An experimental investigation of the effects of workpiece and grinding parameters on minimum quantity lubrication—MQL grinding

Coolant is a term generally used to describe grinding fluids used for cooling and lubricating in grinding process. The main purposes of a grinding fluid can be categorized into lubrication, cooling, transportation of chips, cleaning of the grinding wheel and minimizing the corrosion. On the other hand, grinding fluids have negative influences on the working environment in terms of the health of the machine operator, pollution and the possibility of explosion (for oil). Furthermore, the cost of the grinding fluid, filtering and waste disposal of the metal working fluids is even higher than the tool cost and constitutes a great part of the total cost. Additionally, grinding fluids can not effectively penetrate into the contact zone, are health hazard and their consumption must be restricted. Generally, compared to other machining processes, grinding involves high specific energy. Major fraction of this energy is changed into heat, which makes harmful effect on the surface quality as well as the tool wear. Since there is no coolant lubricant to transfer the heat from the contact zone in dry grinding, surface damages are not preventable. Alternatives to current practices are getting more serious consideration in response to environmental and operational cost pressures. One attractive alternative is the minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) grinding or the near dry grinding (NDG). In near dry grinding an air–oil mixture called an aerosol is fed into the wheel-work contact zone. Compared to dry grinding, MQL grinding substantially enhances cutting performance in terms of increasing wheel life and improving the quality of the ground parts. In this research, the influences of workpiece hardness and grinding parameters including wheel speed, feed rate and depth of cut have been studied on the basis of the grinding forces and surface quality properties to develop optimum grinding performances such as cooling, lubrication, high ecological and environmental safety.     

Cutting performance of different coatings during minimum quantity lubrication drilling of aluminum silicon B319 cast alloy

Cutting performance of cemented carbide drills with various coatings was investigated in detail under minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) conditions. An advanced dual-channel Bielomatik MQL system was installed in an Okuma machining center. A specially designed Mapal drill was selected for the studies to eliminate voids between the tool and the MQL tool holder that can interfere with mist delivery. Using this design, a mist flow rate of 25 mL/min was achieved through the drills.Progressive frictional/wear studies were performed. Coated drills were tested in three stages (50, 500, and 7000 holes). During short term drilling tests (50-hole level), cutting performance was comprehensively evaluated for a range of coatings by measuring several in-situ frictional characteristics of the cutting process, such as cutting forces, and related characteristics including, chip type and undersurface morphology. Wear patterns of the cutting tools were indentified as well. Selected coatings were tested further. The best cutting performance based on the 500-hole testing was found with the diamond coating. However, excessive brittleness of the entire coating/substrate system led to premature failure of the drill after 4300 holes. The low-hydrogen DLC coating that also showed promising cutting performance based on the 500-hole test was selected as the next candidate for further testing. Drills with low-hydrogen DLC coating achieved 7200 drilled holes with a flank wear of only 110 μm and moderate intensity of workpiece material pickup. This results in a better surface finish of drilled holes.Based on this study, the Mapal drills with the low-hydrogen DLC coating provided comparable machining performance to that possible with traditional wet machining, but with the environmental and cost advantages possible with MQL.     

Improving minimum quantity lubrication in CBN grinding using compressed air wheel cleaning

The application of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) in grinding has emerged as an alternative for reducing the abundant flow of cutting fluids, thus achieving cleaner production. Although considered an innovative technique in grinding operations, its widespread application is hindered due primarily to the high heat generation and wheel pore clogging caused by machined chips, harming the final product quality and increasing tool wear on the machine. This study sought to improve MQL use in grinding. In addition to the conventional MQL injected at the wheel/workpiece interface, a compressed air jet was used to clean the mixture of MQL oil and machined chips from clogged wheel pores. Experiments were conducted using external cylindrical plunge grinding on AISI 4340 quenched and tempered steel, and a vitrified cubic boron nitrite (CBN) wheel. The cooling-lubrication methods employed were the conventional flood coolant application, MQL (without cleaning), and MQL with a cleaning jet directed at the wheel surface at different angles of incidence. The main goal of these experiments was to verify the viability of replacing the traditional abundant flow of cutting fluid with MQL and wheel cleaning. The analyses were conducted by measuring the following output variables of the process: workpiece surface roughness and roundness errors, diametrical wheel wear, acoustic emission generated by the process, and metallographic images of the ground surface and subsurface. Results show the positive effects of implementing the cleaning jet technique as a technological improvement of minimum quantity lubrication in grinding in order to reduce the usage of cutting fluids. The MQL technique with cleaning compressed air jet, for a specific angle of incidence (30°), proved to be extremely efficient in the improvement of the surface quality and accurate workpiece shape; it also reduced wheel wear when compared to the other cooling-lubrication methods that were tested (without a cleaning jet).     

