The laser dressing of resin-bonded CBN wheels by a Q-switched Nd: YAG laser

Resin-bonded cubic boron nitride (CBN) grinding wheels are widely used in industry due to their good grinding ability. There is, therefore, a need to find a good method suitable for the dressing of these wheels. This paper presents a new method dressed by an acoustic-optic Q-switched Nd: YAG laser based on thermal interaction, which is unlike the conventional mechanical dressing methods based on force interaction. The mechanism of the selective removal of the bond was analysed. Experiments of a single pulse ablation on the resin bond and the CBN grains, and the laser dressing of resin-bonded CBN wheels with different dressing parameters have been carried out. The grinding force has been compared for the conventional mechanical dressed wheel and the laser dressed wheel. It is shown that the resin-bonded CBN grinding wheel is suitable for an acoustic-optic Q-switched Nd: YAG laser dressing with radial irradiation, which is better than a continuous wave (CW) laser dressing with radial irradiation and conventional mechanical dressing methods.