Calculations of grain depth of cut using the grinding conditions and successive cutting edge spacing reaches to very minute value in precision grinding, for example they are from 0.01 to 0.1 μ.
In these cases there appears a question whether each grain can remove such a tiny chip truely or not.
This question contains very important problems of sliding between cutting edges and workpiece surfaces.
The aims of this paper is to make clear these tiny chip formation parts, especially to know how long is the sliding distance and how much is the minimum depth of cut.
These experiments have been done with a specially made single grain grinding wheel.
The results are as follows ; sliding of grains exists appearently ; the minimum depth of cut is nearly 0.4 μ; the softer the grade of wheels and the smaller the grains, the thinner the minimum depth of cut become.