Chapter 5

Abrasive Machining And Finishing Operation

Compiled by :- Muliye Tadesse

DEC
 Abrasive machining
 Abrasive machining is a material removal process
that involves the use of abrasive cutting tools.

 There are three types of abrasive cutting tools

according to the degree to which abrasive grains
are constrained

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 Bonded abrasive tools:

 abrasive grains are closely packed into different

shapes, the most common is the abrasive wheel.
 Grains are held together by bonding material.
 Abrasive machining process that use bonded
abrasives include grinding, honing, superfinishing.

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 Coated abrasive tools:

 Abrasive grains are glued onto a flexible cloth,

paper or resin backing.
 Coated abrasives are available in sheets, rolls,
endless belts.
 Processes include abrasive belt grinding,
abrasive wire cutting.

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 Free abrasives:

 Abrasive grains are not bonded or glued.

 Instead, they are introduced either in oil-based
fluids (lapping, ultrasonic machining), or in water
(abrasive water jet cutting) or air (abrasive jet
machining), or contained in a semi soft binder
(buffing).

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 Grinding wheel

 A grinding wheel consists of abrasive particles and

bonding material.

 The bonding material holds the particles in place

and establishes the shape and structure of the
wheel.

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 Fig.5.1The structure of a grinding wheel showing the
cutting action of abrasive grains.
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 The way the abrasive grains, bonding material,
and the air gaps are structured, determines the
parameters of the grinding wheel, which are
abrasive material
grain size
bonding material
wheel grade, and
wheel structure.

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Table 5.2 The abrasive materials of greatest commercial
importance today are listed in the table

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 Grain size
 The grain size of the abrasive particle is an
important parameter in determining surface finish
and material removal rate.

 Small grit sizes produce better finishes while larger

grain sizes permit larger material removal rates.

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 The abrasive grains are classified in a screen mesh
procedure.
 In this procedure smaller grit sizes have larger
numbers and vice versa.
 Grain sizes used in grinding wheels typically range
between 6 and 600.
 Grit size 6 is very coarse and size 600 is very fine.
 Finer grit sizes up to 1000 are used in some
finishing operations.

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 Bonding Materials
 The bonding material holds the abrasive grains
and establishes the shape and structural integrity of
the grinding wheel.
 Desirable properties of the bond material include
strength, toughness, hardness, and temperature
resistance.
 Bonding materials commonly used in grinding
wheels include the following:

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 Vitrified bond: vitrified bonding material consists
chiefly of ceramic materials.
 Most grinding wheels in common use are
vitrified bonded wheels.
 They are strong and rigid resistant to elevated
temperatures, and relatively unaffected by
cutting fluids;

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 Rubber bond: rubber is the most flexible of the
bonding materials.
 It is used as a bonding material in cutoff wheels.
 Resinoid bond: this bond is made of various
thermosetting resin materials.
 They have very high strength and are used for
rough grinding and cutoff operations.

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 Shellac bond: shellac-bonded grinding wheels are
relatively strong but not rigid.
 They are often used in applications requiring a
good finish;
 Metallic bond: metal bonds, usually bronze, are the
common bond material for diamond and CBN
grinding wheels.
 Diamond and CBN abrasive grains are bond
material to only the outside periphery of the
wheel, thus conserving the costly abrasive
materials.

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 Wheel grade
 Wheel grades indicates the wheel bond strength.
 It is measured on a scale ranging from soft to hard.
 Soft wheels loose grains easily and are used for low
material removal rates and grinding of hard
materials.
 Harder grades are preferred for high productivity
and grinding of relatively soft materials.

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 Structure
 The wheel structure indicates spacing of the
abrasive grains in the wheel.
 It is measured on a scale that ranges from open to
dense.
 Open structure means more pores and fewer grains
per unit wheel volume, and vice versa.
 Open structure is recommended for work materials
that tend to produce continuous chips, while denser
structure is used for better surface finish and
dimensional precision.

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 Grinding wheel specification
 Grinding wheels are marked with a standardized
system of letters and numbers, which specifies the
parameters of the grinding wheel.
 Grinding wheels are available in a variety of
shapes and sizes the most popular shown in the
figure below:

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Wheel nomenclature

Compiled by:Muliye T.
Cont….

