Investigation of Micro Grinding via Kinematic Simulations

Abstract

With increasing demand for micro structured surfaces in hard and brittle materials, the importance of micro grinding increases. The application of micro pencil grinding tools (MPGTs) in combination with ultra precision multi axes machine tools allow an increased freedom of shaping. However, small dimensions of the grinding tools below 500 µm substantiate high rotational speeds and low feed rates to enable the machining process. Besides, the abrasive grits of the tool can be large in comparison to the tool dimensions. All factors will influence the resulting surface topography of the workpiece. But some of the topography properties are no longer accessible for optical measurements, making process evaluations and improvements difficult.In the present contribution the measurement results are supplemented by the results of a kinematic simulation model. The built up of such a kinematic simulation is described, which considers real process and tool properties. The results received by the simulation are compared to measurements to validate the model and point out the advantages of the simulations. In a further step, a principle is shown how the simulation can be used to make the undeformed chip thickness accessible, a process result which cannot be measured within the real machining process.