Development of individually designed, additively manufactured fine grinding tools with a hybrid bond for processing inorganic, non-metallic materials

Abstract

In this article, a concept for the additive manufacturing (AM) of ultra-fine grinding tools is presented, which enables a flexible and efficient production with defined surface properties (e.g. grain size, concentration, integrated cooling channels). The basis of this innovative concept is a newly developed filament consisting of a compound of polyamide 12 (PA12), zirconium oxide particles (ZrO2) and integrated diamond grains with an average grain size of 15 µm. The overall aim of the investigations is to examine the behavior and properties of these tools during a CNC machining process in relation to conventional resin-bonded tools so that quality, process efficiency and cost-effectiveness can be optimized. Using different additive manufacturing parameters, tools are produced by fused layer modelling (FLM) and tested in a fine grinding process on planar fused silica samples. The grinding tests show that it is possible to produce reflective, transparent surfaces with high surface qualities. In addition, reproducible surface roughness (Rq = 10.5 -13.5 nm) can be generated, which, compared to the initial ground surface of the samples, results in a reduction in surface roughness of 97 -98 %. Furthermore, partially better-quality results are achieved with the new tools compared to a conventional resin-bonded tool, which demonstrates the promising potential of additively manufactured fine grinding tools.