A Report on

ABRASIVE MACHINING

By

Joana Marie B. Agbuis

Jaquelyn Margaret L. Miciano

Gilian

Submitted to

Engr. Herbert Manaligod

In partial fulfillment of the Industrial Engineering Course: Industrial Processes (IE 21)
First Semester 2008-09

Abrasive Machining
I. What is abrasive
A. Types of abrasives
B. Abrasive Requirements
II. What is abrasive machining
A. Classification of abrasive machining
B. Bonded Abrasives
C. Bond Types
III. The grinding process
A. The major differences between grain and single-point cutting tool
actions Material Removal Rate
B. Safety Measures
C. Truing and Dressing
D. Cooling and Lubricating
E. Grinding Objectives
F. Wheel Grade and Structure
G. Temperature Effects
H. Residual Stresses
I. Grinding Operations and Machines

Figure 1.1 Schematic Illustration of a physical model of a grinding wheel,

showing its structure and wear and fracture patterns

Figure 1.2 Common types of grinding wheels made with conventional

abrasives. Note that each wheel has a specific grinding face; grinding on
other surfaces is improper and unsafe.

Figure 2.1 Schematic illustration of chip formation by an abrasive grain

with a wear flat. Each abrasive consider a tool has its removal chip and
has its clearance angle, cutting angle and its rake angle. Note the
negative angle of the grain and the small shear angle.

Figure 3.1 Schematic Illustration a vertical-spindle rotary-table grinder

Figure 3.2 Schematic Illustration of a traverse grinding with a horizontal

spindle producing a groove in the work piece

I. What is an abrasive
➢ A small, nonmetallic hard particle having sharp edges and an
irregular shape
 ➢ Used to hone, lap, buff and polish workpieces
➢ Used in finishing processes for very hard and heat-treated parts –
such as shaping hard nonmetallic materials like ceramics; cutting
off length of bars; cleaning surfaces with jets of water or air
containing abrasive particles
➢ Are capable of removing small amounts of material from a surface
through a cutting process that produces tiny chips
A. Abrasive Requirements
1. The grain must have a shape that presents several sharp cutting
surfaces.
2. High hardness at room and elevated temperatures.
3. Controlled toughness or, rather, ease of fracture to occur under
imposed mechanical stresses.
4. Low adhesion to the work piece.
5. Chemically stable.
B. Types of Abrasives
1. Aluminum oxide (Al2O3)
a. First made in 1893
b. Mixture of Bauxite, Iron Fillings, Coke
c. Divided into two groups
i. Fused aluminum oxide – categorized as dark, white
and monocrystalline
ii.Unfused alumina – a.k.a. ceramic aluminum oxides
which is harder than fused; purest form: seeded gel
(0.2µm, high friability & hardness)
2. Silicon Carbide (SiC)
a. Discovered in 1891
b. Made from Silica sand, Petroleum Coke, Salt (NaCl)
c. Divided into: black (less friable) and green (more friable)
d. Higher friability than aluminum oxides
e. Greater tendency to fracture and remain sharp
3. Cubic boron Nitride (cBN)
a. Synthetically developed in the 1970s
b. Second-hardest substance after diamond
c. Used as abrasives and cutting tools
4. Diamond
a. Hardest substance known
b. First used as abrasive in 1955
c. Other uses: cutting tools and as dies for fine wire drawing
d. Both natural and synthetic or industrial diamond can be used
e. Most common grit size: 0.01 mm (0.004 in) diameter
*grit number – size of an abrasive grain
II. What is Abrasive Machining
It is the BEST METHOD FOR PRODUCING a work piece that requires high
dimensional accuracy and fine surface finish. Abrasive Machining
describes a process in which material is removed by a multitude of hard
angular abrasive particles or grains (grits) which may or may not be
bonded to form a tool. It is a method for producing instruments or parts
such as ball and roller bearings, pistons, gears, cutting tools and dies
A. Classification of Abrasive Machining
i. Loose – lapping, barrel finishing, buffing, polishing, ultrasonic
machining
ii.Impact –grit blasting, hydrohoning, waterjet cutting, abrasive jet
cutting
iii.Bonded – surface grinding, cylindrical grinding, internal
grinding, creep-feed grinding, honing, coated abrasives
B. Bonded Abrasives
i. Bonds a large number of abrasive grains that act together for
high rates of material removal. They are in the form of
grinding wheels
ii. Porosity is essential to provide clearance for the chips being
produced and to provide cooling or else it would interfere with
the grinding process

Figure 1.1 Schematic Illustration of a physical model of a grinding wheel,

showing its structure and wear and fracture patterns
iii. Marked with standardized system of letters and numbers
iv. Common Types of Grinding Wheels are straight, straight cup,
depressed center, mounted, flaring cup, cylinder
Figure 1.2 Common types of grinding wheels made with conventional
abrasives. Note that each wheel has a specific grinding face; grinding
on other surfaces is improper and unsafe.
C. Bond Types
v. Vitrified or Ceramic
1. Most common and widely used bond
2. Raw materials: feldspar (crystalline mineral) and clays
3. Mixed with abrasives, moistened, and molded under
pressure into the shape of grinding wheels
4. Vetrified wheels: brittle & lack resistance to mechanical
and thermal shock; strong stiff, porous, resistant to oil,
acid & water

