SURFACE FINISHING PROCESS

Grinding
■ Grinding is the most common form of abrasive machining. It is a material cutting
process which engages an abrasive tool whose cutting elements are grains of abrasive
material known as grit. These grits are characterized by sharp cutting points, high hot
hardness, chemical stability and wear resistance.
■ The grits are held together by a suitable bonding material to give shape of an abrasive
tool.

Fig. illustrates the cutting action of abrasive grits of disc type grinding wheel
similar to cutting action of teeth of the cutter in slab milling.
Major advantages and applications of grinding
Advantages
■ A grinding wheel requires two types of specification
❑ Dimensional accuracy
❑ Good surface finish
❑ Good form and locational accuracy applicable to both hardened and
unhardened material
Applications
■ Surface finishing
■ Slitting and parting
■ De-scaling , De-burring
■ Stock removal (abrasive milling) finishing of flat as well as cylindrical
surface
■ Grinding of tools and cutters and re-sharpening of the same.
Grinding Machines
■ Grinding Machines are also regarded as machine tools. A distinguishing feature of
grinding machines is the rotating abrasive tool.
■ Grinding machine is employed to obtain high accuracy along with very high class of
surface finish on the work piece. However, advent of new generation of grinding
wheels and grinding machines, characterized by their rigidity, power and speed
enables one to go for high efficiency deep grinding (often called as abrasive milling)
of not only hardened material but also ductile materials.
■ Conventional grinding machines can be broadly classified as:
❑ Surface grinding machine
❑ Cylindrical grinding machine
❑ Internal grinding machine
❑ Tool and cutter grinding machine
Surface grinding
■ In surface grinding, the spindle position is either horizontal or vertical, and the
relative motion of the work piece is achieved either by reciprocating the work piece
past the wheel or by rotating it. The possible combinations of spindle orientations and
work piece motions yield four types of surface grinding processes illustrated in the
figure
Surface grinding machine

Schematic illustration surface grinding Machine

 Surface grinding machine
■ This machine may be similar to a milling machine used mainly to grind flat surface.
However, some types of surface grinders are also capable of producing contour
surface with formed grinding wheel.

Horizontal Grinding Machine Vertical Grinding Machine

A: rotation of grinding wheel B: reciprocation of worktable C: transverse feed D: down feed
Cylindrical grinding
■ In this operation, the external or internal cylindrical surface of a work piece are
ground. In external cylindrical grinding (also center-type grinding) the work piece
rotates and reciprocates along its axis, although for large and long work parts the
grinding wheel reciprocates.
■ In internal cylindrical grinding, a small wheel grinds the inside diameter of the part.
The work piece is held in a rotating chuck in the headstock and the wheel rotates at
very high rotational speed. In this operation, the work piece rotates and the grinding
wheel reciprocates.
 Cylindrical grinding machine
■ This machine is used to produce external cylindrical surface. The surfaces may be
straight, tapered, steps or profiled.

A: rotation of grinding wheel B: work table rotation C: reciprocation of worktable D: infeed

Internal grinding machine
■ This machine is used to produce internal cylindrical surface. The surface may be
straight, tapered, grooved or profiled.
Center less grinding

■ Center less grinding is a process for continuously grinding cylindrical

surfaces in which the work piece is supported not by centers or chucks but
by a rest blade. The work piece 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
work piece.

■ Center less grinding can also be external or internal, traverse feed or plunge
grinding. The most common type of center less grinding is the external
traverse feed grinding.
Center less grinding Machine
Tool and cutter grinder machine
■ Tool grinding may be divided into two subgroups: tool manufacturing and tool re
sharpening. There are many types of tool and cutter grinding machine to meet these
requirements. Simple single point tools are occasionally sharpened by hand on bench
or pedestal grinder. However, tools and cutters with complex geometry like milling
cutter, drills, reamers and hobs require sophisticated grinding machine commonly
known as universal tool and cutter grinder. Present trend is to use tool and cutter
grinder equipped with CNC to grind tool angles, concentricity, cutting edges and
dimensional size with high precision.
Grinding wheel
■ Grinding wheel consists of hard abrasive grains called grits, which perform
the cutting or material removal, held in the weak bonding matrix. A grinding
wheel commonly identified by the type of the abrasive material used. The
conventional wheels include aluminium oxide and silicon carbide wheels
while diamond and CBN (cubic boron nitride) wheels fall in the category of
super abrasive wheel.
Specification of grinding wheel
■ A grinding wheel requires two types of specification
❑ Geometrical specification

