High speed and high material removal rate grinding of ceramics using the vitreous bond CBN wheel

High-speed (up to 127 m/s) and high material removal rate grinding experiments were conducted using a vitreous bond cubic boron nitride (CBN) wheel to investigate the effects of material removal rate, wheel speed, dwell time and truing speed ratio on cylindrical grinding of silicon nitride and zirconia. Experimental results show that operating the grinding wheel at a high surface speed can reduce grinding forces, enable high material removal rates, and achieve a higher grinding ratio (G-ratio). The material removal rate was increased to 9.6 and 7.6 mm(3)/s/mm for zirconia and silicon nitride, respectively, to explore the advantage of using high wheel speeds for cost-effective, high-material-removal-rate grinding of ceramics. Models for specific grinding force vs. the specific material removal rate and G-ratio vs. grinding wheel surface speed were developed based on the experimental results. Overall, this study showed that high grinding wheel surface speed is beneficial to the grinding of ceramics.