THE COMPENSATION OF GEOMETRICAL ERRORS ON FORMING GRINDING

Form grinding produces a surface with a particular profile. In a plug- grinding system, the shaped wheels transfer their profile to the groun d work surface. Several factors affect the geometrical errors that occ ur in grinding, including thermal deformation, the cutting forces of t he workpiece and the wear and the plastic deformation of the grinding wheel, owing to the different profile sections of a grinding wheel dia meter. This work develops a mathematical model of the thermal deformat ion and cutting forces by utilizing the thermal bending moment and spe cified grinding energy proposed in other research. The wear and deform ation of a grinding wheel are analyzed using experimental data. The mo del is formulated using simple contours and the resulting predictions of geometrical errors are compensated for by altering the path of a di amond tool using the CNC controller in the grinding machine. In additi on, a series of experiments is carried out on different slopes with bo x convex and concave profiles. These results demonstrate that the geom etrical errors that occur commonly in form grinding can be reduced by more than 70%. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.