Grindability of powder metallurgy nickel-base superalloy FGH96 and sensibility analysis of machined surface roughness

The grindability and sensibility analysis of surface roughness of powder metallurgy nickel-base superalloy FGH96 were studied in comparison to the wrought nickel-base superalloy GH4169. The effects of grinding parameters (such as workpiece infeed speed, depth of cut, and abrasive wheel speed) on grinding force, grinding temperature, specific grinding energy, abrasive wheel wear, and surface roughness were analyzed. The results show that the grinding force, grinding temperature, and specific grinding energy of GH4169 are usually higher than those of FGH96 under the given experimental conditions. However, the wear behavior of the brown corundum abrasive wheels when grinding these two kinds of nickel-base superalloy material is generally identical. The sensitivity of GH4169 workpiece surface roughness to depth of cut and workpiece infeed speed is higher than that of FGH96, but the sensitivity of GH4169 to abrasive wheel speed is less than that of FGH96. Finally, it is inferred that the grinding performance of FGH96 is slightly better than that of GH4169.