Investigation of cutting mechanism and residual stress state with grooved grinding wheels

Grooved grinding wheels play an important role in reducing grinding thermal damage. Aluminum oxide grinding wheels of approximately 1 mm slot width and 35% groove ratio were successfully fabricated using a novel reciprocating ultrafast laser scanning mode to improve the grinding stability. Grinding experiments with grooved and non-grooved wheels were conducted on 42CrMo. The cutting mechanisms of grooved structures were analyzed with the established cutting kinematics of the abrasives in the groove edges and the grinding force components model. The decreased grinding forces were observed and analyzed with abrasive cutting mechanisms, indicating that grooved structures can increase the undeformed chip thickness of grains at the slot edges and decrease the specific grinding energy by reducing the specific plowing and sliding energy. The grooved grinding wheels exhibited high performance in inhibiting grinding heat and workpiece burns. The burned workpiece ground with non-grooved wheels experienced a phase transformation and had a high tensile residual stress state on the ground surface and subsurface, while compressive residual stresses were detected on the unburned workpiece surface ground with grooved wheels. Grooved grinding wheels can improve the grinding quality of workpieces due to the lower grinding temperature and residual stress.

Automated summary

Grooved grinding wheels can reduce grinding thermal damage and improve the grinding quality of workpieces by decreasing the grinding temperature and residual stress.