Process design of the patterning process of profile grinding wheels

Abstract

In production environment, grinding is often the last step along the process chain. At this step, the main share of the value chain is already manufactured. Correspondingly, the process result of this step directly influences the product quality. Thus, the avoidance of process induced damages is a major challenge in grinding. The major limiting factor in grinding is the thermal load on the workpiece, which leads to grinding burn and tensile residual stresses. This thermal load can be reduced, as previous fundamental studies have shown, by means of using microstructured grinding wheels. In this paper, the patterning process of profile grinding wheels is investigated with regard to the resulting geometry and the resulting grinding wheel topography. In detail, an analytical model is established and evaluated that enables a design of the patterning process of profile grinding wheels. The presented formulas describe the local depth and width of a pattern over its length of engagement. The influence of the inclination angle of the patterning tool and the profile angle of the grinding wheel on the resulting width and length of one pattern is investigated. Further influencing parameters on the size of a pattern that are investigated are e.g. the radius of the grinding wheel, the radius of the patterning tool, the corner radius of the patterning edge and the speed ratio between the grinding wheel and the patterning tool. In addition, grinding experiments were conducted to validate the process design. The results show a high correlation between the calculated and the resulting patterns on the grinding wheel as well as that a decrease in cutting forces can be achieved by this approach. When maintaining the workpiece and grinding wheel load, the productivity of the profile grinding process can be increased in this way.