SIMULATIVE INVESTIGATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT ABRASIVE COATING STRUCTURES IN DOUBLE FACE GRINDING

The double face grinding process is a manufacturing process that is used when machining plane-parallel surfaces, for example during the production of bearing rings, wafers, seal and regulator disks. However, there are challenges when machining extremely hard and large components in terms of the required workpiece quality and cost-efficiency. Although the ecological disadvantages of the lapping process are present, it is often used to industrially machine such components. One approach to address these challenges is to structure the abrasive coating to enlarge the chip space in order to support cooling lubricant supply and chip removal. Therefore, the influence of different abrasive coating structures on the cooling lubricant flow was examined using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The simulation approach and the results of the simulation studies are presented in this article. By choosing a suitable abrasive coating structure that ensures an even distribution of the cooling lubricant, the supply of cooling lubricant and chip removal during the grinding process can be improved. The results of the simulation studies show that radial grooves are unsuitable because the flow of cooling lubricant is not evenly distributed in the inner area of the grinding wheel. This can be optimized by selecting involute grooves. By improving the supply of cooling lubricant, the application range of the double face grinding process can be expanded and enables the environmentally friendly machining of extremely hard and large components with plane-parallel functional surfaces.