Tech Talk
What is "Surface Grinding"?
The grinding of any surface, no matter what shape or form it may be, may be termed surface grinding. In abrasive machining however the term surface grinding is generally given to the production of a flat, angular or contoured surface which is created by feeding the workpiece in a horizontal plane beneath a rotating grinding wheel.
The angle or contour may be dressed onto the grinding wheel periphery using a crush roll or a diamond roll. A profile may also be traced onto the periphery of a grinding wheel by using a mechanical pantograph type tracing device attached to a single point diamond. CNC control may be used to trace a very accurate profile across a grinding wheel periphery, using either a single point diamond or a rotating diamond impregnated disk. The diamond disk is somewhat akin to a very thin diamond roller. When grinding takes place with anything other than a flat profile, the process is generally called profile or form grinding.
Surface grinding may be carried out in a conventional reciprocating grinding mode, in a creep-feed grinding mode or in a creep-feed mode but with continuous diamond roll dressing; that is where the diamond roll is dressing the grinding wheel during the grinding operation.
