Electrical Discharge Conditioning for Indexable Insert Grinding

Abstract Metal bonded diamond grinding wheels have a great potential for grinding hard materials. However, the toughness of the metal bond in combination with fine grit sized and highly concentrated diamonds makes these wheels very hard to condition conventionally. This paper presents a novel approach for conditioning metal bonded grinding wheels using Electrical Discharge Conditioning (EDC). Here, a rotating electrode is continually sharpening, cleaning and shaping the optimized grinding wheel with bronze alloy bond. Experimental results regularly show a doubling of the material removal rate and simultaneously reduced edge chipping and finer surface finish. The process is fast, stable and leads to excellent product quality in terms of dimensional accuracy, surface- and edge-integrity. Over all, the presented industrial-strength Electrical Discharge Conditioning technology boosts productivity and quality.