In the grinding process, when working with a hard material, such as a hard metal, a soft grinding wheel with a large contact area is used. The reason why the soft grinding wheel is used for hard grinding is as follows:
In the grinding process, when working with a hard material, such as a hard metal, a soft grinding wheel with a large contact area is used.
In order to avoid premature damage to the grinding wheel and reduce the vibration of the grinding, excessive load can be avoided by using a softer grinding wheel. For example, when using a soft grinding wheel to grind cemented carbide tools, it can effectively avoid premature damage of the grinding wheel caused by excessive feed pressure.
Soft or flexible material than hard material (such as steel), which has a higher elastic modulus than that of hard material; Therefore, when there is an impact force or static load on soft materials such as rubber or foam rubber products, they will deform easily and absorb energy at each time point because their deformation is not only due to plastic deformation but also due to elastic deformation.
The use of a softer abrasive grinding wheel results in lower energy dissipation for hard materials than for a harder abrasive tool (for example, diamond). This can avoid unnecessary heat generation in hard material machining and produce good performance in workpieces.
Soft Abrasives:
The soft abrasive is made of resin bonded diamonds or glass beads with good abrasion ability. It has high hardness and excellent hardness retention. The particle size distribution is controlled by strict process standardization, so the product quality is consistent. The cutting edge can reduce excessive load on the workpiece and extend tool life effectively to ensure long-term effects.
If you have ever used a grinding wheel, you know that the grain of the abrasive is what does the actual grinding. While it may be obvious to some, in order for these grains to work effectively against a hard material, they need to first cut into something softer. It's like trying to dig through frozen earth with a shovel; if your tool doesn't penetrate the ground at all before making contact with the rocks and other solid matter beneath it, it will just bounce right off and not get any work done.
Similarly, when it comes time for us humans (or machines) to grind away at hardened surfaces like steel or tungsten carbide—which are much harder than most other materials we might encounter in our every day lives—we need some sort of intermediary between us and them: something soft enough for our tools' sharp edges but tough enough for long-term wear resistance; something like a grinding wheel made from silicon carbide or aluminum oxide crystals!
In this type of grinding, due to the retention of grains in cut, no external coolant is required, as friction itself produces heat which is absorbed by the grains.
For example: When a soft material such as aluminum is ground on a hard wheel like zirconia or Corundum wheels (hard materials), an extremely fine finish can be obtained without any need for coolant.
The same result can also be obtained using non-ferrous metals such as copper and brass because they have low melting points compared with steel.
The soft grinding wheel is used for hard material grinding, but its use should be controlled. First of all, the proper hardness of the tool should be selected according to the hardness of the workpiece and the required removal rate. Secondly, it should not be used too long because it is easy to damage and wear out; Thirdly, it should not be used on heavy-duty machine tools (such as CNC machines) or other high-speed machines because these machines have higher cutting speeds and greater vibration than ordinary lathe machines.