Chapter 9 – ELID Grinding with Lapping Kinematics
• Ahmed Bakr Khoshaim*,
• Zonghua Xu†,
• Ioan D. Marinescu‡
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doi:10.1016/B978-1-4557-7858-4.00011-X
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Abstract
The demand for silicon carbide ceramics has increased significantly in the last decade due to its reliable properties. Sometimes, single side grinding is preferable over surface grinding, because it has the ability to produce flat surfaces. However, the manufacturing cost is still high because of the high tool wear and long machining time. Additionally, most of these grinding processes are followed by a lapping process. One of the ways to eliminate the lapping process is to use electrolysis in process dressing technique (ELID). Part of the solution also entails investigating the influence of different variables on the workpiece surface finish and material removal rate. This chapter presents the influence of the wheel #400 on the roughness and material removal rate. In order to do this based on the experimental results, a full factorial experiment was developed on three levels of each variable: the spindle and wheel speed, the applied load and the eccentricity. These four variables have been investigated and a model has been established for the roughness and the material removal rate individually.
Keywords
• silicon carbide;
• SiC;
• fine grinding;
• material removal mechanism;
• electrolytic in process dressing;
• ELID;
• roughness modelling;
• MRR modelling
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9.1. Introduction
Grinding is one of the most important abrasive processes. It is used to perform smooth and precise dimensions and surfaces. Usually, the material removal rate from the workpiece is low in grinding operations compared to that in milling or other cutting operations. However, it is considered effective for brittle materials. Finishing operations have a long history. Since the Stone Age, people were rubbing stones to create sharp edges. Also, the Egyptians had an amazing machining process for cutting large rocks, such as in the pyramids. Modern machining started in the nineteenth century [1].
In grinding, a grinding wheel with a number of abrasives adhered to it is used. The abrasives come in small pieces and in irregular shapes. In addition to the ability to resist chemical reaction caused by the lubricating fluid, the bond material should be strong enough to overcome the grinding forces and temperature. Many types of grinding wheels offer different configurations for different grinding operation conditions [2].
Abrasives and Wheel Types
Abrasives can be either conventional or superabrasives. Conventional wheels are cheaper than superabrasives wheels. On the other hand, superabrasives wheels are made with more expensive materials, and therefore, only a small part of the wheel is made by the superabrasives material where the rest can be made with metal. Conventional abrasives can be aluminum oxide (Al2O3) or silicon carbide (SiC). On the contrary, superabrasives can be either cubic boron nitride (CBN) or diamond. These last two are the hardest materials, which give them the ability to machine other hard materials. The hardness can be cited as Knoop hardness. For example, diamond hardness is 6500 kg/cm3, and CBN is 4500 kg/cm3. These levels are high compared to SiC and Al2O3 at 2500 and 1370–2260 kg/cm3, respectively [3]. The abrasives can be either small in size for better surface-finish roughness or large in size for higher material removal rate. The abrasives have the ability to fracture into pieces. This characteristic is called friability, which makes the abrasives self-sharpening. Very high friability and very low friability are undesirable. Very high friability makes the abrasives so soft that they are quite fragile. Low friability prevents the abrasives from breaking and sharpening themselves again, which will lead the abrasives to become dull. These abrasives have been made in the industry due to the amount of impurities in natural materials, which affects the reliability. The abrasives grain sizes are to be considered small compared to machining tools or inserts [4].
The six grinding wheel properties include the type of coating, the kind of dressing, the method and precision of balancing, the type of resin, the abrasives grit size, and the grain formula [5].
Grinding wheels come in a variety of types and sizes. They can be produced in many shapes, including straight, cylinder, straight cup, flaring cup, depressed center, and mounted. Both conventional and superabrasives wheels use different bond types. The two sheared bond types are vitrified and resinoid. A vitrified bond consists of ceramic bond mixed with the abrasives and shaped to the desired grinding wheel shape. Then, it is heated gradually to 1300 °C to allow the ceramic to create strong structure. Finally, it is cooled slowly and tested. Consequentially, in resinoid bonding, organic compounds are used and mixed with the abrasives, compressed, and shaped at a lower temperature of about 175 °C [3].
