Radial directional ultrasonic vibration-assisted grinding

–Effect of vibration assistance in titanium alloy–

Abstract

Ultrasonic vibration-assisted grinding of titanium alloy, a difficult-to-machine material, was attempted. Grinding with a constant load (7.8 N, 11.7 N, and 17.6 N), assisted by vibration in the radial direction of a straight wheel resulted in an increase of material removal by a factor of approximately 1.3. The pressure between the grinding wheel and workpiece was smaller with vibration support, and no thermal damage was observed on the ground surface. The specific grinding energy was lower for vibration-assisted grinding in the range of 8% to 18%. The variations in surface roughness of ground surfaces were suppressed. Furthermore, the hardness at a depth of 1 μm from the surface was increased by approximately 1.18 times with vibration support. These results suggest that vibration assistance is useful for grinding titanium alloy.