Abstract
Excessive grinding forces generate defects on surfaces of a ground material. A new grinding system was proposed to minimize the excessive forces by maintaining the feeding force constant, instead of the feeding rate. This new system was evaluated in this study. Sintered Al2O3 was ground, and grinding-forces and table-feeding rate were measured for different feeding depths. The surface roughness and fracture strength of ground Al2O3 were measured to evaluate ground defects. Table-feeding rate decreased as the feeding depth increased on constant force feeding method. Specific grinding energy showed constant values for different feeding depths. Surface roughness showed no change with feeding depths from 1 to 50 μm. Fracture strength of specimens by a conventional constant feeding rate method decreased with feeding depths increased while that by the new proposed method showed no change for any feeding depths. It was found that the constant force feeding grinding system minimizes defects.