vi. Resinoid
5. More flexible than vitrified wheels
6. Two types: organic & reinforced wheels
a. Organic wheels – manufactured by mixing abrasive
with liquid or powdered phenolic resins and
additives
b. Reinforced wheels – more widely used
– One or more layers of fiberglass mats
of various mesh sizes provide the
reinforcement
vii. Rubber
7. Most flexible bond
8. Mixture of crude rubber, sulfur, and abrasive grains
9. Makes saws for cutting-off operations (cut-off blades)
viii.Metal Bonds
10.The wheel could be made of aluminum, bronze, steel,
ceramics, or composite materials.
 11.Diamond or cubic boron nitride bonded to the periphery of
metal wheel through powder metallurgy
12.Carried out under high temperature
ix. Other Bonds
13.Other bonds include silicate, shellac, and oxychloride
bonds.
14.A new development is the use of polyimide as a
substitute for the phenolic in resinoid wheels which is
tough and also resistant t high temperatures.
15.Superabrasive wheels may also be layered so that a
single abrasive later is plated or brazed to a metal wheel
with a particular desired shape which are lower in cost
and are used in small production quantities.
IV. The Grinding Process
Grinding is a chip removal process that uses an individual abrasive grain
as the cutting tool. The grinding force is necessary for determining the
deflections that the work piece and the grinding machine may undergo
since deflection adversely influence dimensional accuracy and are critical
in precision grinding. Forces in grinding are usually much smaller than
those in cutting operations but grinding forces should be kept low in order
to avoid distortion.

A. The major differences between grain and single-point cutting tool

actions
i. The normal operating speeds are very high, usually 600 feet per
minute or 30 meters per second
ii.The average rake angle of the grains is highly negative around
-60˚
iii.The radial positions of the grains vary
iv.The individual abrasive grains have irregular shapes and are
spaced randomly along the periphery of the wheel.

Figure2.1 Schematic illustration of chip formation by an abrasive grain

with a wear flat. Each abrasive consider a tool has its removal chip and
has its clearance angle, cutting angle and its rake angle. Note the
negative angle of the grain and the small shear angle.
B. Material Removal Rate
C. Safety is always a must. Wheels should always be inspected before
grinding.
D. Truing and Dressing is usually done with a diamond point tool.
i. Truing is the restoration of desired geometry to attain
dimensional accuracy.
ii.Dressing is the restoration of the cutting ability
E. Cooling and Lubricating keeps surface cool. It enhances the cutting
process. The types of fluid are usually water-soluble oil mix.
F. Grinding Objectives
i. Precision grinding to improve tolerances and surfacefinish
ii.Coarse grinding has a higher Material Removal Rate (MRR) than
precision grinding. It is achieved by using wheels that are made
to release worn grit without dressing yet without excessive wear.
iii.Rough grinding is present in hand grinders that remove slag,
splatter, castings, etc.
G. Wheel Grade and Structure

Grade – measure of bond’s strength

– includes type and amount of bond in the wheel
Structure – measure of porosity (spacing between grains)
– ranges from dense to open

H. Temperature effects
Temperature rise is important because it can adversely affect the
surface properties and cause residual stresses on the work piece.
Furthermore, temperature gradients in the work piece cause distortions
by differential thermal expansion and contraction.
i. Results in grinding
1. Sparks
a. These are chips that slow resulting from the
exothermic or heat-producing reaction of the hot
chips with oxygen in the atmosphere.
b. The color, intensity, and shape of the sparks
depend on the composition of the metal being
ground.
2. Tempering
a. The softening of the work piece surface.
b. Process variables must be selected carefully in
order to avoid excessive rise in temperature.
 c. Grinding Fluids is effective in controlling
temperature
3. Burning
a. The surface being ground may be burned.
b. A burn can be characterized by a bluish color on
ground steel surfaces, an indication that high
temperature caused oxidation
c. It can be detected by etching and metallurgical
techniques.
d. Phase layers may undergo phase transformations
that can influence the surface properties of ground
parts, reducing surface ductility and toughness
4. Heat checking
a. The work piece surface begins to crack. These
cracks are usually perpendicular to the grinding
direction
b. Under severe conditions, parallel cracks may also
appear that indicates the surface lacks toughness
and has low fatigue and corrosion resistance.
I. Residual stresses
i. These are caused by temperature gradients within the work
piece during grinding which can be lowered by reducing wheel
speed and increasing work piece speed which is called low-
stress grinding or gentle grinding.
ii. Another option to reduce residual stresses is to use softer grade
wheels known as free-cutting wheels.
J. Grinding Operations and Machines
Types of Grinding Equipment are surface grinders, cylindrical grinders,
internal grinders, pedestal grinders, hand grinders, belt and disk
sanders, centered grinders, form grinders, and centerless grinders.

i. Surface Grinding
ii. Cylindrical
Grinding
iii. Internal Grinding
iv. Center Grinding
v. Center less
Grinding
vi. Jig Grinding

Surface Grinding

With vertical spindle with rotary table as seen in the figure3.1 on the right
It is used in manufacturing the ball and cylindrical bearing

Figure 3.1 A Schematic Illustration of a vertical-spindle rotary-table grinder

Figure 3.2 A Schematic Illustration of a traverse grinding with a horizontal spindle

producing a groove in the work piece

Cylindrical Grinding

This process is used for the internal or external

machining of rotational work pieces.

As in turning and boring, the grinding wheel

translate with respect to a fixed axis rotating
work piece in the feed direction

REFERENCES

TOWNSEND, C. Abrasive Machining. A report in

fulfillment of the ME 353 course. November 1, 2000
(web.me.unr.edu/me353/am.html)

KALPAKJIAN, S. and SCHMID, S.R. 2001. Manufacturing Engineering and Technology.

Fourth Edition. Prentice-Hall Inc. New Jersey. Pp 704-743.