Workpiece burn and surface finish during controlled force robotic disk grinding

Workpiece burn and surface finish during robotic disk grinding are studied under controlled force conditions. Workpiece burn occurs due to gradual deterioration in the sharpness of active grains participating in the cutting process. This change in the sharpness of grains can be indirectly monitored by the change in the average coefficient of friction and average depth of cut. Both of these parameters gradually reduce with increasing disk wear due to attrition. In this paper, an analytical expression is derived which can be used to predict the occurrence of such burns during controlled force grinding. The experiments conducted under these conditions using a finely tuned PID controlled showed fair agreement with the predicted results. The experiments also showed that the surface finish gradually improves during successive passes. Hence, an attempt has been made to explain and predict this changing behaviour in the surface finish on the basis of gradual deterioration in the cutting efficiency of the disk. These relations can be used for practical optimization of the robotic grinding process.