IMPROVEMENTS ON BELT MACHINED SURFACE FLATNESS BY USING FUZZY INFERENCE BASED ON A SIMULATIONAL METHOD

In belt grinding, the amount of heat generated throughout the grinding process is basically less compared with that of the grinding wheel. H owever, when heavy grinding conditions are selected for obtaining high machining efficiency, the flatness error of the belt machined surface gets considerably larger than under normal conditions because of the high level of heat generation. Therefore, for reducing this flatness e rror, the depth of cut of the abrasive belt calculated by fuzzy infere nce was applied to the workpiece surface. In order to do this, the tra ce curves of abrasive belt on the workpiece surface were calculated by using fuzzy inference, rules of which were decided from simple models based on the basic grinding experiments. As a result, the accuracy of machined surfaces were improved significantly, and the propriety of a pplying this method for belt grinding was confirmed.