❑ Compositional specification
Geometrical specification
■ This is decided by the type of grinding machine and the grinding operation to be
performed in the workpiece. This specification mainly includes wheel diameter,
width and depth of rim and the bore diameter.
Compositional specifications
■ Specification of a grinding wheel ordinarily means compositional specification.
Conventional abrasive grinding wheels are specified encompassing the following
parameters.
❑ The type of grit material
❑ The grit size
❑ The bond strength of the wheel, commonly known as wheel hardness
❑ The structure of the wheel denoting the porosity i.e. the amount of inter grit
spacing
❑ The type of bond material
❑ other than these parameters, the wheel manufacturer may add their own
identification code prefixing or suffixing (or both) the standard code.
Types
■ Conventional abrasive grinding wheels
■ Super abrasive grinding wheels

The bonding materials for the super abrasives are (a), (d), and (e) resinoid, metal,
or vitrified, (b) metal, (c) vitrified, and (f) resinoid.
Examples of Bonded Abrasives

■ Conventional abrasives
❑ Al2O3
❑ SiC
■ Super abrasives

❑ Cubic boron nitride (CBN)

❑ Diamond
Selection of Cutting speed and Working speed is based on

■ Material to be ground and its hardness.

■ Amount of stock removal and finish required.
■ Whether the grinding is done wet or dry.
■ Wheel speed.

■ Area of grinding contact.

■ Severity of the grinding operation.

Truing and dressing of grinding wheel

Truing
■ Truing is the act of regenerating the required geometry on the grinding
wheel, whether the geometry is a special form or flat profile. Therefore,
truing produces the macro-geometry of the grinding wheel.

■ Truing is also required on a new conventional wheel to ensure concentricity

with specific mounting system. In practice the effective macro-geometry of a
grinding wheel is of vital importance and accuracy of the finished work
piece is directly related to effective wheel geometry.
Dressing
■ Dressing is the conditioning of the wheel surface which ensures that grit
cutting edges are exposed from the bond and thus able to penetrate into the
work piece material. Also, in dressing attempts are made to splinter the
abrasive grains to make them sharp and free cutting and also to remove any
residue left by material being ground.
■ Dressing therefore produces micro-geometry. The structure of
micro-geometry of grinding wheel determine its cutting ability with a wheel
of given composition. Dressing can substantially influence the condition of
the grinding tool.
■ Truing and dressing are commonly combined into one operation for
conventional abrasive grinding wheels, but are usually two distinctly
separate operation for super abrasive wheel.
Finishing Operation
■ To ensure reliable performance and prolonged service life of modern
machinery, its components require to be manufactured not only with high
dimensional and geometrical accuracy but also with high surface finish.
■ The surface finish has a vital role in influencing functional characteristics
like wear resistance, fatigue strength, corrosion resistance and power loss
due to friction.
■ The finishing operations are assigned as the last operations in the single part
production cycle usually after the conventional or abrasive machining
operations, but also after net shape processes such as powder metallurgy,
cold flash less forging, etc.
■ Finishing Operations

❑ Lapping
❑ Buffing
❑ Honing
❑ Super finishing

❑ Wire brushing

❑ Polishing

❑ Electro polishing

❑ Magnetic-field-assisted polishing
Lapping

■ In lapping, instead of a bonded abrasive tool, oil-based fluid suspension of

very small free abrasive grains (aluminum oxide and silicon carbide, with
typical grit sizes between 300 and 600) called a lapping compound is applied
between the work piece and the lapping tool.
■ The lapping tool is called a lap, which is made of soft materials like copper,
lead or wood. The lap has the reverse of the desired shape of the work part.
To accomplish the process, the lap is pressed against the work and moved
back and forth over the surface.

