Mirror Surface Grinding of Steel Bonded Carbides

The steel bonded carbide, a composite material, is very difficult to be machined to a fine finish mirror surface. In this paper, an electrolytic in-process dressing (ELID) grinding with metallic bond super-hard abrasive wheel was developed for grinding steel bonded carbide GT35. Factors affecting ELID grinding performance were analyzed by an atomic force microscope (AFM). Based on the analysis of AFM topography of the fine ground mirror surface of the steel bonded carbide, a schematic diagram of the mechanism of micro-removal of the ground surface was described. The AFM topography also shows that the hard brittle carbide particles, on the surface of steel bonded carbide, were machined out by ductile cutting. Since the grinding cracks in the ground surface are due to temperature gradient, temperature distribution in the grinding area was analyzed by finite element method (FEM). Experimental results indicate that a good mirror surface with Ra<0.02pm can be obtained by the developed ELID grinding system.