Studies on the grindability of some alloy steels

The grindability of an austenitic manganese steel has been compared with th at of a microalloyed steel and a low alloy steel, both having tempered mart ensitic matrices. Grinding has been conducted in both dry and liquid nitrog en environments. The results indicate that for all the steels the grinding forces required at cryo-temperature are in general lower than that needed f or grinding at ambient temperature. In case of both the die steel and the m icroalloyed steel, metal removal mechanism did not change very much due to cryogenic cooling. In case of the hadfield steel, however, the metal remova l mechanism changed in cryogenic grinding. Such difference is caused presum ably due to transformation of manganese-stabilised austenite to martensite at cryo-temperature. It is also known that cryogenic cooling reduces in gen eral the wheel loading and deterioration of the surface integrity of the st eels. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.