Compiled by:Muliye T.
 (a)
(b) (c)

(d) (e)
Fig.9.28 Some common types of grinding wheels;
(a) straight (b) cylinder (c) straight cup (d) flaring cup (e)
mounted.
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 Grinding processes are chip-making metal-cutting
processes, like drilling, turning & milling.
 Small chips called swarf are removed in large
numbers by cutting action of many small
individual abrasive grains.
 Each sharp edge of a grain cuts a small chip of
material.

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 As edges become dull, heat & pressure increase,
causing grains in the grinding wheel to fracture.

 Grains that microfracture and expose new sharp

edges are termed friable.

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 Causes of Wheel Wear
1. Grain fracture - when a portion of the grain
breaks off, but the rest remains bonded in the
wheel
– Edges of the fractured area become new cutting edges
– Tendency to fracture is called friability
 Causes of Wheel Wear
2. Attritious wear - dulling of individual grains,
resulting in flat spots and rounded edges
– Analogous to tool wear in conventional cutting tool
– Caused by similar mechanisms including friction,
diffusion, and chemical reactions
 Causes of Wheel Wear
3. Bond fracture - the individual grains are
pulled out of the bonding material
– Depends on wheel grade, among other factors
– Usually occurs because grain has become dull due to
attritious wear, and resulting cutting force becomes
excessive
 Cutting conditions in grinding
• The geometry of grinding is shown in the figure:
• The cutting velocity V in grinding is very high. It is
related to the rotational speed of the wheel by
• V= πDN
– Where, D is wheel diameter and N is rotational speed of
Grinding wheel.
• Depth of cut d is called infeed and is defined as the
distance between the machined and work surfaces.
• It is the thickness of the material removed in surface
grinding for one cut.
• Depth of cut in grinding depend on the:
 Cutting load
 Power of the machine
 Finish required
• As the operation proceeds, the grinding wheel is fed
laterally across the work surface on each pass by the
workpart. The distance at which the wheel is fed is called a
crossfeed.
• The crossfeed is actually the width of cut w. The crossfeed
multiplied by infeed determines the cross-sectional area of
cut, CSA:
– CSA = crossfeed × infeed = wd
 Application Guidelines
• To optimize surface finish, select
– Small grit size and dense wheel structure
– Use higher wheel speeds (v) and lower work speeds (vw)
– Smaller depths of cut (d) and larger wheel diameters (D) will also
help
• To maximize material removal rate, select
– Large grit size
– More open wheel structure
– Vitrified (Shiny and non-porous) bond
 Application Guidelines
• For steel and most cast irons, use
– Aluminum oxide as the abrasive
• For most nonferrous metals, use
– Silicon carbide as the abrasive
• For hardened tool steels and certain aerospace
alloys, use
– Cubic boron nitride as the abrasive
• For hard abrasive materials (e.g., ceramics,
cemented carbides, and glass) use
– Diamond as the abrasive
 Application Guidelines
• For soft metals, use
– Large grit size and harder grade wheel
• For hard metals, use
– Small grit size and softer grade wheel
 Grinding Wheel Operating
Procedures
• Truing - Restores the original geometry to the
grinding wheel. It also can be used to ensure
the wheel is running concentric with the
spindle of the grinding machine.
• Dressing - Exposes a new cutting surface on
the grinding wheel.
• Balancing - Typically performed on large and
diamond wheels this procedure ensures the
wheel is running true with the axis of rotation.
 GLAZING & LOADING
• When the surface of a grinding wheel develops a
smooth and shining appearance, it is said to be
glazed. This indicate the abrasive particles on the
wheel face are not sharp. These are worked down
to bond level.
• When soft materials like aluminium, copper, lead,
etc. are ground the metal particles get clogged
between the abrasive particles. This condition is
called loading.
Grinding Wheel
Loading
 Dressing the Wheel
Dressing - accomplished by rotating disk, abrasive
stick, or another grinding wheel held against the
wheel being dressed as it rotates
• Functions:
– Break off dulled grits to expose new sharp grains
– Remove chips clogged in wheel
Wheel dressing

