Experimental study of time-dependent performance in superalloy high-speed grinding with cBN wheels

The time-dependent performance of grinding is expressed as the change of process output measures as a function of time during grinding. Although the wheel capability will be restored by dressing, the time-dependent performance of grinding during one dressing skip is the determinant on the grinding quality variation in terms of surface integrity and workpiece geometric accuracy. Therefore, understanding of grinding time-dependent performance in relation with the wheel–workpiece microscopic interaction is critical for wheel and process development to achieve stable grinding processes. In this article, the grinding of superalloy with cubic boron nitride (cBN) grinding wheels is performed. The time-dependent performance is recorded to represent the characteristic features, and the microscopic wheel topography is measured under scanning electron microscope (SEM) throughout the grinding process, so as to reveal the root cause for the time-dependent performance and its impact on the workpiece quality variation. The experiment results indicate that during the grinding process, there exist three characteristic stages, namely, initial wheel wear stage, severe wheel wear stage, and wheel resharpening stage. Moreover, the change trend of spindle power consumption, workpiece quality on surface hardness and roughness, wheel wear condition, and G ratio are consistent with the wheel topography evolution reflected by SEM photos, which can be used to present the three grinding stages. The wear and replacement of the efficient grain cutting edges result in the time-dependent performance during superalloy high-speed grinding with cBN wheels.