Grinding Characteristics Of Directionally Aligned SiC Whisker Wheel - Comparison With A12O3 Fiber Wheel

A unique SiC whisker wheel was invented, in which the whiskers were aligned normally to the grinding wheel surface. In this paper, grindabilities of the SiC whisker wheel are investigated and compared with those of other wheels of SiC grains, Al2O3 grains, as well as Al2O3 long and short fibres which were also aligned normally to the grinding wheel surface, respectively. The main research contents concern grinding characteristics of a directionally aligned SiC whisker wheel such as material-removal volume, wheel-wear rates, integrity of the ground surfaces, grinding ratios and grinding efficiency. Furthermore, grinding wheels of whiskers and fibres have a common disadvantage: they tend to load easily. The authors have proposed a simple method of loading-free grinding to overcome this propensity and investigate some related grinding characteristics under loading-free grinding conditions.