Journal of Materials Processing Technology 175 (2006) 278284

High-performance grindingA review

J. Kopac, P. Krajnik
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Askerceva 6, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract Presented paper deals with the contemporary aspects of grinding with regards to enhanced productivity and precision demands. Highperformance grinding is essential to achieve high dimensional accuracy and surface integrity of ground components at optimum cost efciency. The objectives of this paper refer to a review of state of the art technology of high-performance grinding at increased wheel speeds with highly efcient abrasives. The review relies on notable academic publications and recent conference proceedings. 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: High-performance grinding; High-speed grinding; Grinding; Abrasives; Super-abrasive; CBN

1. Introduction Increasing quality demands for high-performance grinding technology, particularly in automotive, bearing and aerospace industries, require enhanced processes that provide near-optimal yield with respect to productivity, precision and cost. In general, the goal is to maximise the production rate to the specied product quality bounds and to simultaneously reduce the production costs. Applications of high-speed grinding (HSG) have expanded the eld of grinding from traditional nishing operation to now more widely employed high-performance machining. In this way, process development has led to a new grinding paradigm, which refers to conguration of improved process with high-performance capabilities [1]. In this way, high-performance grinding corresponds to the dual attributes of high-efciency and high-precision, which are required for competitive grinding processes. The paper resumes the well-established basic aspects of grinding mechanisms and points out the paradigms of contemporary HSG, which utilizes the highly efcient abrasives and machine-tools.

2. Fundamentals of grinding and cutting principle Grinding is a complex abrasive cutting process, related to machining with geometrically unspecied cutting edges. Grinding interface involves a material removal by the contact between a grinding wheel with a randomly structured topography with the workpiece. Each grain removes a chip from the surface of the workpiece material and generates a surface nish. Such grinding mechanism is represented in Fig. 1. Grinding refers to material removal by individual grains whose cutting edge is bounded by force and path. Fig. 2 shows initial cutting interface, which is characterised by elastic deformation, followed by plastic ow of the workpiece material. The interface friction conditions, the ow characteristics of the material and the cutting speed have a signicant inuence on chip formation. A consistent cutting mechanism description therefore comprises complex penetration relationships between two hard materials, elasto-plastics mechanics and aspects of tribology, which all inuence the kinematics and contact condition [3].

3. High-efciency grinding tools High-performance grinding of unconventional materials such as high-alloy chromium, titanium steels, very hard tungsten carbides, advanced ceramics, silicon nitride, super-

Corresponding author. Tel.: +386 14771200; fax: +386 12518567. E-mail address: peter.krajnik@fs.uni-lj.si (P. Krajnik).

0924-0136/$ see front matter 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2005.04.010

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Fig. 1. Grinding interface [2].

alloys and metalmatrix composites, requires suitable grinding tools to ensure their cost-efcient machining, as well as attain their greater dimensional accuracy and ground-surface quality requirements. The important advantage of increased productivity during grinding at high cutting speeds is the increased tool life of high-performance grinding wheels. The grinding tools for HSG are subjected to special requirements in terms of their operational speed and resistance to wear and fracture. Good damping characteristics, high rigidity and adequate thermal conductivity are also desirable. Abrasive cutting efciency mainly depends on a combination between abrasive hardness, toughness and chemical inertness. This section refers to the HSG with grinding wheels of: superabrasives (cubic boron nitride and diamond);

highly efcient aluminium-based abrasives (sintered Al2 O3 and AlON). 3.1. Super-abrasives Cubic boron nitride (CBN) along with diamond has been termed a super-abrasive. Super-abrasives by their very name are abrasives that are harder, more wear resistant and have a longer life when applied in the proper application, which usually refers to bonding system. It is essential for the superabrasive grains to be embedded in the bond so that they are retained under the forces and temperatures occurring in the grinding zone. Secondly, the bond must provide sufcient space for chip removal. Usually, four different types of bondings are considered:

Fig. 2. Deformations and chip formation [3].

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Fig. 4. CBN microstructure [1].

cooler, providing high surface integrity and superior surface nish.

Fig. 3. Bonding systems [4].

