Investigation on high-shear and low-pressure grinding with CBN liquid-body-armor-like wheel for Inconel718

In this study, a CBN liquid-body-armor-like grinding wheel was developed for high-shear and low-pressure (HSLP) grinding of Inconel718 alloy. The material removal mechanism of the novel CBN liquid-body-armor-like wheel was introduced in detail. Particle clustering effect of the new wheel was studied via the finite element method. A series of grinding tests were carried out to investigate the grinding performance under the various conditions. It was shown that the surface roughness Ra of the ground workpiece decreased from initial 0.3 to 0.094 & mu;m. Simultaneously, the specific material removal rate of 1.069 x 10(5) & mu;m(3)/mm & BULL;s was attained. The power spectral density function (PSDF) was employed to reveal the percentage of waviness and roughness of the surface profile, which was mainly concentrated in 0-40k Hz as compared with 60-120k Hz before grinding. It indicated that particle clustering effect was generated in the grinding zone. Besides, the maximum peak amplitude of the cross-correlation function coefficient of the ground workpiece surfaces before and after grinding was less than 0.3. The original scratches were completely removed. New and smooth textures generated after grinding. The experimental results demonstrated that the newly developed CBN liquid-body-armor-like grinding wheel was effective for surface finishing of the Inconel718 workpiece.