Strategies for optimal use of fluids in grinding

The increased concern for environment and sustainability are pushing machining operations towards the reduction or even complete elimination of cutting fluids. Grinding is not excluded from this objective, but greater difficulties appear due to the nature of the material removal mechanisms. In this work, two approaches aiming at the optimization of fluid application in grinding are presented. First, the influence of nozzle design on the development of velocity and pressure fields is studied using CFD tools. A new nozzle design that optimizes the characteristics of the jet is introduced, analyzed and manufactured. Grinding experiments show that improvements in wheel life and surface finish are possible using the new nozzle. Second, the performance of a new grinding technology that combines MQL with low-temperature CO₂ is evaluated trough industrial grinding tests. Results show an increased performance in terms of friction conditions and surface finish.     

An investigation of graphite nanoplatelets as lubricant in grinding

Cooling and lubrication are very critical to ensure workpiece quality in grinding due to the high friction and intense heat generation involved in the process. Liquid lubricants have traditionally been used in flood form or minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), raising however, major environmental and economic concerns. The focus of this study is to evaluate the performance of graphite nanoplatelets as a lubricant in surface grinding. The role of graphite's characteristics such as form, size and concentration; and the effect of the carrying medium and the graphite's application method are determined based on an experimental study. The results indicate that graphite nanoplatelets significantly reduce the grinding forces, specific energy, and improve surface finish during surface grinding of hardened D-2 tool steel. A comparison with results obtained in conventional MQL grinding is also provided. The proper selection of graphite, carrying medium and application method can lead to a low cost, nontoxic and simple alternative to solid lubrication or MQL grinding.     

Surface and subsurface integrity in diamond grinding of optical glasses on Tetraform ‘C’

In order to investigate the surface and subsurface integrity of diamond-ground optical glasses, a Tetraform ‘C’ machine tool featuring high close-loop stiffness was used to conduct the ultra-precision machining of fused silica and fused quartz assisted with electrolytic in-process dressing (ELID). An acoustic emission (AE) sensor and a piezoelectric dynamometer were used to monitor the grinding process to correlate the processing characteristics with the generated surface and subsurface integrities, which were characterized by atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning electronic microscope (SEM), and nano-indentation technique. Experimental results showed that for optical glasses the fracture toughness value can be used to predict the machinability while its bigger value always means a better surface and subsurface integrity. During the grinding process of optical glasses, the smaller amplitude and RMS values of AE signal, as well as the smaller grinding forces and the ratio of normal force to tangential force, correspond to a better surface and subsurface integrity. With selected machining parameters and a 6–12 μm grain-sized diamond-grinding wheel, nanometric quality surfaces (Ra<5 nm) with minimal subsurface damage depth (< 0.5 μm) can be generated for fused quartz on Tetraform ‘C’.     

Experimental evaluation of the lubrication performance of MoS2/CNT nanofluid for minimal quantity lubrication in Ni-based alloy grinding

A nanofluid minimum quantity lubrication with addition of one kind of nanoparticle has several limitations, such as grinding of difficult-to-cutting materials. Hybrid nanoparticles integrate the properties of two or more kinds of nanoparticles, thus having better lubrication and heat transfer performances than single nanoparticle additives. However, the use of hybrid nanoparticles in nanofluid minimum quantity lubrication grinding has not been reported. This study aims to determine whether hybrid nanoparticles have better lubrication performance than pure nanoparticle. A hybrid nanofluid consisting of MoS₂ nanoparticles with good lubrication effect and CNTs with high heat conductivity coefficient is investigated. The effects of the hybrid nanofluid on grinding force, coefficient of friction, and workpiece surface quality for Ni-based alloy grinding are analyzed. Results show that the MoS₂/CNT hybrid nanoparticles achieve better lubrication effect than single nanoparticles. The optimal MoS₂/CNT mixing ratio and nanofluid concentration are 2:1 and 6 wt%, respectively.     