■ Lapping is sometimes performed by hand, but lapping machines accomplish

the process with greater consistency and efficiency.
Lapping
■ Lapping is regarded as the oldest method of obtaining a fine finish.
Lapping is basically an abrasive process in which loose abrasives function
as cutting points finding momentary support from the laps. Material
removal in lapping usually ranges from .003 to .03 mm but many reach
0.08 to 0.1mm in certain cases.
■ The cutting mechanism in lapping is that the abrasives become embedded
in the lap surface, and the cutting action is very similar to grinding, but a
concurrent cutting action of the free abrasive particles in the fluid cannot be
excluded.
■ Lapping is used lo produce optical lenses, metallic bearing surfaces, gages,
and other parts requiring very good finishes and extreme accuracy.
Characteristics of lapping process:

■ Use of loose abrasive between lap and the work piece

■ Usually lap and work piece are not positively driven but are guided in
contact with each other
■ Relative motion between the lap and the work should change continuously
so that path of the abrasive grains of the lap is not repeated on the work
piece.
Lapping

Schematics of lapping process showing the lap and the cutting action
of suspended abrasive particles.
■ Lapping

Figure (a) Schematic illustration of the lapping process. (b) Production lapping on
flat surfaces.(c) Production lapping on cylindrical surfaces.
■ Abrasives of lapping
❑ Al2O3 and SiC, grain size 5~100μm
❑ Cr2O3, grain size 1~2 μm
❑ B4C3, grain size 5-60 μm
❑ Diamond, grain size 0.5~5 V
■ Lubricating materials of lapping
❑ Machine oil
❑ Rape oil
❑ grease
■ Technical parameters affecting lapping processes are
❑ unit pressure
❑ the grain size of abrasive
❑ concentration of abrasive in the vehicle
❑ lapping speed
Polishing
■ Polishing is a finishing operation to improve the surface finish by means of a
polishing wheel made of fabrics or leather and rotating at high speed. The abrasive
grains are glued to the outside periphery of the polishing wheel. Polishing operations
are often accomplished manually.
Buffing
■ Buffing is a finishing operation similar to polishing, in which abrasive grains are not
glued to the wheel but are contained in a buffing compound that is pressed into the
outside surface of the buffing wheel while it rotates. As in polishing, the abrasive
particles must be periodically replenished.
■ As in polishing, buffing is usually done manually, although machines have been
designed to perform the process automatically.
■ Buffing wheels are made of discs of linen, cotton, broad cloth and canvas
Buffing
Honing
■ Honing is a finishing process, in which a tool called hone carries out a
combined rotary and reciprocating motion while the work piece does not
perform any working motion. Most honing is done on internal cylindrical
surface, such as automobile cylindrical walls.
■ The honing stones are held against the work piece with controlled light
pressure. The honing head is not guided externally but, instead, floats in the
hole, being guided by the work surface
■ It is desired that
❑ honing stones should not leave the work surface
❑ stroke length must cover the entire work length.
Honing
■ Honing is a finishing process performed by a honing tool, which contains a
set of three to a dozen and more bonded abrasive sticks. The sticks are
equally spaced about the periphery of the honing tool. They are held against
the work surface with controlled light pressure, usually exercised by small
springs.
■ The honing tool is given a complex rotational and oscillatory axial motion,
which combine to produce a crosshatched lay pattern of very low surface
roughness

Honing tool
Honing
■ Stone
❑ Al2O3 or SiC bonded abrasives
■ The critical process parameters are:

❑ Rotation speed

❑ Oscillation speed

❑ Length and position of the stroke

❑ Honing stick pressure

■ Parameters that affect material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (R) are:

❑ Unit pressure, p
❑ Peripheral honing speed, Vc

❑ Honing time, T
Super finishing
■ Super finishing is a micro finishing process that produces a controlled surface
condition on parts which is not obtainable by any other method. The operation which
is also called ‘micro stoning’ consist of scrubbing a stone against a surface to produce
a fine quality metal finish.

■ The process consists of removing chatter marks and fragmented or smear metal from
the surface of dimensionally finished parts. As much as 0.03 to 0.05 mm of stock can
be efficiently removed with some production applications, the process becomes most
economical if the metal removal is limited to 0.005 mm
Super finishing

Figure Schematic illustrations of the super finishing process for a cylindrical part. (a)
Cylindrical mircohoning, (b) Centerless microhoning.
END