wheel

Dressing tool

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 Grinding machines
Types of Grinding
- Surface Grinding
- Cylindrical Grinding
- Internal Grinding
- Centerless Grinding
- Others
- Tool and cutter grinders
- Tool-post grinding
- Swing-frame grinders
- Bench grinders
- Creep-Feed Grinding
Surface Grinding
• Surface grinding is an abrasive machining process in which
the grinding wheel removes material from the plain flat
surfaces of the workpiece.
• In surface grinding, the spindle position is either horizontal
or vertical, and the relative motion of the workpiece is
achieved either by reciprocating the workpiece past the
wheel or by rotating it.
 Cylindrical Grinding machine
• In this operation, the external or internal cylindrical
surface of a workpiece are ground. In external cylindrical
grinding (also center-type grinding) the workpiece rotates
and reciprocates along its axis, although for large and long
workparts the grinding wheel reciprocates.
• In internal cylindrical grinding, a small wheel grinds
the inside diameter of the part. The workpiece is
held in a rotating chuck in the headstock and the
wheel rotates at very high rotational speed. In this
operation, the workpiece rotates and the grinding
wheel reciprocates.
• Three types of feed motion are possible according to the
direction of feed motion,
– traverse feed grinding (also through feed grinding, cross-feeding) in
which the relative feed motion is parallel to the spindle axis of
rotation,
– plunge grinding in which the grinding wheel is fed radially into the
workpiece, and Ž
– a combination of traverse and plunge grinding in which the grinding
wheel is fed at 45 degree to grind simultaneously the cylindrical
part of the workpiece and the adjacent face.
 Centerless Grinding machine
• Centerless grinding is a process for continuously
grinding cylindrical surfaces in which the workpiece
is supported not by centers or chucks but by a rest
blade. The workpiece is ground between two
wheels. The larger grinding wheel does grinding,
while the smaller regulating wheel, which is tilted at
an angle I, regulates the velocity Vf of the axial
movement of the workpiece.
 Creep feed grinding
• Grinding has traditionally been associated with small
rates of material removal and finishing operations.
• However, grinding can also be used for large-scale metal
removal operations similar to milling, shaping, and
planning. In creep-feed grinding, the depth of cut d is as
much as 6mm, and the workpiece speed is low.
• The wheels are mostly softer grade resin bonded with
open structure to keep temperatures low.
• Creep-feed grinding can be economical for specific
applications, such as grinding cavities, grooves, etc.
• Depths of cut 1000 to 10,000 times greater
than in conventional surface grinding
– Feed rates reduced by about the same proportion
• Material removal rate and productivity are
increased in creep feed grinding because the
wheel is continuously cutting
– In conventional surface grinding, wheel is engaged in
cutting for only a portion of the stroke length
Cont…
Plunge grinding

Grinding
wheel feed
direction

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 Utility (Pedestal) Grinding Machine
• The utility grinding machine is intended for offhand grinding
where the workpiece is supported in the hand and brought to
bear against the rotating grinding abrasive wheel.
• The accuracy of this type of grinding machine depends on the
operator’s dexterity. skill, and knowledge of the machine’s
capabilities and the nature of the work.

Floor Mounted Utility Grinding Machine

 Bench Type Utility Grinding Machine

• Like the floor mounted utility grinding machine,

one coarse grinding wheel and one fine grinding
wheel are usually mounted on the machine for
convenience of operation.
 Bench-Type Utility Grinding and Buffing Machine

• The bench-type utility grinding and buffing

machine is more suitable for miscellaneous
grinding, cleaning, and buffing It is not
recommended for tool grinding since it contains
no tool rests, eye shields, or wheel guards.
• The wire wheel is used for cleaning and the
abrasive wheel is used for general grinding. One
of the two wheels can be removed and a buffing
wheel mounted in its place for buffing and
polishing.
Cont…
Bench-Type Tool and Cutter Grinder
 Tool Post Grinding Machine
• The tool post grinding machine is a machine tool
attachment designed to mount to the tool post of
engine lathes. It is used for internal and external
grinding of cylindrical workplaces.
Tool and cutter grinder
 Super finishing processes
WHY SUPER FINISHING REQUIRED

In Certain Circumstances High Surface Quality Is

Required
Hence For Removing Grinding Defects,
To Obtain Desired Surface Finish And
To Improve The Geometrical Shape Finishing Processes
Are Used.
It Includes Honing, Lapping, And Super Finishing.