Study on surface roughness model and surface forming mechanism of ceramics in quick point grinding

The quick-point grinding experiment of fluorophlogopite was conducted by using a MK9025A profile grinder which considered the simple single factor, such as the grinding wheel and table feed speed, grinding depth, inclining angle and deflection angle. The experimental results indicated that the surface roughness was mainly influenced on inclining angle and deflecting angle. Moreover, the modified model of the quick-point grinding process was proposed in the paper, which based on Malkin kinematics model, Snoeys empirical model and grinding thickness empirical model. The inclining angle and deflecting angle was introduced in the modified model. Comparison of the predicted results of these models and experimental ones indicated that the modified model was in well agreement with the experimental data. Further, standard deviation of these models and experiment was studied in the paper, it is found that the modified model was the more ideal. In order to study the effect of various technology factors on the sensitivity of surface roughness, “Relative extremum error” concept was first proposed in the paper. It was found that simple single factor in the modified model were relatively sensitive to surface roughness than other models.     

Depth-of-cut errors in ELID surface grinding of zirconia-based ceramics

Based on the analysis of a surface grinding system and the material removal mechanism, a mathematic model has been proposed to predict the accumulated error between the total set depth-of-cut (DoC) and the total actual depth-of-cut (ADoC) in multi-pass surface grinding of zirconia-based ceramic materials. Design of Experiments (DoE) approach has been implemented to carry out experiments. The influence of the set DoC of each grinding pass, the total set DoC, and the grinding wheel velocity on the accumulated errors in ADoC has been investigated in detail in surface grinding of zirconia-based ceramics both with electrolysis in-process dressing (ELID) and without ELID. It has been observed that the accumulated DoC errors increase faster in the first few passes and gradually reach a saturation after a certain total DoCs (about 8–10 grinding passes) and a higher step DoC leads to a faster (fewer passes) saturation of the accumulated DoC errors. Compared to grinding without ELID, it has been found that ELID-grinding is characterized with better process stability and ELID offers positive effects on material removal rate (MRR), especially in case of removing large volume of material with the same grinding parameters.     

Effects of cooling air temperature on cryogenic machining of Ti-6Al-4V alloy

This paper presents experimental investigations on influence of different coolant strategies such as dry, wet, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) and MQL with cooling air on performance in milling of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy with uncoated cemented carbide inserts. Cutting force, tool wear, surface roughness and chip morphology are experimentally studied to compare the effects of different cooling air temperatures. The results showed that minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) with cooling air significantly reduces cutting force, tool wear and surface roughness. Unfortunately, MQL (without cooling air) condition cannot produce evident effect on cutting performance, and flaking wear on the flank surface of the insert has been found under this condition. Four different cooling air temperatures are used to investigate the effects of cooling air temperature on the machinability characteristics of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Based on the experimental results, MQL with cooling air of −15 °C provides more favourable effects compared to other cooling air temperatures (0 °C, −30 °C,−45 °C). Short chips are produced under MQL with cooling air conditions due to the high velocity of cooling air enhances the chip brittleness for easy chip breaking, and the effective penetration of lubricant to the chip-tool interface results in lower friction. However, due to the dramatic increase in chip hardness at lower temperature, MQL with cooling air environments cannot promote chip curl to some extent.     

Mechanism of minimum quantity lubrication in high-speed milling of hardened steel

The rapid wear rate of cutting tools due to high cutting temperature is a critical problem to be solved in high-speed machining (HSM) of hardened steels. Near-dry machining such as minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) is regarded as one of the solutions to this difficulty. However, the function of MQL in HSM is still uncertain so far which prevents MQL from widely being utilized in the machining of hardened steels. In this paper, the mechanism of MQL in HSM of hardened steel is investigated more comprehensively. Comparing with dry cutting, the tool performance can be enhanced by MQL under all cutting speeds in this study. It is found that MQL can provide extra oxygen to promote the formation of a protective oxide layer in between the chip–tool interface. This layer is basically quaternary compound oxides of Fe, Mn, Si, and Al, and is proved to act as diffusion barriers effectively. Hence, the strength and wear resistance of a cutting tool can be retained which leads to a significant improvement of tool life. It is found that there exists an optimal cutting speed at which a stable protective oxide layer can be formed. When cutting speed is lower than this speed, there is less oxide layer and the improvement of tool life is less apparent. As the cutting speed is far beyond the optimal value, the protective layer is absent and the thermal cracks are apt to occur at the cutting edge due to large fluctuation of temperature. Resultantly, application of MQL is inappropriate in the extreme high-speed cutting condition irrespective of its little increase in tool life. Based on this study, it is concluded that the tool life can be effectively improved by MQL in HSM of NAK80 hardened steels when cutting parameters are chosen properly.     

