Abstract
In order to investigate the correlation between surface nature of grinding wheel and its ability of grinding, an apparatus for measuring the apex shape of abrasive grain in the surface of grinding wheel is built up by way of trial. The apparatus enables to obtain the distributions of normal direction and area of the apex surfaces by projecting a fine laser beam to the wheel surface and detecting the reflected beam from the apex. The results of measurement with the apparatus are compared with the directly obtained profiles of the wheel surface and the ground surface by the wheel The results are further compared with the apex shape obtained by the reprica method. It is then confirmed by the comparisons that the results with the apparatus are fully consistent with the real state of the wheel surface. Material of abrasive grain, sharpness of diamond dresser and feed rate of dressing appear to greatly influence on the nature of the wheel surface and these influences are detectable with the apparatus in the present paper.
