributed
stochastically
• Analogy tests and theoretical considerations on the basis of
the results of physical and chemical investigations are used for
this purpose.
• In the past few years, chip and surface formation have been
modeled with the help of high-performance computers and
enhanced simulation processes.
Scratch tests
• the investigation of the removal mechanisms
during scratching with single cutting edges,
which allows the accurate examination of the
geometry and the wear of the cutting edges .
• there is chip formation during this test
method. Furthermore, the influence of
different cooling lubricants can be
investigated.
 Cutting edge geometry
• A further prerequisite of a comprehensive
understanding of the material removal during
grinding is the geometrical specification of the
single cutting edges.
• This mainly takes place in analogy to the
geometrical relations at geometrically defined
cutting edges.
Surface modification
• As a result of the removal mechanisms, the
subsurface of the machined workpiece is
influenced by the grinding wheel due to the
mechanical stress.
• Residual stresses
Thermal and mechanical properties
• The thermal and mechanical characteristics of
the active partners of the grinding process
also have a significant influence. Heat is
generated in the working zone through
friction. This contact zone temperature
influences the mechanical characteristics of
the workpiece as well as of the tool.
DETERMINATION OF GRINDING
WHEEL TOPOGRAPHY
• Static methods : All abrasive grains on the surface of
the grinding tool are considered .The kinematics of the
grinding process is not taken into account.
• Dynamic methods : In this process, the number of
actual abrasive grain engagements are measured.
• Kinematic methods :combine the effects of the
kinematics of the process with the statically
determined grain distribution for the specification of
microkinematics at the single grain, that is, for the
determination of cutting parameters
 STATIC METHODS
• Static processes are independent of the
grinding conditions
DYNAMIC METHODS
• In contrast to static methods, dynamic
methods depend on the grinding conditions.
STATIC METHODS
• the distance between the static cutting edges
does not correspond to the average statistical
grain separation on the grinding wheel.
• the number of cutting edges is specified per unit
length, that is, the static cutting edge number
Sstat ,
• the cutting edge density per surface unit Nstat
• the number per unit volume of the cutting area
Cstat
• The number and density of the active cutting
edges Sact and Cact are therefore smaller than
those of the static cutting edges parameters .
• As a result of constant wheel wear and of the
consequent topography changes of the wheel,
the cutting edge density has continually
changing values.
 KINEMATIC
SIMULATION METHODS
• the process kinematics is additionally taken
into account for the specification of the
effective cutting area.

ROUGHNESS MEASURES QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT

• Various surface parameters, Rz, Rk, Rvk, and • SEM, optical, and stereo-microscopic images
Rpk, are available as measures of topography are used for the qualitative evaluation of
and, in particular, the maximum profile wear processes
height, Rp, is useful due to its integrating
character for the specification of the grinding
wheel topography .
• A further value derived from static methods is
the static cutting edge number per length .

COUNTING METHODS
• Microscopic processes can, however, also be
used to make quantitative statements on the
state of the grinding wheel effective area. For
this purpose, grains or different wear
characteristics were statically counted.
• The measurements are either carried out
directly on the grinding wheel surface or
indirectly on a print of the surface
PHOTOELECTRIC METHOD
• based on light reflected by the cutting area
and collected using a radiation detector .
• In this method, the scattered light
distribution and the duration and number of
light impulses in the direction of the regular
direct reflection are evaluated
Piezoelectric and thermoelectric
measurement
• are based on the measurement of force
signals or temperature peaks of single active
cutting edges.
• The piezoelectric process is only applicable for
small contact surfaces, since it has to be
ensured that no more than one cutting edge is
engaged in the contact zone at any time.
• Small samples of a width of circa 0.3 mm are
ground with relatively small feed.
MIRROR WORKPIECE METHOD
• For this purpose, a mirroring workpiece
angled diagonally to the grinding direction is
ground once. Counting the scratch marks, a
conclusion can be drawn to the number of
active cutting edges per unit surface area.
 KINEMATICS OF THE CUTTING EDGE
WORKPIECE PENETRATION ENGAGEMENT
METHOD • The most important grinding parameters are
• the penetration of a thin steel plate or a the geometric contact length, lg, chip length,
stationary workpiece by the effective area of lcu, and the chip thickness, hcu.
the grinding wheel.
• The roughnesses of the test pieces are called
specific surface roughness Rtb, end surface
roughness,Rtaus, or effective surface
roughness,Rtw
• These processes are suitable for a comparative assessment of the cutting
edge topographies. It is, however, not possible to make any statements on
the shape and number of cutting edges

• Neglecting the elastic deformation of the • The movement of the wheel relative to the
active partners of the grinding process, the workpiece is put in related to the speed
grinding wheel penetrates the workpiece with quotient q. In up-grinding, it is negative:
the real depth of cut,ae. The arc contact
length is defined by the geometric contact
length,lg
• In peripheral grinding with rotating grinding tools,
the cutting edges move on orthocycloidal paths due
to the interference of the speed components.

