abstract
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Changes to the surface condition of a grinding wheel caused by excessive wear can result in geometric inaccuracy and severe thermal damage to a workpiece. As a precision metal removal process, grinding is typically a finishing operation and such errors are costly in both materials and lost time. Unfortunately grinding wheel performance is difficult to predict, and workpiece damage is commonly prevented by frequent dressing of the wheel surface. However, such over dressing is also costly in unnecessary machine down time and consumption of the grinding wheel. Monitoring systems have been developed in an effort to prevent damage to the workpiece and unnecessary dressing, but various difficulties have prevented any single system from achieving widespread application.
The following body of research focuses on the investigation and development of a pneumatic sensor for monitoring the surface condition of a grinding wheel. These sensors are relatively simple, robust and inexpensive, and well suited to in situ applications. While these sensors are traditionally used to measure displacement of static or quasi-static surfaces, research into dynamic applications has shown they can detect the features or topography of a moving surface. Inspired by these developments, a monitoring method employing both the static and dynamic measurement capabilities of the sensor is proposed with applications to both metal-bonded and vitrified grinding wheels.