Evaluation of Grinding of Unfilled and Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyamide 6,6

This paper investigates the grinding process on unreinforced (PA66) and reinforced glass-fiber polyamide 6,6 (PA66 GF30) with Al(2)O(3) and SiC abrasive wheels. Both materials were ground by varying rotations, workpiece infeed speed, depth of cuts for sequential roughing/finishing steps. Dry and liquid coolant conditions were also considered during the grinding process to evaluate the effects on part quality. The surface roughness was used to assess the quality of the final products with several parameter combinations, identifying the induced process trends. The results show that at the end of the finishing step, the surface roughness R(z) was lower than 4 μm, attaining the lowest value of 1.34 μm for PA66 specimens. The analysis also suggested the choice of the Al(2)O(3) grinding wheel to reach the lowest R(z) values for both materials.