Wear-adaptive optimization of in-process conditioning parameters during face plunge grinding of PcBN

Polycrystalline cubic boron nitride is a very hard material. Machining of this material is performed by grinding with diamond tools. Due to its high hardness, grinding tools are subjected to severe microscopic and macroscopic tool wear. This wear leads to short tool life and results in high effort in conditioning the abrasive layer. Contrary to the usual conditioning of diamond grinding wheels with diamond dressing tools, this study investigates a conditioning process based entirely on the use of white corundum cup rolls. These conditioning tools allow the in-process face plunge conditioning of vitrified bond diamond grinding tools. The circumferential speed of the conditioning tool and the average grain diameter of the corundum are identified as the main factors influencing the topography of the generated grinding layer. To describe the performance of the conditioning process, a specific conditioning removal rate [Formula: see text] is derived. This parameter represents a cumulated variable that allows a comparison of different conditioning strategies. It is shown that an increase in [Formula: see text] significantly counteracts microscopic wear on the abrasive layer. Therefore, optimized process parameters enable the process of in-process conditioning to significantly reduce wear on the grinding tool without increasing the process time or the non-productive time.