Metal-bonded grinding wheels have some advantages over the resin- and ceramic-bonded wheels, because metal-bonded wheels have high hardness and possess high heat conduction. Also, metal-bonded wheels have a high bondage capability, which gives the wheel a high holding ability for abrasives [6]. Sometimes, if the operation undergoes vibrations, but at the same time metal bond is needed for its electrical conductivity, a metal-resin-bonded grinding wheel can be used. Usually, this line of grinding wheels has a mixture of metal and resin bonds with a ratio of metal to resin at 7:3 [7]. Other types of bonds, including silicate, rubber, elastic, epoxy, and oxychloride, are also on the market and are manufactured by select manufacturers.
Grinding wheels typically have a standard coding, or marking system, for wheels to show their properties. For instance, we may find this code on a grinding wheel: 30A 46 H 6 V XX. The A in the code indicates that the wheel is made out of aluminum oxide Al2O3 abrasives. Different letters indicate different abrasives (e.g., C = SiC, D = diamond, Z = zirconia). The number 46 is the grain size, which ranges typically from 4 (coarse) to 500 or more (fine). H is the grade, which ranges from A (soft) to Z (hard). The harder the wheel is, the better the finishing and stronger the abrasives holding, hence, the longer the wheel life. On the other hand, the softer the wheel, the faster the cutting ability. The number 6 is the structure or the number of spaces between the bond and the abrasives grains. The structure is on a scale of 1–15, where the grains are dense at 1 and open at 15, V is the bond type (vitrified) (e.g., M = metal, R = rubber, S = silicate, E = elastic, B = resinoid, O = oxychloride, P = epoxy), 30 and xx are the manufacturer’s symbol for abrasives and the manufacturer’s private marking bond type [8].
Material Removal Mechanism
Generally, the materials can be classified into either ductile or brittle materials. Ductile materials are more electrical and thermal-conductive. Also, they usually have a low melting point and high density compared to brittle materials. They also show some differences in the fracture toughness, where it is far higher in ductile compared to brittle material. However, brittle materials usually have higher Young’s modulus and lower surface energy [9]. Also, the crack growth rate is bigger in brittle materials. The crack growth rate usually depends on the crack length, which will be explained later [10]. Brittle materials are also different from ductile materials in their atomic bonding. Atomic bonding in ductile materials normally is metallic. On the other hand, atomic bonding in the brittle materials can be either covalent or ionic, or both. Covalent bond has a higher thermal conductivity and a lower thermal coefficient of expansion than the ionic bond. Brittle materials with both types of bonding have different properties, depending on the ratio of the ionic/covalent bond in the material. For example, Al2O3 has a ratio of 6:4 ionic/covalent bond, where it is about 1:9 in SiC. This difference makes SiC preferable for use in higher-temperature applications, because the elevation of the temperature affects ionic bonding strength significantly [9].
Brittle materials are more challenging to machine than ductile materials, not only due to high hardness, but also due to easy fracture. The fracture most likely occurs in brittle materials in two ways: Either at the edges of the bond of the grains, which is called an intergranular fracture, or through the grains themselves, which also known as a transgranular fracture. Unlike brittle materials, ductile materials fracture mainly through the grains. However, another fracture type is called the chevron pattern. This type happens when the crack is spread over different levels of the material in a circular shape away from the impact. This crack can easily show the crack starting point and can be recognized by bare eyes or by microscopes [11]. Cracks in grinding ceramics can be either pulverization or microcracks. A consequence of one or both types of fracture – intergranular or transgranular – cause the pulverization crack. However, microcracks can be also categorized into scattered and clustered. Highly brittle material usually is not affected by clustered microcracks [12].
During the grinding of a brittle material, the material from the workpiece is mainly removed by two general principles. When a grain on the grinding wheel comes into contact with the workpiece, a chip from the workpiece is formed. This formation can be in either a ductile mode or brittle mode. Ductile mode, which is also known as a quasiplastic cutting mechanism, is preferred over the brittle mode. During the ductile mode, the chip formation result in grooves with no cracks, giving the grooves a smoother surface profil