3.2. Highly-efcient aluminium-based abrasives Resin: Phenolic and polyamide resins are used in the majority of all grinding wheels produced. They can remove material fast, but have limited form holding and life characteristics. Metallic: As metal is the toughest bonding material used in wheel manufacturing, these wheels are very successful in the accurate, predictable and economical removal of stock material. Electro-plated: Electro-plated wheels consist of a single layer of abrasive, which enables maximal material removal rates, as shown in Fig. 3. Vitried: Vitried bonds enable the manufacturer to control the strength, chip clearance and wheel loading by modifying the porosity and structure of the wheel. The exibility of the vitreous bond system hence makes it possible to condition the topography of this type of wheel to achieve a broad range of metal removal rates and surface nish characteristics. As a result, vitreous bonds are becoming more important in grinding applications. Further, it is very important to select an appropriate design of the grinding wheel body, with respect to tangential and radial stress. Most super-abrasive wheels consist of a body made of steel or aluminium alloys or even composite materials. The latter carbon bre reinforced plastics (CFRP) body is particularly important in ultra high-speed applications [5]. Diamond abrasives feature matchless hardness and wear resistance. They are successfully used in grinding of hard and brittle materials such as glass, ceramics, graphite, ferrites, tungsten carbides, breglass reinforced composites, semiconductor materials, silicon nitride and super-hard polycrystalline materials. Because of its high level of hardness, its thermal and chemical resistance, CBN is perfectly suited high-performance abrasive. It offers advantages especially in the grinding of hard-to-machine steels with large proportions of alloy and hardness of 55 HRC and above, e.g., high-speed steels and chrome steels. An individual CBN grain, shown in Fig. 4, is hard and has a high thermal conductivity and will, therefore, exhibit a life hundred times that of conventional grain. Because of its inherent sharpness, CBN grinding tends to be Recent developments have led to realization of highperformance grinding by applications of highly efcient aluminium-based abrasives. The performance increase is particularly relating to grinding precision. The second visible advantage relates to improved grinding economics, which is a direct consequence of smaller abrasive cost and the capability of conventional dressing with standard, low-cost dressing systems. Because of their enumerated properties, efcient aluminium-based abrasives are closing the gap between the super-abrasives and the conventional abrasives. Sintered corundum is a term, which refers to aluminium oxide (Al2 O3 ) produced by the solgel (SG) process. It is combining the properties of the ceramics and fused aluminium oxide into vitried grinding wheels, which exhibit a high level of sharpness and improved wear resistance. They are recommended for grinding of hardened materials with a hardness of up to 67 HRC, nitriding steels, hardchrome-plated steels, tungsten carbides and heat-resistant alloys. Fig. 5 shows that conventional grains have preferential macro fracture planes, from which relatively large particles chip away. Because of its microcrystalline structure, sintered grains do not have preferential fracture planes, hence the particles that chip away are relatively small and the grains are capable to retain its sharpness. During grinding with such abrasives, controlled grain break-up takes place, so that new abrasive cutting edges are continually formed and the abrasive grains maintain their cutting capacity. Enhancement of the fracture toughness is attained by the reduction of the grain size and inclusion of second phase particles [6]. By the side of sol-gel abrasives it is necessary to mention recently developed sintered aluminium oxide-nitride (AlON) abrasives. This type of abrasive has also been designed to enhance the efciency of precision grinding. It is able to preserve cutting efciency at decreased wheel porosity, which indirectly enables better form holding and overall grinding quality. AlON is mainly characterized by increased high temperature hardness and brittleness. More broad and detailed review on abrasives and grinding tools can be found in the following publication [8].

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Fig. 5. Fracture of conventional and sintered ceramic grain.

4. High-speed grinding process parameters HSG is characterised by efforts to improve the economics of the process by increasing material removal rates and simultaneous improvements of process stability, capability and machining quality. In this way, an increased cutting speed is a prerequisite for increased productivity. In technological terms HSG refers to either: high-productivity grinding in order to reduce the machining time while maintaining the same level of quality; high-quality grinding in order to enhance machining quality while maintaining a constant machining capacity. Material removal and chip formation depend on the grinding wheel topography as well as on kinematical and geometrical parameters. Effect of HSG can be interpreted by any of the two basic chip thickness models. The undeformed chip thickness, hcu , is dependent on the static density of cutting edges, Cstat , and on the kinematical and geometrical variables, where vw is the workpiece speed, vc the cutting speed, a the depth of cut, deq the equivalent grinding wheel diameter, and , , are positive exponents [3]. hcu k 1 Cstat

