Dressing of Coarse-Grained Diamond Wheels for Ductile Machining of Brittle Materials
D. Grimme1, K. Rickens1, Q. Zhao2, C. Heinzel1
1
University of Bremen, Laboratory for Precision Machining, 2Harbin Institute of Technology, Center for Precision Engineering
Keywords: Dressing, Ductile Machining, Diamond Grinding Wheels
Abstract
Grinding of large optical components in ductile mode with
high form accuracy and low subsurface damage is difficult to
achieve with fine grained diamond grinding wheels due to
wheel wear and the necessity of recurrent dressing. An
advanced high precision conditioning method for
electroplated coarse-grained diamond grinding wheels for
grinding large optical components in optical quality without
recurrent dressing is proposed in this paper. This method is
used to truncate the tips of each diamond grain on the
periphery of the grinding wheel generating a uniform
envelope. Therefore a bronze bond diamond cup wheel was
applied. Since rapid glazing of the cup wheel occurs during
the conditioning process, either the electrolytic in-process
dressing technique (ELID) [1] is used or an alumina oxide
stick is applied intermittently for dressing the conditioning
wheel.
1 Introduction
Ductile grinding of brittle materials to achieve mirror-like
surfaces with low subsurface damage is typically realized by
using fine-grained resin bonded diamond grinding wheels.
However, these wheels exhibit certain disadvantages e.g.
high wear rate, which limits the achievable figure accuracy
and low material removal volume, especially in case of
ductile grinding of large optical surfaces. To solve these
problems, a new diamond wheel type is applied with a
coarse grit size. These monolayer nickel electroplated
coarse-grained diamond grinding wheels with grain sizes of
approximately 100 —m are conditioned with an advanced
technique to meet the high demands of form accuracy,
surface quality and low subsurface damage in grinding of
large optical components.
Kanai et al. [2] proposed a new design of diamond
wheels with mono-crystalline, columnar diamonds co-
linearly aligned.
Brinksmeier et al. [3, 4] have proposed a conditioning
technique for coarse-grained electroplated diamond wheels
using a diamond cup wheel as a dressing tool. Finally a
radial run-out error of less than 2 —m was achieved and
ductile mode taper grinding was realized on optical glasses.
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One problem in manufacturing electroplated nickel diamond
wheels is the grain homogeneity of grain concentration and
grain protrusion height.
Wakuda et al. [5] have proposed a truncating method to
dress a coarse-grained CBN wheel in grinding hardened steel
and a mirror-like surface with Ra 0.05 —m was obtained.
T. W. Hwang et al. [6, 7, 8] have used unconditioned
electroplated diamond wheels for high speed grinding of
silicon nitride and the occuring wheel wear, wheel life,
wheel topography and grinding mechanism were
investigated. However, there have been no reports so far of
the successful application of coarse-grained diamond wheels
on ductile contour grinding of optical glasses.
In this research, a conditioning technique integrated with
an in-situ wheel run-out monitoring system was successfully
developed to condition precisely and efficiently a monolayer
nickel electroplated coarse-grained diamond wheel. To
determine the applicability of these conditioned grinding
wheels grinding experiments on BK7 glass and a PVD-
TiNiN coating were carried out.
3. Experimental Setup
The general experimental setup is shown in figure 1. The
ultra-precision machine tool, used in this investigation,
shows 3 hydrostatic linear axes with nanometric resolution
and two aerostatic rotary axes. In order to achieve an
efficient conditioning process the conditioning diamond
bronze bonded cup wheel and the electroplated diamond
grinding wheel rotate in counter direction.
For the conditioning process a speed ratio of qd = -0.2
was applied. The applied general depth of cut aed (infeed of
the conditioning wheel in Z direction) was 1 —m ÷ 2 —m and
the feed rate vfd (feed speed of conditioned grinding wheel in
X direction) was 5 mm/min.
During the conditioning process, the conditioned
grinding wheel surface status was monitored in-situ by a
coaxial optical distance measurement system with a
sampling rate of about 100 Hz. During the runout
measurement the grinding wheel rotated with approx. 4 rpm,
while dressing the wheel rotated with 3800 rpm (vcd =
15 m/s). For every 40 —m interval of dressing infeed aed in Z
direction three run-out error measurements at different
locations on the wheel peripheral envelope were conducted.
 D. Grimme, K. Rickens, Q. Zhao, C. Heinzel

