Robust design and optimisation of aerospace alloy grinding by different abrasive wheels

Grinding operations are widely used for aerospace materials. The quality and economy of grinding depend on the adequate selection of grinding conditions for the materials to be ground. This paper presents a robust experimental research of grinding wheel performance using experimental signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) designs and multi-objective optimisation methods. Combining orthogonal design and SNR can solve many issues of comprehensive assessments based on different characteristics. The assessment of grinding performance takes account of grinding control parameters as the inputs and the roughness, grinding ratio, grinding forces and temperature as the outputs. The optimisation of conventional and superabrasive grinding processes was based on a single-objective or multi-objective optimisation, where a ranking measure method was employed with weighted factors based on a performance index scoring system. The selection of weighted factors depends on different quality and economic requirements. An appropriate strategy was developed for grinding nickel-based aerospace alloys with different wheels.