A study of grinding silicon nitride and cemented carbide materials with diamond grinding wheels

This paper presents selected results of the grinding of silicon nitride and cemented carbide materials with diamond grinding wheels, which will in later research be extended to the grinding of ceramic-cemented carbide compound drill tools. In these fundamental experiments four different types of diamond grinding wheels were used in face grinding processes. The diamond grinding wheels vary by the grain size, the grain concentration and the bonding material. The relevant influencing variables such as the cutting and feed speed and the coolant supply method were varied to investigate the effect on grinding of the two different workpiece materials, the brittle silicon nitride workpiece material and the ductile cemented carbide workpiece material. Some factors, which have significant effects, like the radial wear of the grinding wheel, the components of the grinding forces, the normal and the tangential grinding force, and the surface quality of the ground workpieces are discussed in detail. © 2009 German Academic Society for Production Engineering (WGP).