Fig. 2. Wheel run-out error improvement and wheel surface

topography before and after a conditioning and electrolytic
dressing

During conditioning of the grinding wheels the grain tips are

Fig. 1. Experimental setup of the conditioning process truncated and the bearing ratio of the grinding wheel
topography increases (figure 3). The improvement of the
bearing ratio (defined as the ratio of the area of flattened
grain surface relating to the whole wheel surface) of the
The corresponding wheel surface topography was replicated coarse diamond grains was analysed on identical diamond
to investigate the dressing improvement during the grains. As the conditioning process proceeds, the bearing
conditioning process. A 3-channel dynamometer was used to ratio increases from 0% to about 40%.
monitor, both, conditioning and grinding forces. A white
light interferometer (WLI) and a precision profilometer were
applied to measure the ground surface quality. A large
chamber scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to
monitor the diamond grain status of the conditioned grinding
wheel; the replica (resin replica duplicated by vinyl
polysiloxane impression material) of the conditioned
grinding wheel surface morphology were documented by
SEM.

4. Experimental Results and Discussion

Figure 2 shows the improvement of the grinding wheel

runout error and the corresponding wheel surface topography
before and after conditioning with a 91 —m conditioning cup
wheel and an overall dressing infeed aed = 200 —m. As the
conditioning process went on the wheel run-out error
decreased from about 18 —m to 1—m-2 —m. There are
different initial run-out-errors distributed alongside the
wheel peripheral envelope not only due to the wheel core
manufacturing error, but also due to the uneven electroplated
nickel layer thickness in wheel axial direction, resulting in
different material removal rate and, hence, different
convergent velocities of wheel run-out errors.
With regard to the improvement of the coarse diamond
grain topography during the conditioning process (figure 2),
it can be seen that there are no flattened grains before the
conditioning process. As the conditioning process proceeds,
more and more diamond grains were contacted and truncated
resulting in flattened grains tops, and hence, the average
grain protrusion height was decreased and the numbers of
active grains were increased. After the conditioning process
the diamond grinding wheel is dressed with an ELID-process
for enhancement of the diamond grain protrusion height.
Fig. 3. Bearing ratio of the diamond grinding wheel during
the conditioning process
The change of dressing forces in terms of normal force Fnd
and tangential force Ftd, as well as the dressing force ratio
—d= Ftd\Fnd as a function of infeed in Z direction is shown in
figure 4. As the infeed increases both, Fnd and Ftd, increase
accordingly in different slope
The dressing force ratio —d = Ftd\Fnd decreases from 0.35
to 0.25 when the conditioning was finished. This was caused
by the increasing of grain surface bearing ratio. More
flattened grain surfaces were generated on the grinding
wheel and thereby the contacting area between diamond
grains was increased, resulting in larger normal forces and
tangential forces. However, the tangential force did not
increase in the same slope as the normal force.

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 Dressing of Coarse-Grained Diamond Wheels for Ductile Machining of Brittle Materials
Fig. 4. Dressing forces Fnd and Ftd and resulting force ratio
—d
Generally, the wear mechanisms of abrasive particles are
classified into the following 3 patterns: attrition, fracture and
pullout. It can be seen from SEM photos (figure 2, right) that
all diamond grains were smoothly flattened which can be
associated with attrition wear mechanism. However, there
are still some small fractures and cleavages present at the
sides and edges of the diamond grains which are mainly
attributed to the unique truncating process among super
abrasives, as well as the anisotropic characteristics of the
diamond grains. No grain pullout occurred.
Grinding BK7 glass in ductile mode is possible applying
these conditioned coarse grained wheels, which is verified
by regular grinding marks imprinted from the wheels profile,
whereas the extreme brittle PVD-TiNiN hard coating could
only be machined partially in ductile mode, see figure 5.
The grinding wheel with a grain size of 91 ȝm can
generate a surface roughness of about 18 nm Ra on BK7,
measured with a white light interferometer. The grinding
mark features low frequency with a small amplitude value in
normal direction and no wheel wear could be detected in this
investigation.
Fig. 5. Surface measurement of ground BK7 glass (WLI)
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5. Conclusion
The newly developed conditioning technique applying ELID
to dress the conditioning wheel is practical to generate
minimized wheel run-out errors as well as constant grain
protrusion heights and consequently a uniform peripheral
envelope. This technique was proved to be applicable and
feasible in conditioning electroplated monolayer coarse-
grained diamond grinding wheels. It is also shown that the
optical measurement system is also feasible to monitor and
evaluate the improvement of the conditioning process. With
such dressed grinding wheels it is possible to grind optical
glass in ductile mode without high wheel wear.
Aknowledgement
The results presented in this paper were partially achieved
within the transregional collaborative research center
SFB/TR4 “Process chains for replication of complex optical
components”, funded by the Deutsche Forschungs-
gemeinschaft (DFG). The authors express their sincere
thanks to the DFG.
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