In technological terms, this illustration relates to high-quality HSG. As the second case, increase in the cutting speed and material removal rate while maintaining constant chip thickness, as shown in Fig. 7, results in continuous grinding forces, wheel wear and workpiece surface roughness. In technological terms, this illustration relates to high-productivity HSG. Specic material removal rate Qw indicates the amount of workpiece volume removed per unit of time and active grinding contact width, which can be used as an assessment criteria for HSG performance and economics. Qw =
dVw Qw = dt bD bD

(3)

vw vc

a deq

(1)

Second model is referring to maximum chip thickness: hmax cgw vw vc

e

a deq

e/2

(2)

Fig. 6. High-quality HSG at constant material removal rate [4].

Maximum chip thickness, hmax , is therefore besides aforementioned parameters dependent on the grinding wheel topography constant, cgw , and positive exponent e [4]. On the basis of these basic relationships it can be established that an increase in the cutting speed, assuming all other conditions are constant, will result in a reduction in the chip thickness and consequently grinding force. Consequently, this can be used to increase quality/precision or the material removal rate. The increase in the cutting speed at constant material removal rate, as shown in Fig. 6, results in the reduction in grinding forces, wheel wear, workpiece surface roughness and size/form accuracy error.

Fig. 7. High-performance HSG at constant chip thickness [4].

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The grinding capacity is stated in terms of the grinding ratio G, which corresponds to the ratio of material removed from the workpiece and the necessary volume of abrasive required. In order to make a HSG process economic, a minimum G ratio of 100 must be aimed for. In the case of optimised processes, G ratios of 1000 and higher are not unusual. G= Vw Vs (4)

HSG process can be further characterised by the specic grinding energy ec , determined by a cutting speed vc , workpiece speed vw , depth of cut a and specic grinding force in the tangential direction of the grinding wheel Ft . vc Ft ec = vw a (5)
Fig. 9. Workpiece temperature distribution [11].

At lower material removal rates, corresponding to smaller undeformed chip thickness, the specic cutting energy becomes extremely large. The grinding energy decreases when the specic metal removal rate increases, especially at high cutting speed [9]. Generally, thermal characteristics of HSG process are dependant on several interacting variables, such as the thermal properties of the workpiece and the abrasive, the variations in heat partitioning, etc. The exact relationship between the grinding parameters and the temperature depends on the total heat ux and partitioning of thermal energy. The latter two estimates are required for a prediction of thermal characteristics of the process. The specic grinding energy ec varies with the specic material removal rate (Fig. 8) where the constants A and t depend on the workpiece/abrasive material and grinding conditions [10]. ec = A (Qw )
t

sive grains are in contact with the workpiece. The workpiece surface is not in thermal equilibrium and the heat pulse initially spreads out over the workpiece surface before penetrating into the workpiece. However, before this can happen, the next chip is generated taking the heat with it. The boundary wheel speed where these effects start to be apparent is about 100 m/s [11].

5. Ground-surface integrity and grinding uids The thermal properties of grinding result in an almost complete conversion of the grinding energy into heat; however, a smaller amount of energy is required for surface generation and the phenomena of energy residing in the chips and the workpiece in the form of residual stresses. Thus, all the components that interface in the grinding zone are subjected to thermal loads. Heat dissipation is mainly depended on components thermal conductivities, coolant supply strategies and process characteristics. Inuences of mechanical and thermal grinding effects on workpiece material are described by various surface integrity models [12]. The properties of the ground-surface layer are signicant with regard to the components operational characteristics. The thermal impact can result in structural alterations like annealed zones and the formation of hard and brittle martensitic structure. Combined with residual stresses, this can cause crack initiation and propagation, shown in Fig. 10. To avoid thermal damage caused by heat generation, lowering the temperature in grinding zone is crucial. This is performed by grinding uids, which not only dissipate a large portion of the generated heat but also remove chips, clean the grinding wheel pores and reduces friction in the cutting zone. Such grinding uids therefore lubricate the cutting edges between the grinding wheel and the workpiece and improve surface nish. Lubrication becomes, to some extent, more important than cooling as the cutting speed and the depth of

(6)

Another interesting phenomenon about HSG is that at high wheel speeds the workpiece temperature drops signicantly. At rst the temperature rises with increasing wheel speed, but under certain circumstances if the wheel speed is increased enough the temperatures actually begin to fall again. This phenomenon is evident in Fig. 9. The explanation given for this relates to the extremely brief period of time that the abra-

Fig. 8. Specic grinding energy [10].

