Surface grinding

The components of a surface grinding machine are an abrasive wheel, a workholding device known as a chuck, and a reciprocating or rotary table.

The grinding wheel is not limited to a cylindrical shape and can have a myriad of options that are useful in transferring different geometries to the object being worked on.

It involves passing the workpiece under the wheel, without resetting the depth of cut, more than once and generally multiple times.

The grinding wheel rotates in the spindle head and is also adjustable for height, by any of the methods described previously.

Modern surface grinders are semi-automated, depth of cut and spark-out may be preset as to the number of passes and, once set up, the machining process requires very little operator intervention.

Wheel-face grinding is often used for fast material removal, but some machines can accomplish high-precision work.

The workpiece is held on a reciprocating table, which can be varied according to the task, or a rotary-table machine, with continuous or indexed rotation.

[2][3] Aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, diamond, and cubic boron nitride (CBN) are four commonly used abrasive materials for the surface of the grinding wheels.

Diamond and CBN wheels are very hard and are capable of economically grinding materials, such as ceramics and carbides, that cannot be ground by aluminum oxide or silicon.

It must be applied directly to the cutting area to ensure that the fluid is not carried away by the grinding wheel.