• The cutting edge engagement and the resulting uncut chip

parameters depend on the statistical average of the cutting
edges distributed on the grinding tool.

• On the basis of these values, a theoretical assessment can be

made of the grinding process. There is a direct relation
between the cutting parameters and the resulting surface
quality.
FUNDAMENTAL REMOVAL
• The cutting process is not a simple geometric process; there
MECHANISMS
are also plastic and elastoplastic processes in real grinding so
that chip formation is different from the geometric theory. It
is for this reason that experiments are indispensable to gain
knowledge and understanding about the material removal
mechanisms.
 MICROPLOWING
• The removal process during the engagement
of an abrasive cutting edge on the surface of
a workpiece mainly depends on the physical
properties between the active partners.
• A basic distinction can be made between
three different mechanisms: microplowing,
microchipping, and microbreaking.

MICROPLOWING
• In microplowing, there is a continual plastic,
or elastoplastic, material deformation toward
the trace border with negligible material loss.
microchipping
• Ideal microchipping provokes chip formation. The
chip volume equals the volume of the evolving
trace.
• Microplowing and microchipping mainly occur
during the machining of ductile materials.
• The relation between microplowing and
microcutting basically depends on the prevailing
conditions such as the matching of the active
partners of the grinding process, grinding
parameters, and cutting edge geometry.
 MATERIAL REMOVAL IN GRINDING OF
Microbreaking
DUCTILE MATERIALS
• Microbreaking occurs in case of crack
formation and spreading.
• The volume of a chip removed can be several
times higher than the volume of the trace.
• Microbreaking mostly occurs during the
machining of brittle-hard materials such as
glass, ceramics, and silicon.

Stephens [1983].
 SURFACE FORMATION IN GRINDING
OF BRITTLE-HARD MATERIALS
• INDENTATION TESTS
• The stressing of a ceramic surface with a
cutting edge causes hydrostatic compression
stress around a core area in the subsurface of
the workpiece. This leads to a plastic
deformation of the material

SCRATCH AND GRINDING BEHAVIOR

OF BRITTLE-HARD MATERIALS
• Despite the low ductility, elastoplastic
deformations occur as removal mechanisms
alongside brittle fracture during the grinding
of brittle-hard materials .
• Thereby, material removal through brittle
fracture is based on the induction of
microcracks.
 Ductile behavior of brittle-hard
Fine-Grained Materials
materials
• Ductile behavior of brittle-hard materials during
grinding can be derived from the presumption
that, below a threshold of boundary chip
thickness defined by a critical stress, the
converted energy is insufficient for crack
formation and the material is plastically
deformed.
• The transition from mainly ductile material
removal to brittle friction is decisively determined
by uncut chip thickness at the single grain by
grain shape and by material properties.

Coarse-Grained Materials
• A sharp diamond plastically divides the grains in the structure
under high energy input .
• A sharp diamond plastically divides the grains in the structure
under high energy input.With increasing infeed cracks
develop mainly along the grain boundary.
Surface formation can be divided into three types of
mechanisms:
• Primary mechanisms, which act during the
penetration of the cutting edges into the material
• Secondary mechanisms, which occur through the
discharge by the first cutting edge and the multiple
stress by successive cutting edges
• Tertiary mechanisms, which prevent the spread of
cracks in the case of materials with a high glass
phase ratio.
 the machining of glass

• Monocrystal silicon is the most frequently

applied substrate material in microsystems
technology.
• However, machining wafers induce damage in
the subsurface and its monocrystal structure.

subsurface
• In grinding, surface formation mechanisms • The mode, size, and shape of the subsurface
can be classified as ductile and brittle microcrack system depend on the induced
mechanisms. contact stresses during the engagement of the
• In brittle surface formation, microcracks and abrasive grain.
microcrack spread are generated in the
subsurface by tensile stresses caused by the
engagement of the abrasive grains of the
grinding wheel into the surface of the wafer
 ENERGY TRANSFORMATION
• External friction processes between abrasive
grain and workpiece surface as well as
between chip and abrasive grain are partly
responsible for the heat development during
grinding.
• However, heat also develops as a result of
internal friction through displacement
processes and plastic deformations [Grof
1977, Lowin 1980, Marinescu et al. 2004].

• Heat development and heat flow during the grinding of

brittle-hard materials differ decisively from the process in the
machining of ductile materials