9 Grinding: Fast Machining and

Finishing by Bonded Abrasives

Learning Objectives
The contents of this chapter would enable the readers to:
" Be conversant with the main purposes, basic
principle and different methods of grinding.
Visualize the relative positioning of the grind
ing wheel and the blank, and their motions
in various methods of grinding.
Be aware of various applications of grinding
in the industries.
Classify and specify grinding wheels based
on material, structure and strength, and
select appropriate wheel as per requirement.
Categorize the grinding chips and the modes
of such chip formation in grinding under
various conditions.
Identify the significant parameter and their
roles on uncut chip thickness, grinding forces
and specific energy requirement in grinding
Estimate grinding forces and temperature
under different working conditions.
To know what is grindability and learn how to
improve it using special techniques.
" Be conversant with the advanced grinding
technologies and their unique characteristics.
Be aware of selection and employ the super
finishing techniques.

9.1 Introduction
Alarge section of engineering components need very high form and dimensional accuracy as well as very
good surface finish, which normally are not possible by conventional machining by cutting tools at desirably
igh material removal rate(MRR). In such cases, grindingoperations are needed. Besides chat, hardor essen
tialy hardened merals, especially steels, cannot be finished by machining but are easily done by grinding:
In grinding, the work material is removed in the form of microchips by the hard and sharp abrasivegrits
being strongly held in the circular wheels by suitable bond material. Grinding is generally characterized by
randomly distributed innumerable abrasives and very high cutting velocity. However, unlike machining,
grinding requires more specific energy and produces much higher cutting zone temperature.
Dierent types of grinding wheelsand grinding machines have been developed and are used, with proper
eetion, for various grinding applications. The concerned people should know the cassificarion of such
Wheels, processes and machines and their applications. The general configurations, construction, designa
don, selection and the methods of mounting and use of various grinding wheels are also important aspects.
330 Machining and Machine Tools

formation under different grindin

It is necessary to understand the mechanisms and modes of chip
conditions. To employ grinding efficiently and economically through improvement in grindability, adequate
knowledge of mechanics and temperature of grinding are essential.
Grinding is inherently associated with some acute problems such as wheel loading, high cutting
Several remedial measures have also coro
temperature and its detrimental eftects and rapid wheel wear.
the chronological
up. For general awareness and benefit of the readers, researchers and practicing engineers,
exploited. Some special
developments in grinding technology in several directions need to be studied and improvement of overall
techniques have been developed to overcome the acute problems in grinding and
grindability of both conventional and exotic materials.
their better
Some engineering components such as cngine blocks (bore), spindles, bearings, etc. need, for
performance and durability, super-finishing even after fine machining, boring, broaching and grinding.
Different methods of super-inishing are used in industries; the appropriate method and proper level of the
procesS parameters are carefully selected according to specific requirements.

9.2 Basic Principles, Methods and Applications of Grinding

9.2.1 Basic Principle and Various Methods of Grinding
Grinding is a well-known process in manufacturing and is widely employed mainly for finishing jobs of
metals, alloys, carbides, ceramics, metal matrix composites, ceramic matrix composites, etc. wich high dimen
sional accuracy, surface fnish and form accuracy. Grinding can as well be employed for form machining and
stock or bulk material removal.
Hard and sharp-edged abrasive grits are used for material removal by two ways: (a) jet of loose abrasives
in abrasive jet machining and (b) being strongiy embedded in hard matrix in the form of wheel or disc. In
grinding, the work material is removed in the form of microchips by the sharp abrasive grits held in the whel
by bond material. The material removal process is a combination of shearing, ploughing, rubbing, etc.
In grinding, generally the abrasive grits do not possess any definite shape as in the case of cutters tor
machining operation. The statistical average rake angle of abrasive grits held in agrinding wheel tends to be
highly negative (-60).To minimize the effect of high negative rake, the cutting speed (often termed as grind
ing velocity or wheel speed) is kept very high as compared to machining, For conventional grinding wheels,
the grinding velocity can be as hih as 50 m/s for steel components.
The grinding wheel rotates at high speed to achieve the high grinding velocity. The workpiece either
reciprocates or rotates in contact with the wheel. The speed of reciprocation or rotation of the workpiece S
much less as compared to the grinding velocity and is generally around 10-20 m/min for conventional grind
ing wheel and steel as work material. The amount of engagement between the workpiece and the whee
is known as infeed. Infeed in grinding is typically verysmall and is in the range of 2-50 um in the case of
Surface grinding of steel with conventional wheels. The main purposes of grinding are
1. Dimensional accuracy.
2. Good form and positioning accuracy.
3. Good surface finish.
4. Shaping and finishing objects of harder materials.
Figure 9.1 shows atypical method of grinding and scheme of removal of chips. The general methods of grind-
ing includell.2)
 Grinding: Fast Machining and Finishing by Bonded Abrasives 337