On the mechanics of the grinding process – Part I. Stochastic nature of the grinding process

Grinding of metals is a complex material removal operation involving cutting, ploughing, and rubbing depending on the extent of interaction between the abrasive grains and the workmaterial under the conditions of grinding. It is also a stochastic process in that a large number of abrasive grains of unknown geometry, whose geometry varies with time, participate in the process and remove material from the workpiece. Also, the number of grains passing through the grinding zone per unit time is extremely large. To address such a complex problem, it is necessary to analyze the mechanics of the grinding process using probability statistics, which is the subject of this investigation. Such an analysis is applicable to both form and finish grinding (FFG), such as surface grinding and stock removal grinding (SRG), such as cut-off operation. In this investigation, various parameters of the process including the number of abrasive grains in actual contact, the number of actual cutting grains per unit area for a given depth of wheel indentation, the minimum diameter of the contacting and cutting grains, and the volume of the chip removed per unit time were determined analytically and compared with the experimental results reported in the literature. Such an analysis enables the use of actual number of contacting and cutting grains in the grinding wheel for thermal and wheel wear analyses. It can also enable comparison of analytical work with the experimental results and contribute towards a better understanding of the grinding process. The analysis is applied to some typical cases of fine grinding and cut-off operations reported in the literature. It is found that out of a large number of grains on the surface of the wheel passing over the workpiece per second (˜million or more per second), only a very small fraction of the grains merely rub or plough into the workmaterial (3.8% for FFG and 18% for SRG) and even a smaller fraction (0.14% for FFG and 1.8% for SRG) of that participate in actual cutting, thus validating Hahn’s rubbing grain hypothesis.     

A revisit to some wheel–workpiece interaction problems in surface grinding

This paper revisited some wheel–workpiece interaction problems in surface grinding including the profile of heat flux and the variation of the wheel’s elastic modulus. A method of using an optical microscope and a CCD camera was applied to capture the depth and width of the heated zone, the details of the temperature field and the stability of the heat flux. It was found that the heat flux in up-grinding can be modeled as a triangle with its apex at the inlet of the wheel–workpiece contact arc. The elastic modulus of the grinding wheel decreases significantly when the grinding temperature is beyond a critical value and can be described by a power law. It was also found that the depth of cut has almost no effect on the partition of the grinding energy.     

Drilling of hybrid metal matrix composites—Workpiece surface integrity

The main concern in the present study is the surface roughness variations on the drilled surface and extension of surface and sub-surface deformation due to drilling. The influence of different tools and cutting conditions on Al2219/15%SiCp and Al2219/15%SiCp-3%Graphite (hybrid) composites is investigated experimentally. The composites are fabricated by liquid metallurgy method. The drilling tests are conducted with carbide and coated carbide tools. The surface roughness decreases with the increase in cutting speed and increases with the increase in feed rate. The surface is analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Microhardness profiles indicate that the subsurface deformation extends up to a maximum of 120 μm below the machined surface for Al2219/15SiCp-3Gr composite when compared to 150 μm in Al2219/15SiCp composite.     

Experimental study on grinding force and grinding temperature of Aermet 100 steel in surface grinding

This paper investigates grinding force and grinding temperature of ultra-high strength steel Aermet 100 in conventional surface grinding using a single alumina wheel, a white alumina wheel and a cubic boron nitride wheel. First, mathematical models of grinding force and grinding temperature for three wheels were established. Then, the role of chip formation force and friction force in grinding force was investigated and thermal distribution in contact zone between workpiece and wheel was analyzed based on the mathematical model. The experimental result indicated that the minimum grinding force and the maximum grinding force ratio under the same grinding parameters can be achieved when using a CBN wheel and a single alumina wheel, respectively. When the phenomenon of large grinding force and high grinding temperature appeared, the workpiece material would adhere locally to the single alumina wheel. Grinding temperature was in a high state under the effect of two main aspects: poor thermal properties of grinding wheel and low coolant efficiency. The predicted value of grinding force and grinding temperature were compared with those experimentally obtained and the results show a reasonable agreement.     

