The compensation of geometrical errors on forming grinding

Form grinding produces a surface with a particular profile. In a plug-grinding system, the shaped wheels transfer their profile to the ground work surface. Several factors affect the geometrical errors that occur in grinding, including thermal deformation, the cutting forces of the workpiece and the wear and the plastic deformation of the grinding wheel, owing to the different profile sections of a grinding wheel diameter. This work develops a mathematical model of the thermal deformation and cutting forces by utilizing the thermal bending moment and specified grinding energy proposed in other research. The wear and deformation of a grinding wheel are analyzed using experimental data. The model is formulated using simple contours and the resulting predictions of geometrical errors are compensated for by altering the path of a diamond tool using the CNC controller in the grinding machine. In addition, a series of experiments is carried out on different slopes with box convex and concave profiles. These results demonstrate that the geometrical errors that occur commonly in form grinding can be reduced by more than 70%. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.