Fig.

34 Comparison of truing forces in the nib truing and rotary truing of CB100WBA wheel

Commercially available rotary powered truing devices are versatile to use. They also generate low truing forces, offer
consistent results, and are easily automated. Wheels with a straight face or simple forms can be trued with a traversing
diamond rotary cutter or a rotary cup; plunge truing with a diamond roll can also be used.

Form Truing. Complex form wheels can be trued by plunge truing with diamond rolls or crush truing methods (Fig.
33c). Another method of truing form wheels is the use of a thin rotary cutter (considerably thinner than the wheel width).
This rotary cutter can be traversed across the wheel profile with a mechanical arrangement that generates the wheel
profile, for example, using a form bar or a CNC-controlled form generator. Cubic boron nitride form wheels have been
successfully trued with this approach in order to generate simple radius or complex profiles.

Wheel Truing Objectives for Superabrasives

The essential feature of all CBN wheel truing methods is to provide accurate and precise relative motion between the
wheel and the truing tool in order to generate the straight cylinders, tapers, flat surfaces, or forms required on the wheel.
Successful wheel truing depends on the five factors discussed below.

Minimizing Truing Tool Wear. Wear of the truing tool causes loss of form, crowning, or a taper on the wheel face.
Excessive wear is generally associated with poor tool selection, large truing forces, very small traverse speed, high infeed
rates, abusive conditions of wheel truing, or excessive wheel runout that could have been reduced during mounting of the
wheel.

Ensuring Consistent Wheel Surface Quality. Unlike conventional abrasive wheels, a CBN wheel is not trued after
every part or grinding cycle. If properly operated, it should be conditioned after typically 20 to 100 grinding cycles and as
often as every 3 months. Once the conditioning frequency is established, the wheel should be conditioned at regular
intervals. If this is not done, the production schedule will be disrupted, and increased operator attention will be required.

The truing mechanism should be reliable, accurate, and rigid to ensure consistent wheel surface quality. The machine
should have the capability for precision movement and skip dressing.

Roughing/Finishing Using the Same Wheel Face Without Conditioning. Cubic boron nitride wheels can
grind at high unit-width metal removal rates and can produce good surface finishes at low unit-width metal removal rates.
This is possible because the CBN grit resists wear. The open condition of the wheel allows for high unit-width metal
removal rates, coolant flow, and chip removal without burning. The flats generated on the CBN grits during the truing
operation determine the surface finish at finish grinding rates. Excessive flats on coarse grits will generate a fine surface
finish, but burning or smearing can occur.

Machine Tool and Truing Device Requirements. The truing of CBN wheels can be satisfactorily accomplished on
moderately rigid (18 kN/mm, or 100,000 lbf/in.) machines. Excessive rigidity is useful but not necessary. However, a
machine with worn ways, inconsistent feed rates, stick slip, and lack of fine infeed control (for example, 0.005 mm, or
0.0002 in. per step or lower) will degrade any truing effort. Similarly, high precision, low runout, and moderate rigidity
are required in the truing devices. Good-quality coolant flow, proper diamond selection, and smaller-grit diamonds
generally improve the truing.

Goals for Successful Truing. In a properly managed truing effort, it is necessary to:

• Minimize truing forces

• Minimize truing time
• Control the exposure and extent of flatness on CBN grits to obtain the desired surface finish
• Minimize loss of superabrasive grain
• Automate the truing process to achieve consistent wheel surface condition

Truing Methods for Batch Production

For operations in which the wheel is used for short production runs, with each run containing different parts (for example,
toolroom grinding), powered rotary truing methods are preferred and should be used whenever possible. However, for
batch production, the truing operations can be carried out using the methods discussed below.

Truing With Abrasive Wheels. Brake-controlled and powered rotary truing devices use conventional abrasive
wheels. The precision with which a trued wheel surface is generated by these methods is lower than in the methods
described earlier. In general, a relatively harder wheel with silicon carbide abrasive will true the superabrasive wheel
faster at lower levels of abrasive consumption. However, an open wheel surface is obtained with a softer wheel containing
aluminum oxide abrasive. Occasionally, the superabrasive wheels can be finished to the required form or geometry by
using a grinder with an optical attachment.

Truing With Hard Ceramics. Resin bond CBN wheels can be trued by grinding with hard ceramics such as tungsten
carbide or boron carbide. In this method, 0.005 mm (0.0002 in.) downfeed per pass is used in a surface grinder. Slightly
more than half the wheel thickness should be crossfed, and table speed should be moderate. The wheel speed is the same
as the grinding speed. The grinding power will gradually increase as the wheel becomes dull while being trued. When the
power exceeds the normal power drawn during workpiece grinding, truing should be halted. The wheel face should be
stick dressed with an abrasive stick. Truing is then continued. This cycle is repeated until the wheel is completely trued.
Diamond nibs and, occasionally, single-point tools can also be used for truing CBN wheels in batch operations.

Quantitative Understanding of Truing Parameters

The following variables apply to any truing operation:

• Truing method used: Stationary or powered rotary truing

• Type of truing tool: Stationary (single-point or nib) or rotary (disk, cup, diamond roll, bonded or plated
cutter, or reverse-plated cutter)
• Specification of truing tool: Diamond type, grit size, concentration, and geometry
• CBN wheels to be used: Bond type, grit size, concentration, and wheel size
• Truing process variables: Speed, infeed increments, speed ratio, overlap ratio, relative motion,
crossfeed, coolant flow, and machine rigidity
• Output variables: Truing forces, power, chatter or lobing, total indicator reading, accuracy of form,
wheel surface quality and truing time, and grind quality after truing

Some of the key variables are discussed below.

Infeed is an incremental advance of the truing tool or cutter relative to the wheel face. The infeed used for superabrasive
wheel truing with a diamond tool or cutter should be about one-tenth the values used for conventional abrasive wheels.
This generally implies an infeed of 0.0025 to 0.005 mm (0.0001 to 0.0002 in.) per increment in traverse truing and 0.050
to 0.10 m (2 to 4 in.) per revolution in plunge truing.

The effect of infeed on truing forces is shown in Fig. 35. Control of infeed is a key aspect of achieving outstanding
performance of superabrasive wheels without chatter or hard grinding action.
Fig. 35 Effect of truing infeed on truing force. A, resin and metal bond CBN wheel; B, vitrified CBN wheel; C,
conventional vitrified wheel

Intermittent Dressing. Figure 36 shows the gradual increase in truing forces as a function of time or number of
traversals of the cutter across the wheel face. However, if the truing forces exceed the normal grinding forces, deflection
of the spindle, wheel lobing, and chatter will occur. Intermittent or periodic dressing of the wheel minimizes these
problems.