超声椭圆振动磨削ZTA的表面完整性研究

针对改性氧化铝(ZTA)陶瓷的超声椭圆振动磨削,给出了磨粒的切削轨迹模型,讨论了其对加工精度的影响.通过试验获得了椭圆超声振动磨削对ZTA陶瓷的表面形貌的影响.被加工表面上可以观测到晶粒细化现象,几乎没有破碎发生,表明材料去除模式主要为塑性去除;与普通磨削的对比试验表明,表面粗糙度降低约30～40%.X-射线衍射分析表明被加工表面的相结构主要为α-Al2O3,和t-ZrO2,以及少量的m-ZrO2;普通磨削和超声椭圆振动磨削的表面上都观察不到非晶相.试验结果表明,ZTA的非弹性变形去除对表面完整性有重要影响.     

Chip morphology and surface integrity in ultraprecision cutting of yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal

Yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (Y-TZP) is an important material for dental, biomedical, and mechanical applications. In this study, Y-TZP was cut by a single-crystal diamond tool in the micro-nanometre scale. The chip morphology and machined surface/subsurface properties under various conditions were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. Two factors dominating the material removal were identified: (i) crystal grain refinement and (ii) tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation, the mechanisms of which were established by experiments and finite element simulations. This study provides a possible solution to the rapid fabrication of small 3D features on Y-TZP with nanometric surface roughness and an ultra-fine-grained subsurface layer.     

Selection of optimum conditions for maximum material removal rate with surface finish and damage as constraints in SiC grinding

Efficient grinding of structural ceramics requires judicious selection of operating parameters to maximize removal rate while controlling surface integrity. Grinding of silicon carbide is difficult because of its low fracture toughness, making it very sensitive to cracking. In the present work, experiments were carried out to study the effect of wheel parameters; grain size and grain density and grinding parameters; depth of cut and feed on the surface roughness and surface damage. The significance of the grinding parameters on the selected responses was evaluated using analysis of variance. Mathematical models were developed using the experimental data considering only the significant parameters. A genetic algorithm (GA) code has been developed to optimize the grinding conditions for maximum material removal, using a multi-objective function model, by imposing surface roughness and surface damage constraints. The choice of including manufacturer’s constraints on the basis of functional requirements of the component for maximizing the production rate was also embedded in the GA code.     

A multi-objective genetic algorithm (GA) approach for optimization of surface grinding operations

A genetic algorithm (GA) based optimization procedure has been developed to optimize grinding conditions, viz. wheel speed, workpiece speed, depth of dressing and lead of dressing, using multi-objective function model with a weighted approach for surface grinding process. The procedure evaluates the production cost and production rate for the optimum grinding condition, subjected to constraints such as thermal damage, wheel wear parameters, machine tool stiffness and surface finish. New GA procedure is illustrated with an example and optimum results such as production cost, surface finish, metal removal rate are compared with quadratic programming techniques.     

Experimental techniques for studying the effects of milling roller-burnishing parameters on surface integrity

Roller-burnishing is used in place of other traditional methods to finish 6061-T6 aluminum alloy. How to select the burnishing parameters to improve surface integrity (reduce surface roughness, increase surface microhardness and produce compressive residual stress) is especially crucial. This paper presents an investigation of the effect of roller-burnishing upon surface roughness, surface microhardness and residual stress of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy. The residual stress distribution in the surface region that was burnished is determined using a deflection-etching technique. Mathematical models correlating three process parameters: burnishing speed, burnishing depth of penetration and number of passes, are established. A Group Method of Data Handling Technique, GMDH, is used. It is shown that low burnishing speeds and high depths of penetration produce much smoother surfaces, whereas a combination of high speed with high depth leads to rougher surfaces because of chatter. The optimum number of passes that produces a good surface finish was found to be 3 or 4. The maximum value of compressive residual stress decreases with an increase in burnishing speed. The maximum compressive residual stress increases with an increase in burnishing depth of penetration and/or number of passes.