Cooling in grind-hardening operations

The grind hardening process utilizes the heat dissipation in the grinding area for inducing metallurgical transformation on the surface of the ground workpiece. The workpiece surface is selectively heated above the austenitisation temperature and subsequently is self-quenched so as to achieve the anticipated surface hardening. In order for self-quenching to occur sufficient material mass must be present to conduct the heat away from the surface. However, in the case of grind-hardening of thin workpieces or cylindrical workpieces of small diameter, the quenching has to be assisted with the application of coolant fluid. In this paper, the utilization of the coolant fluid for the grind-hardening of small diameter cylindrical parts is investigated. The rapid heating of the workpiece and the short austenitising time are taken into consideration both for the estimation of the hardness profile and the hardness penetration depth (HPD). A finite element analysis (FEA) model is developed for this specific case and its predictions are verified experimentally.