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 FINISHING METHODS
• With material removal – generative methods

-fine machining, honing, super finishing, lapping

• Without material removal – forming method

-glazing, blasting, tumbling, polishing

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 TYPES OF SUPER FINISHING
PROCESS

 Honing

 Lapping
- Hand Lapping
- Machine Lapping
 Super Finishing

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 Honing
 Abrasive process performed by a set of bonded
abrasive sticks using a combination of rotational
and oscillatory motions
 Common application is to finish the bores of
internal combustion engines
 Surface finishes of 0.12 m (5 -in) or better
 Creates a characteristic cross‑hatched surface
that retains lubrication

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 Honing

The honing process: (a) the honing tool used for internal bore
surface, and (b) cross‑hatched surface pattern created by the
action of the honing tool.

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 Honing
Material of stones
Any abrasive material can
Be used for a honing stone

Same materials like grinding stones (corundum,

SiC, CBN, PCD(Polycrystalline Diamond))
more precise shape, smaller grain (10-50 μm)
 Cutting fluids are used for lubrication
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 Honing – machine tools
Special horizontal or vertical honing machines

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 Honing

Hole defects correctible by honing 65

 What is Honing Used For?
It isn’t cost efficient to use on low quality parts only precise parts

Automotives

High quality Machinery

Gears

Airplane components

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• Objectives are achieved by honing
1. Metal is removed
2. Roundness & straightness is obtained
3. Accurate dimension is obtained
4. Required surface finish is obtained.

• Application :

-Honing Of Automobile
Cylinder

-Honing Is Also Used For

Repair Work
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 Lapping
Uses fluid suspension of very small abrasive
particles between workpiece and lap (tool)
Lapping compound - fluid with abrasives, general
appearance of a chalky paste
Applications: optical lenses, metallic bearing
surfaces, gages

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 Cont…
It’s the final stock-removing process.
Lapping removes surface roughness, slight
distortions, tool marks, and surface fuzz left from
grinding

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 How’s it work?
Lapping involves bringing the surfaces
of the workpieces in contact with a tool
called a lap.
Loose, fine abrasive powder mixes with oil and is used
between the lap and the workpiece.
The work is moved into contact with the lap over an ever
changing path in a continually criss-cross pattern.
Hole laps consist of a cylindrical tool which is made of
wood, copper, brass, or cast iron. The diameter of the lap
is always smaller than the hole and the hole is greased
with an abrasive powder previous to lapping.
In general, lapping reduces the height of high spots on
the surfaces of parts by means of a rubbing action.
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 Lapping

The lapping process in lens‑making.

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 Lapping - methods
For: Made:
Holes Manually
Flat surfaces mechanically
cylinders

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 Lapping - methods
• Flat surfaces
Lapping plate (different sizes, manual,
machine operated)
- Moved irregularly along the surface

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 Machine lapping
 In this method a rotating
table is used in place of the
plate.
 Again the work piece to be
lapped is given rotary by a
cage and rotated on the
surface of the table.
 Rotating lap is used above &
below the work piece to
produce parallel surfaces.
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 HAND LAPPING
 In this method lapping
compound is spread on cast
iron plate and work piece is
moved manually on it on a
path like English figure - 8

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 Lapping - properties
 Lapping removes all tool traces – improves
durability, lowers friction
 Gives best surface quality (glass, mirror
lapping)

IT = 1 – 5
Ra = 0,01 – 0,16

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 SUPER FINISHING
 This process is one type of honing , in
which as compared to honing
 less pressure,
 high speed,
 huge amount of lubricant – coolant of
low viscosity and
 more contact area between work &
abrasive face is kept.
 Less heat is produced during super
finishing and
 it is generally done on external surfaces.
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 POLISHING
 Abbrasive material is bond
to a tool (disc, belt) or it is a
media (paste) freely between
tool (textile disc, belt) and
part
 NO improve in shape or
accuracy!!
 Just improves the surface
quality

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Polishing
Produces a smooth, reflective surface finish;
done with disks or belts with fine abrasive
grains

Electropolishing
Produces mirror-like surfaces on metals; the
electrolyte removes peaks and raised areas
faster than lower areas; also used for deburring

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 Polishing - tools
 Discs
– multi-plated : of fabric, leather, cotton
- Solid : rubber, wood, cork, mild metal
 Brushes
- Made of fibres : plastic, metal wire (0,1-1,2 mm)
 Belts
- Endless belt pushed to the part. Better and more
productive than discs.

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Thank you

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