01 ASME Thrufeed Centerless
01 ASME Thrufeed Centerless
01 ASME Thrufeed Centerless
1 Introduction generate a regulating wheel surface that all the circles, for ex-
Through-feed centerless grinding is a manufacturing process ample, P 1 , P 2 , and P 3 , in Fig. 1, on the regulating wheel surface
commonly used to generate precise cylindrical form on a work- are tangent to the workpiece cylinder. It will guide the workpiece
piece. As shown in Fig. 1, grinding occurs when the workpiece is across the gap between grinding and regulating wheels without
fed through the gap between the regulating and grinding wheels changing its size. Figures 2b and 2c show the variation of the
while being supported by a workrest blade. Through-feed center- workpiece size due to a circle on the regulating wheel surface not
less grinding, widely used in the bearing, automotive, and fuel tangent to the workpiece cylinder. As shown in Fig. 2b, if the
system industries, is a very efficient and cost-effective manufac- circle on the regulating wheel surface intersects the original work-
turing process to generate sub-m precision cylindrical forms piece circle at two points, a smaller diameter workpiece (r 1 r)
with fine surface finish. will be ground. On the contrary, as shown in Fig. 2c, if the circle
The front view in Fig. 1 also shows the four major elements in on the regulating wheel surface does not intersect the original
a through-feed centerless grinding machine: 1 grinding wheel, workpiece circle, a larger diameter workpiece (r 2 r) will be
2 workrest blade, 3 regulating wheel, and 4 workpiece. The generated. This illustrates the importance of regulating wheel tru-
grinding action takes place between grinding and regulating ing in precision through-feed centerless grinding.
wheels. A workrest blade is used to support the workpiece at a In conventional centerless grinding, the regulating wheel truing/
given center-height and is angled to provide the rounding action dressing system usually uses a stationary diamond tool, such as
during grinding 1. The grinding wheel, as shown in the side and the single-point diamond, traversing along a straight line at an
top views, consists of the grinding region, where high material angle relative to the regulating wheel axis. Mathematically, the
removal rate occurs, and the spark-out region, where the precision
surface of the regulating wheel consists of infinite number of
form is generated. The regulating wheel, usually a rubber bond
straight lines generated by the single-point diamond. These lines
wheel with high coefficient of friction, drives the workpiece to
control its rotational speed during grinding. As shown in the side are called the generator. The surface of the regulating wheel is a
view in Fig. 1, the regulating wheel is tilted a small angle, , to hyperboloid of one sheet 24. Since the beginning of centerless
generate a force component in the axial direction to drive the grinding machine development in the early 20th century, research-
workpiece through the gap between the regulating and grinding ers have known this type of truing method is not exact. The inter-
wheels. is called the swivel angle of the regulating wheel. ference of regulating wheel and workpiece at the contact area
Truing the regulating wheel to the proper form has been iden- exists due to the radius of curvature of the workpiece and regu-
tified by researchers and practical engineers as the most critical lating wheel 2,57. Some alternative regulating wheel truing
step in the set-up of the precision through-feed centerless grinding methods have been studied, for example, using the grinding wheel
process 2. The regulating wheel surface consists of infinite num- to true the regulating wheel 8 and CNC profile truing of the
ber of circles with center on the regulating wheel axis. Three such regulating wheel 4. However, a mathematically exact solution
circles, P 1 , P 2 , and P 3 , are shown in the side and top views in for truing the regulating wheel for through-feed centerless grind-
Fig. 1. In the spark-out region, assuming the workpiece is ground ing has not yet been developed. This paper presents a new regu-
to the final size, the traverse motion of the surface of the work- lating wheel truing method to fulfill this need 9.
piece forms a cylinder, which has the same diameter as the ground In this paper, an example is first presented to illustrate the in-
part. The axis of the cylinder is parallel to the axis of the grinding terference of the regulating wheel and workpiece using the con-
wheel and the contact surface, line L in Fig. 2a, in the workrest
ventional truing method in through-feed centerless grinding. The
blade. As shown in Fig. 2a, the objective of this research is to
new regulating wheel truing method is then introduced. A math-
ematical model is developed to calculate the regulating wheel sur-
Contributed by the Manufacturing Engineering Division for publication in the
JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. Manuscript received face and line of contact. An example is used to illustrate the
Aug. 1999; revised July 2000. Associate Editor: K. Ehmann. analysis results.
Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering MAY 2001, Vol. 123 319
Copyright 2001 by ASME
Fig. 1 Configuration of the through-feed centerless grinding
2 Conventional Regulating Wheel Truing Method parallel to the Z-axis. The height on the diamond tool is set at 40
mm above the XZ plane. The distance between the swivel plane of
An example is presented to demonstrate the interference be-
the regulating wheel YZ plane and the axis of the workpiece is
tween the workpiece and regulating wheel for through-feed cen- set at 200 mm.
