ABOUT GRINDING

Grinding is used to finish workpieces which must show high surface quality (e.g., low surface roughness) and high accuracy of shape and dimension. As the accuracy in dimensions in grinding is on the order of 0.000025mm, in most applications it tends to be a finishing operation and removes comparatively little metal, about 0.25 to 0.50mm depth. However, there are some roughing applications in which grinding removals high volumes of metal quite rapidly. Thus grinding is a diverse field.

TYPES OF GRINDING
Surfaces of almost all conceivable shapes and materials of all kinds are suitable for grinding. This operation can classified broadly into two groups: 1. Rough or non-precision grinding. 2. Precision grinding. Rough grinding: Snagging and off-hand grinding are the common forms of of rough grinding where the work is held in the operator's hand. The work is pressed hard against the wheel or viceversa. The accuracy and surface finish obtained are of secondary importance. Snagging is done where considerable amount of metal is removed without regard to the accuracy of the finished surface. Examples of snag grinding are trimming the surface left by sprues and risers on castings, grinding the parting line left on castings, removing flash on forgings, the excess metal welds, cracks and imperfections on alloy steel billets.

Precision grinding: This is concerned with producing good surface finish and high degree of accuracy. The wheel or work both are guided in precise paths. Depending on the type of surface to be ground, grinding is classified as: 1. External cylindrical grinding: External cylindrical grinding produces a straight or tapered surface on a workpiece. The workpiece must be rotated about its own axis between centres as it passes lengthwise across the face of a revolving grinding wheel. 2. Internal cylindrical grinding: Internal cylindrical grinding produces internal cylindrical holes and tapers. The workpieces are chucked and precisely rotated about their own axis. The grinding wheel or the cylinder wheel in case of small bore holes rotates against the sense of rotation of the workpiece. 3. Surface grinding: Flat surfaces are produced by Surface grinding. the work may be ground by either the periphery or by the end face of the grinding wheel. The workpiece is reciprocated at a constant speed below or on the end face of the grinding wheel. 4. Form grinding: Form grinding is done with specially shaped grinding wheels that grind the formed surfaces as in grinding gear teeth, threads,splined shafts,holes and spheres, etc.

GRINDING WHEEL
A grinding wheel is an expendable wheel that is composed of an abrasive compound used for various grinding (abrasive cutting) and abrasive machining operations. They are used in grinding machines. The wheels are generally made from a matrix of coarse particles pressed and bonded together to form a solid, circular shape, various profiles and cross sections are available depending on the intended usage for the wheel. They may also be made from a solid steel or aluminium disc with particles bonded to the surface. The manufacture of these wheels is a precise and tightly controlled process, due not only to the inherent safety risks of a spinning disc, but also the composition and uniformity required to prevent that disc from exploding due to the high stresses produced on rotation.

Diamond wheel Diamond wheels are grinding wheels with industrial diamonds bonded to the periphery. They are used for grinding extremely hard materials such as carbide cutting tips, gemstones or concrete. The saw pictured to the right is a slitting saw and is designed for slicing hard materials, typically gemstones. Diamond mandrels Diamond mandrels are very similar to their counterpart, a diamond wheel. They are tiny diamond rasps for use in a jig grinder doing profiling work in hard material. Cut off wheels Cut off wheels, also known as parting wheels, are selfsharpening wheels that are thin in width and often have radial fibres reinforcing them. They are often used in the construction industry for cutting reinforcement bars (rebar), protruding bolts or anything that needs quick removal or trimming. Most handymen would recognise an angle grinder and the discs they use.

BONDED ABRASIVES GRINDING WHEEL.

ON

Wheel bond, how the wheel holds the abrasives, affects finish, coolant, and minimum/maximum wheel speed.

Vitrified (V) Resinoid (B) Silicate (S) Shellac (E) Rubber (R) Metal (M) Oxychloride (O)

CUTTING ACTION OF GRINDING

To be successful with grinding, it is necessary to understand some basic principles. Grinding uses a method of material removal called abrasion . Rather than cutting like a lathe bit, the material is slowly worn away because the abrasive is harder than the material being ground. In truth the grinding wheel acts like many thousands of very small lathe bit, each cutting off some metal*. The abrasive must also be strong enough to withstand the forces acting upon it while grinding. Usually some sort of impact shock occurs when the abrasive comes in contact with the material. Heat while grinding is of major concern, with effects seen at every phase of the operation. Also the abrasive needs to be able to withstand high temperatures

caused by the friction during the grinding. Sometimes, these high temperatures will cause damage to the bonding agents found in the wheel causing the wheel to break down. In general coolant must be directed at the grinding wheel, not the material being ground, as heat causes more damage to the wheel than the work piece.. Most abrasive wheels need to be able to be resurfaced (dressed), as the old surface will become impregnated with material during the grinding operation. Dressing is accomplished with a diamond tipped tool.

DRESSING AND TRUING OF GRINDING WHEEL

Grinding wheels, like other cutting tools, require frequent reconditioning of cutting surfaces to perform efficiently. Dressing is the term used to describe the process of cleaning the periphery of grinding wheels. This cleaning breaks away dull abrasive grains and smoothes the surface so that there are no grooves. Truing is the term used to describe the removal of material from the cutting face of the wheel so that the resultant surface runs absolutely true to some other surface such as the grinding.

The wheel dresser shown in figure 5-5 is used for dressing grinding wheels on bench and pedestal grinders. To dress a wheel with this tool, start the grinder and let it come up to speed. Set the wheel dresser on the rest as shown in figure 5-5 and bring it in firm contact with the wheel. Move the wheel dresser back and forth across the face of the wheel until the surface is clean and approximately square with the sides of the wheel. If grinding wheels get out of balance because of out-ofroundness, dressing the wheel will usually remedy the condition. A grinding wheel can get out of balance by being left sitting with part of the wheel immersed in the coolant; if this happens, the wheel should be removed and dried out by baking. If the wheel gets out of balance axially, it probably will not affect the efficiency of the wheel. This unbalance may be remedied simply by removing the wheel and cleaning the shaft spindle and spindle hole in the wheel and the flanges.