Supporting roll A
Pressure roll

Fiqure 9.14 Internal centreless grinding. Here is grinding wheel rotation,B is workpiece rotation
and C is wheel axial travel.

complex geometry like milling cuter, drills, reamers and hobs require proper grinding machine commonly
known as universal tool and cutter grinder. Present trend is to use tool and cutter grinder equipped with
computer numerical control (CNC) to grind tool angles, with high precision.

2.2 Difference Between Machining and Grinding

Grinding is basically amachining process and is generally used to impart high dimensional and form accuracy
and desirably good surface inish to the products. However, there are certain differences between machining
and grinding such as:
l. Grinding is considered as abrasive milling where thousands of abrasive particles are dispersed in a
matrix such as vitrified, resin, rubber, metals, etc. or embedded on the surfaces of merallic discs.
Ihese particles cause material removal by their small sharp tips and edges while high speed moving
past the work surface.
2,
lhe size, shape, spacing and geometry of the grinding abrasives randomly and widely vary unlike in
cutting tools.
Ihe cutting velocityin grinding is kept 20 to 60 times higher than that in machining for:
(a) Reducing the overall cutting forces.
D) Reducing chip load and force per tooth (gric) to achieve good surface finish and longer lite of
the working abrasives.
4.
Unlike in cutting dislodgement of few abrasives or grits out of thousands does not
tools, damage or
5 Practically hamper the performance of the grinding wheel.
Auto-sharpening of matrix bonded type wheels.
Grinding of agiven material requires more (10-20times) specific energy to remove unit volume of
ok material due to unfavourable geometry (e.g., large negative rake, in average -40° to -60°) of
7 he grit tips and additional rubbing action.
Unike conventional machining grinding works effectively and efficiently almost irrespective of
strength and toughness of the work material.
 Grinding: Fast Machining and Finishing by Bonded Abrasives 345

As grinding wheels rotate at a high speed to attain high peripheral surface speed (grinding velocity), any
unbalance in the wheel may lead to machine vibration, poor product quality, catastrophic wheel failure,
machine damage, etc. Therefore, it is essential to balance wheels and to avoid ecentricity, non-uniformity,
out-of-roundness, wrong mounting, etc. After mounting the wheel on the spindle both conventional and
Suner-abrasive wheels are trued to remove eccentricity and out-of-roundness and to impart desired profile
for form grinding. Dressing is a process of opening up the wheel, that is, exposing new sharp grits by
removing old, dullgrits and accumulated chip materials require truing and dressing with the exception of
electroplated super-abrasive wheels (generally monolayer wheels of any construction). Truing and dressing
are performed by
1. Single-point diamond dresser.
2. Multi-point diamond dresser.
3. Stationary or rotary diamond rolls.
4. Brake controlled dressing unit with vitrified green (friable and purer) silicon carbide wheels (mainly
for super-abrasive wheels).
5. Metal crusher (rool post grinding wheel).
6. Diamond block dressing (profile grinding wheels).
7. Abrasive sticks and wheels (for super-abrasive resinoid wheel running-in period).
The major parameters governing the dresing process are:
1. The lead of the dresser (i.e., the velocity of the dresser across the wheel).
2. The wheel speed.
3. The depth of dressing.
4. Number of passes.
5. The environment.
6. Surface speed of rotating dresser (brake controlled dressing).

9.5 Mechanism and Mechanics of Grinding

9.5.1 Similarity of Grinding with Plain Milling
9.17 shows
The basic principle of material removal in grinding is very similar to that in machining. Figure
how material removal is caused by the tiny cutting edges in a typical grinding process (surface grinding).

