Energy Model in Laser Processing of a Cylindrical Grinding Wheel

Abstract

Laser processing of abrasive grinding wheels is paying a great role in a truing technique to complement mechanical methods. An energy balance model was adopted that took into account the space modes of laser energy absorbed/scattered by the wheel (circular profile). Both geometric and mathematic models were developed to reveal laser processing mechanism and predict various processing parameters, such as incident position, focal offset, and incident power, to perform material removal during laser processing a cylindrical grinding wheel. Moreover, the incident angle for laser processing of small-vitrified CBN grinding wheels was optimized. Further theoretical analysis and experiments determined the focal position of the incident beam with respect to the wheel profile. Experimental studies were carried out using different processing parameters and grinding wheels to test the effects of laser space properties on processing quality. The experimental results were shown to be in reasonable agreement with predicted results.

Laser Truing and Dressing of Small Vitrified CBN Grinding Wheel

“…Further, a laser cleaning technique used to clean aluminum oxide and CBN grinding wheel loading have also been proposed [15,16]. Because few studies have been done involving small vitrified CBN wheels, the present authors developed an energy model and discussed energy-mode adjustment in the laser processing of small vitrified CBN wheels in previous works [17,18] prior to the systematic investigation of the laser truing/dressing characteristics of such wheels.…”

“…As for the wheel surface conditions after truing, the SEM images in Figure 4(b) show that the number of abrasive grains on the wheel surface decreased and that many pores disappeared after laser truing in comparison with the original surface conditions It is also evident that as the truing depth increases the phenomenon becomes more marked, probably because as the truing depth increases, the laser beam incident angle, the angle between the laser beam and the normal line of the wheel periphery at the laser focal point, decreases. Thus, the focal area on the wheel surface decreases, leading to the increase in the energy intensity of laser irradiation, and finally resulting in the increase in the bond materials removal rate [17].…”