Grinding of Carbon/Epoxy Composites Using Electroplated CBN Wheel with Controlled Abrasive Clusters

Aiming at solving the problems of wheel loading in dry grinding of Carbon/Epoxy composite materials, a novel electroplated grinding wheel with controlled abrasive cluster was developed, in which the diameter of clusters is in Φ0.2 mm to Φ1.0 mm and the interspace between them is about 0.5 mm to 1.0 mm. A conventional electroplated grinding wheel with abrasive grains distributed randomly was fabricated in the same way. The comparison experiments involving C/E composite were conducted on a vertical spindle grinder with the novel and conventional grinding wheels. The results show that the grinding forces of novel wheel developed is more lower though little larger surface roughness, and the wheel loading phenomenon is markedly decreased compared with conventional electroplated wheel.