This paper describes the special demands placed on the grinding of arc-sprayed WC-Fe coatings on a conventional machining center. Basic process configuration, experimental results, measurement methods and an approach for a hybrid simulation system are presented.
IntroductionThe reduction of energy consumption in cars is one of the major aims of current developments in automotive industry. Forming of high-tensile steel-sheets is one major technology to obtain weight reduction in automotive applications. The higher resistance against deformation that these materials possess provides the desired stability of the auto body in crash situations but also leads to higher mechanical and tribological loads on the forming tools during the production process [1]. Thermal sprayed coatings provide a possible solution for reducing the abrasive wear in tribologically loaded environments [e.g. 2]. The aim of the collaborative research center SFB 708 at Technische Universität Dortmund (TU Dortmund) is to establish a working process chain that creates forming tools with an improved wear resistance by the thermal application of hard coatings. Achieving high surface quality and low form errors of the final sheets requires a mechanical machining of the coating. Grinding has been proven to be capable to create a higher wear resistance [e.g. 3] and to create compressive stresses into different thermal sprayed surfaces [4,5]. This paper describes the fundamental investigations on grinding of a thermal sprayed WC-Fe coating that were carried out by face grinding processes. A coupled simulation system for this grinding process is under development to meet the necessity for a simulation of the process chain milling-coating-grindingforming.