Grinding performance of high-porosity fine-grain vitrified CBN wheels for Inconel 718

In grinding with vitrified cubic boron nitride (CBN) wheels, frequent dressing should be avoided. It is expensive in time and also in consumption of an expensive abrasive. Wheel loading is a main cause of wheel redressing especially for difficult-to-grind material such as Inconel 718, and must therefore be prevented. One solution to prevent loading is to employ an open wheel structure in order to help coolant delivery to the grinding zone and provide more space to accommodate the swarf produced in grinding. The grinding performance of high-porosity fine-grain CBN wheel is compared with that of a conventional-porosity fine-grain CBN grinding wheel. Analysis and discussion of performance is presented in terms of observations and measurements of the changes in wheel topography.