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Fig. 12. High-speed spindle unit [15].

Fig. 10. Ground-surface integrity [13].

material removal rates at high grinding speed. The grinding wheel/spindle/motor system must run with extreme accuracy and minimum vibration in order to minimise the level of process dynamics. Therefore, a high machine-tool dynamic stiffness is required and on-line balancing of the grinding wheels. The spindle, Fig. 12, is the key component of HSG machine-tool. Its main features include compact hybrid cooling system and high-performance hydrostatic/hydrodynamic bearings. Increasing cutting speeds intensify total system power. For this reason minimisation of thermal deformations has to be considered.

7. High-performance grinding efciency economics HSG is in some respect replacing conventional grinding because it reduces the cost per part by increasing material removal rate. These cost benets are particularly signicant in high-volume production grinding; for the grinding of small series, it is generally better to continue using conventional procedures. To determine the economics of HSG the following expression for the total cost evaluation can be employed [16]: Ct = 2Cs (rs + ad nd ) (ds max ds min ) + (dww + dss )dw b s nd +s+ Qw vd N d Cl + Cmc yt (7)

Fig. 11. HSG cooling/lubrication system [14].

cut increase. In HSG, this function is best fullled by unconventional grinding oils, based on ester and polyalphaolen. A high grinding wheel speed generates a thick air curtain, which aggravates the cooling and lubrication in the grinding zone. Grinding uids are delivered to the grinding zone via special nozzles under high pressure (Fig. 11) by which they are accelerated to the circumferential speed of the grinding wheel. Thus, nozzle shape, positioning and ow rate also have an inuence on the grinding performance and quality.

6. High-performance grinding efciency machine-tools The advantages of high-performance grinding can be exploited only when the grinding machine-tool concept is adapted to meet the requirements of HSG technology, i.e., to operate at high cutting speeds. The technological limit in HSG is, in many cases, not set by the abrasive wheels, but by the machine-tools. Newly developed machines, which take account of the capabilities of modern abrasives, have shifted the performance limit for grinding towards higher

The proposed total cost per part evaluation comprises three partial costs, i.e., the tool cost Cs , the labour cost Cl and the machine-tool cost Cmc . It further includes geometrical and dressing parameters, workpiece parameters, specic material removal rate, payback time, etc. HSG is characterised by a high hourly cost because of the higher purchase costs of the machine-tool and the high depreciation, the signicantly reduced machining time and higher tool costs. The higher tool cost of high-performance wheels is offset by considerably higher machining potential. The competitiveness of HSG at increased material removal rates is only achieved with the longer re-dress life. Parts per dress cost is included in all three partial costs, therefore it is important to optimise re-dress life.

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8. Conclusions Grinding technology has improved considerably in terms of productivity and precision. Modern grinding wheels with enhanced, wear resistant abrasives and improved bond systems together with higher process reliability due to improved process monitoring and control have all contributed to this. The objectives therefore refer to the paradigms of increased productivity and exibility as well as the reduction of manufacturing costs. In this way modern grinding tools and machine-tools along with improved processes form the basics for a future-oriented grinding technology. We have emphasized that an increased grinding cutting speed is the most important factor in achieving improved quality, tool life and productivity. At last we are able to summarize HSG process coherences descriptively. In this way the advantages of HSG refer to a reduction in the grinding forces, the grinding wheel wear, and workpiece surface roughness. As the cutting speed and the process power increase, the quantity of thermal energy that is introduced into the workpiece also increases due to the higher cutting capacity, which causes an increase in temperature in the grinding zone that in turn can cause thermal subsurface damage. Reducing the length of the contact time of the abrasive grain with the workpiece and efcient cooling can reduce the quantity of heat transfer into the workpiece and emergence of heat-affected zone. The economic and effective employment of highperformance grinding is limited to a narrow machining frame, which leads to optimum cost efciency. Adequate employment of high-performance grinding technology is therefore only achieved by effective quality-management integration, which refers to an on-line process monitoring system, multilevel error control, visualisation, in/post process measurements, adaptive control and remote quality diagnosis. However, the broad aspects of integrated quality-management are beyond the scope of this review.

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