Wheel V
Abrasive Bond
grain
Grinding
Workpiece Chip
-Vw
Workpiece

Figure 9.17 Material removal by abrasives in grinding.

 Grinding: Fast Machiing and Finishing by Bonded Abrasives 347

Here, mis the number of cutting edges per unit length along the cutting periphery. We will later show that
che expression for average uncut chip thickness produced by single grit in surface grinding is very similar to
this expression for milling. The expression for average uncut chip thickness (, per grit in surface grinding
under ideal condition (shearing) comes up to
|d (9.8)
Tavg

where V, is the surface (cuting) velocity of the wheel; v, is the surface (feed) velocity of the job; dis the depth
of cut; D, is the diameter of the grinding wheel; mis the number grits per unit length on the wheel periphery.
Equations (9.7) and (9.8) reveal the closeness of material removal actions in plain milling and grinding.

9.5.2 Mechanism of Material Removal in Grinding

The mode and mechanism of chip formation in conventional machining are quite simple and systematic for
well-defined and favourable tool geometry. However, in grinding, the spacing and geometry of cuting edges
are much unfavourable and vary randomly, which complicates the mode of chip formation. The rake angle in
grinding generally varieswithin - 30° and- 75°. In grinding, material removal is accomplished in diferent
modes in different apportionment as follows:
Shearing [Fig. 9.19(a)]: The mode of chip formation is similar to that found in other machining
processes like turning, milling, etc. with the only difference that the chips are microscopic in size.
These chips consist of fine lamellar structure.
2 Ploughing [Fig. 9.19(b)]: In ploughing, chips are produced by sidewise displacement of work mate
rial by abrasive grits mainly due to pyramidal shape and high negative rakes of the abrasive grits. The
chips produced by ploughing are generally leafy in appearance.
3. Rubbing (Fig. 9.19)]: Two diferent modes of rubbing have been identificd-primary and second
ary rubbing. In primary rubbing the tip of the abrasive grain rubs against the work material along the
grit path until the local grit depth or chip thickness reaches a critical depth. Secondary rubbing is the
rubbing of wear Alats with the work material. It occurs along the entire grit path of motion. Rubbing
produces fine wear debris as well as blocky microsized irregular chip partiles.

Abrasive grains

Chip

Chips
Workpiece

Wear flat

(End view) (Side view)

(Side view)
(a (b) (c)

Figure 9.19 Major modes of chip formation in grinding: (a) Shearing, (b) ploughing and (c) rubbing.
348 Machining and Machine Tools

Fracturing and crushing: This mode of chip formation occurs in grinding brittle materials such as
fractured debris for brittle
ceramic, carbides, etc. where the chips are produced as fine powders of
fracture of the work material ahead the grit.
5. presence of spherical chips.
Spherical chip formation: Inspection of grinding debris (swarf) revealschips
These chips are produced because of oxidation and burning of smaller while leaving the grind
entering the atmosphere
ing zone. Chip particles at high temperature leaving the grinding zone andtake near-spherical shape.
would tend to oxidize and melt. During such oxidation or melting they reten
Generally, super-abrasive wheels provide less rubbing and ploughing due to sharper grits and
tion of sharpness of the grits during grinding.
Figure 9.19 shows different chip morphologies. Among the aforesaid modes, shearing the is ideal and next to that
wheel-job motions
is ploughing. Rest of the modes are unfavourable. Figure 9.20 schematically shows at its periphery travels
and the way of material removal in cylindrical grinding. In this figure, while the wheel
from point P to R, the job at its periphery advances from point R to S. Therefore,
PR RS
(9.9)

where V is the grinding velocity (m/s) and ., is the work feed (m/s). Again, from Fig. 9.20, the maximum
total uncut chip thickness SUcan be expressed as
SU = RS sin(0 + )
Let mbe the number of grits per unit length on the wheel periphery. Then the total number of grits, in arow,
engaged () are
N=m PR

Sa d
cut, depth,
of
depth of
cut
Grain Radial
Grinding wheel
Rq -

Workpiece Rw

(a)
(b)
Figure 9.20 Material removal by grits in
grinding.