Increasing the productivity and quality of flute grinding processes through the use of layered grinding wheels

Due to the increasing relevance of resource efficiency, the production of cutting tools is exposed to increasing demands in regard to productivity and quality. Flute grinding is of particular significance within the various grinding operations used in tool manufacturing. Apart from the rake face, the flute grinding process determines the quality of the cutting edges. However, the grinding wheels typically used for flute grinding are not designed to take the complex contact conditions of this process into account. This paper presents a method for designing application-oriented grinding wheels to improve the productivity and the quality of grinding processes. Firstly, a model is presented which is used to simulate the contact conditions. The results show the significance of the grinding wheel edge in flute grinding. Based on that, grinding wheels with different layers over its width were developed to compensate the varying and complex contact conditions. To verify this approach technological experiments were carried out.