Grinding is the most common form of abrasive machining processes. It “is a material removal process accomplished by abrasive particles that are contained in a bonded graining wheel rotating at very high surface speeds.” The tool used in grinding is called the wheel and “consists of abrasive particles and bonding material. The bonding material holds the particles in place and establishes the shape and structure of the wheel”.
Grinding is generally used as a finishing process after processes like milling or turning to acquire a better surface finish. Honing is similar to grinding but performed on the inside of a bore. Marples Gears has in-house grinding and honing for component manufacturing as a part of our manual machining department in order to meet our clients finish requirements, but does also manage out grinding operations.
There are four main types of grinding: surface, cylindrical, center-less and creep feed grinding. Surface grinding is used on plain flat surfaces. Cylindrical grinding is used on some rotational parts that can be held in centers and center-less grinding when the rotational part cannot. Creep Feed grinding is used for high depth cuts and has a much lower feed rate than the previous methods.
