Vibration-Assisted Grinding of Mild and Hardened Steel: A Novel Design Vibrating Jig and Process Performance

Grinding is always one of the most significant processes in manufacturing sector due to its high precision and accuracy and especially nowadays where the demand for higher quality products has been raised. Its importance lies on the fact that it stands at the final stages of a component’s manufacturing chain and therefore, the possibility of errors must be at the lowest levels. Heretofore, the improvement of this process has motivated a number of researchers to develop different techniques. In the current work a novel method of vibration-assisted surface grinding of mild and hardened steel using aluminium oxide grinding wheels is examined. More specifically, the design concept along with the dynamic characteristics of a simplified vibrating jig is presented. The purpose of this jig was to accommodate and oscillate the workpiece at a certain frequency during surface grinding in order to improve the performance of the process in terms of achieving lower grinding forces and thus lower power consumption, higher material removal rates and better product surface finish. Two grinding wheels and two workpiece materials with different properties were employed during conventional and vibration-assisted surface grinding and the results are compared. The benefits of this non-conventional, advanced grinding process are also illustrated.