Conditioning of grinding wheels
The conditioning of a grinding wheel serves for regeneration by dressing (profiling / sharpening) or cleaning. Conditioning takes place both before the first treatment and after the grinding wheel has worn out unevenly due to the treatment.
Conditioning can be divided into two forms: dressing and cleaning. Dressing in turn is divided into profiling and sharpening.
Conditioning
Cleaning
The aim of cleaning (of diamond and CBN grinding wheels) is to only remove impurities such as chips from the chip space and not to modify the shape of the grinding wheel.
Dressing
Profiling
The aim of profiling is to (re)produce a defined shape, e.g. the exact concentricity or the grinding wheel profile. Both grit and bond are processed.
Sharpening/Blunting
When sharpening, the bond of the grinding wheel shall be reset after the grain has become blunt (or after breaking out of entire abrasive grains or grain groups). Individual grains are broken and thus sharp cutting edges are produced. A grinding wheel is blunted if, for example, a better surface shall be achieved.
Standing and rotating dressing tools
Diamond is often used for dressing tools. Natural or synthetic diamond, monocrystalline diamond (MCD), polycrystalline diamond (PCD) or polycrystalline diamond produced with chemical vapour deposition (CVD diamond) is used.
The dressing tools used are stationary dressing tools such as single-point dressers, – multi-stone dressers / multi-grain dressers or plate dressers as well as rotating dressing tools such as diamond roller dressers or diamond dressing pots.
Standing dressing tools (examples):
- single-point dressers
- multi-stone dressers / multi-grain dressers
- dressing plates
- wheel dressers
- hand dressing tools / dressing sticks
Rotating dressing tools (examples):
- diamond roller dressers
- diamond dressing pots
Dressing operation
In the case of a single grain diamond, the dressing tool is guided along the grinding wheel during the dressing process so that the abrasive grains break out of the grinding wheel. The correct angle of between diamond and grinding wheel, the infeed and speed are particularly important here. Dressing must also be carried out with uniform cooling during the entire dressing process. If the diamond tip flattens, the diamond must be turned axially timely. Usually a grinding wheel is dressed at certain intervals while the grinding process is interrupted. However, there are also processes in which the grinding wheel is dressed continuously during the grinding process (CD – Continuous Dressing).