Grinding performance of textured monolayer CBN wheels: Undeformed chip thickness nonuniformity modeling and ground surface topography prediction

The ground surface roughness and topography are commonly used to characterize the surface finishing. In the application of textured monolayer CBN wheels, the nonuniformity of wheel topology will render a nonuniform undeformed chip thickness which greatly affects the ground surface. In order to predict the ground surface topography more accurately and efficiently, grinding experiment has been conducted in the current study, with measured grinding wheel topology. The measured surface topology of textured monolayer CBN wheels has been reconstructed by using the Johnson transformation and its inverse transformation. The influence of wheel topology evolution on the undeformed chip thickness nonuniformity has been determined with an improved model. It has been found the ground surface roughness is improved with a continuous reducing undeformed chip thickness nonuniformity. The percentage of active grains, the mean value and standard deviation of undeformed chip thickness have been found the main factors in determining the surface roughness. The reconstructed wheel surface topology has been used to predict the workpiece topography in different stages of the grinding process.