terless grinding machine using conventional single-point diamond As shown in Figs. 3a and 4, at the area where the workpiece
truing. As shown in Fig. 3, the diamond tool is traversed across
and regulating wheel are in contact, another straight line can be
the regulating wheel on the side opposite to the workpiece. The
seen. This line is represented by a point, the point of intersection
diamond tool is moving in the direction parallel to the axes of the
workpiece and grinding wheel. Mathematical models for this type of the front, middle, and rear circles in the enlarged view of the
of through-feed centerless grinding system have been derived and contact area between the workpiece and regulating wheel. In
examples have been presented in previous publications 2,5,6. mathematical term, this line is the conjugate generator line of the
Therefore, the derivation of these mathematical models is omitted hyperbolic of one sheet surface 10. The surface of the regulating
in this paper. Only an example is presented in Figs. 3 and 4 to wheel consists of an infinite number of circles. Three circles, i.e.,
illustrate the interference between the regulating wheel and work- the front, middle, and rear circle, are selected to represent the
piece. The actual regulating wheel truing configuration used in regulating wheel. Different line widths are used to distinguish
production through-feed centerless grinding is a lot more compli- these three circles. The enlarged view of the contact area in Fig. 4
cated than the setup shown in Figs. 3 and 4. illustrates the interference between the workpiece and regulating
Figure 3a shows the front view of a through-feed centerless wheel due to their radius of curvature. The workpiece cannot be
grinding machine with 400 mm diameter grinding wheel, 80 mm guided along a straight line as desired.
diameter workpiece, and 50 mm center-height of the workpiece. The setup shown in Figs. 3 and 4 is not typical for through-feed
An XYZ Cartesian coordinate system is first defined. The swivel centerless grinding. It is only used to illustrate the problem. Prac-
plane of the regulating wheel is parallel to the YZ plane, i.e., the
tically, there are different truing systems for through-feed center-
axis of the regulating wheel is located in the plane X0. The
point of swivel on the axis of the regulating wheel locates on the less grinding, and many adjustments can be made to reduce the
XY plane (Z0). The Z-axis is parallel to the axes of grinding magnitude of interference to a much smaller level than in Fig. 4.
wheel and workpiece. The X-axis passes through and is perpen- However, the same problem that not all the circles on the regulat-
dicular to the axis of the grinding wheel. Y-axis is perpendicular to ing wheel are tangent to the constant radius workpiece still exists.
both X- and Z-axis. The single-point diamond tool is located on This is one of the reasons that the set-up for truing the regulating
the side of the regulating wheel opposite to the workpiece and wheel for m-scale precision through-feed centerless grinding is
workrest blade. It moves along a straight line in the direction often time-consuming and experience-based.
Fig. 2 Front view of the circles on the regulating wheel surface with center
on the regulating wheel axis a a circle tangent to the workpiece circle of
radius r b a smaller diameter workpiece is generated if the circle on the
regulating wheel surface intersects the original workpiece circle at two points,
and c a larger diameter workpiece is generated if the circle on the regulating
wheel surface does not intersect the original workpiece circle
Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering MAY 2001, Vol. 123 321
Fig. 5 Front and side view of the new rotary truing system for through-feed
centerless grinding Unit: mm
4 Mathematical Model of the New Truing Method The values of these input parameters for the truing configura-
tion in Fig. 5 are: r80 mm, h50 mm, 5 deg, W
The goal of this mathematical model is to find the numerical
400 mm, R400 mm, and y0 mm.
representation of the regulating wheel surface generated using the
The surface of the regulating wheel is represented by a series of
proposed rotary truing method. First, an XYZ Cartesian coordi-
circles with their centers located on the axis of the regulating
nate system is defined for the new truing system. The definition of
wheel. For each point A on the axis of the regulating wheel, a
X, Y, and Z axes is the same as in the conventional truing method
circle on the surface of the regulating wheel with A as the center
discussed in Sec. 2. The YZ plane (X0) is the swivel plane of
can be found. This circle and the workpiece surface, which is
the regulating wheel. The Z-axis is parallel to the axes of the
represented by a cylinder, have only one point of contact. By
grinding wheel, workpiece, and traverse direction of the rotary
varying the point A along the regulating wheel axis, a family of
truing disk. The X-axis is perpendicular to the swivel plane of the
circles is generated. These circles represent the regulating wheel
regulating wheel and passes through the grinding wheel axis. The
surface.
swivel point on the regulating wheel axis locates on the XY plane
As shown in Fig. 7, an input parameter l is used to define the
(Z0).
location of point A from the swivel point on the regulating wheel
There are six input parameters to define the configuration of the
axis. Because the regulating wheel is swiveled in the plane X
new truing system. These parameters are:
0, the X coordinate of the swivel point and the point A is equal
1 Radius of the workpiece and rotary truing disk, r, to 0. The Z coordinate of the swivel point is also equal to 0
2 Center height of the workpiece and truing disk, h, because the swivel point is fixed in the Z0 plane. The coordi-
3 Swivel angle of the regulating wheel, , nate of point A is:
4 Distance between the two parallel axes of the workpiece and
truing disk, W, A 0, yl sin , l cos (1)
5 Radius of the grinding wheel, R, and
6 The Y coordinate of the swivel point on the regulating wheel where
axis, y. w/2lw/2 and w is the width of the regulating wheel
Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering MAY 2001, Vol. 123 323
Table 1 Results of A , D , , and B at l 200, 0, and 200 mm