The grinding process is often maligned by grinding burn; which refers to many unwanted effects, including residual stress formation. This paper presents an overview of the role of grinding wheel technologies in the surface response and residual stress formation of thin section Inconel 718. Using production standard equipment, conventional abrasive vitrified, and super abrasive electroplated wheel technologies were evaluated in initial comparative trials. Results revealed the dominant residual stress profiles, which manifested as measurable distortion and the thermo-mechanical impact of grinding, such as softening. Following this, a parametric study was carried out using cubic boron nitride super abrasive electroplated wheels to investigate the interaction of grinding parameters on the generated output. It was shown that at increased grinding aggressions, tensile stress regimes increased resulting in increased distortion magnitudes. The study highlights the importance of assessing residual stress formation when manipulating both wheel technologies and grinding parameters. It is envisaged that with additional assessment, a route to an engineered residual stress profile might be achieved.
Vitreous-bonded grinding wheels are widely used for machining features on aerospace components achieving high material removal rates under high pressure coolant. Dressing is a vital stage in the grinding process to ensure a consistent wheel topography and performance. However, the effects of roller dressing on functional performance of vitreous grinding wheels as well as its influence on different abrasive grit morphologies have not been fully characterised. This paper studies the influence of dressing parameters on the topography, morphology and characteristics of the surface of different vitrified abrasive wheels in order to better understand the process and therefore optimise the preparation of grinding wheels for industrial machining. Alumina grinding wheels with conventional and engineered grit shapes were dressed at two different infeed rates over a range of seven different speed ratios (from -0.8 to +1). An experimental methodology has been developed incorporating a range of known techniques to define the abrasive wheel condition including measured power consumption and ground graphite coupons as well as using optical microscopes to measure grain fracture flats, peak density and abrasive grain shape. It has been found that power consumption of the grinding wheel spindle increases at higher infeed rates and speed ratios. This leads to increased fracturing of the grains and whole-grain pull out. According to the results the infeed rate has a more substantial effect on wheel topography than speed ratio and the response of engineered grit morphologies to dressing is dependent on grit orientation.
The future of machining lies in the fully autonomous machine tool. New technologies must be developed that predict, sense and action intelligent decisions autonomously. Digital twins are one component on this journey and are already having significant impact in the manufacturing industries. Despite this, the implementation of machining Digital Twins has been slow due to the computational burden of simulating cutting forces online resulting in no commercially available Digital Twin that can automatically control the machining process in real time. Addressing this problem, this research presents a machining Digital Twin capable of real-time adaptive control of intelligent machining operations. The computational bottleneck of calculating cutter workpiece engagements online has been overcome using a novel method which combines a priori calculation with real-time tool centre point position data. For the first time, a novel online machine-induced residual stress control system is presented which integrates real-time model-based simulations with online feedback for closed loop residual stress control. Autonomous Digital Twin technologies presented also include chatter prediction and control and adaptive feed rate control. The proposed machining Digital Twin system has been implemented on a large-scale CNC machine tool designed for high-speed machining of aerostructure parts. Validation case studies have been conducted and are presented for each of the machining Digital Twin applications.
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