TABLE OF CONTENTS Grinding is the common collective name for machining processes which utilize hard abrasive particles as the cutting medium. The grinding process of shaping materials is probably the oldest in existence, dating from the time prehistoric man found that he could sharpen his tools by rubbing them against gritty rocks. Without the capability to shape and sharpen implements by grinding, we might still be living in the Stone Age.
Nowadays, grinding is a major manufacturing process which accounts for about 20 25% of the total expenditures on machining operations in industrialized countries. Society, as we know it, would be quite impossible without grinding. Almost everything that we use has either been machined by grinding at some stage of its production, or has been processed by machines which owe their precision to abrasive operations. How could we sharpen cutting tools for turning, milling, and drilling without grinding? How could we manufacture the rolling bearings for machinery and vehicles? How could we produce disk-drive components for computers?
Within the spectrum of machining processes, the uniqueness of grinding is found in its cutting tool. Grinding wheels and tools are generally composed of two materials - tiny abrasive particles called grains or grits, which do the cutting, and a softer bonding agent to hold the countless abrasive grains together in a solid mass. Prehistoric man's abrasive tool was natural sandstone, which contains grains of sand in a silicate bond matrix. Modern grinding wheels are fabricated by cementing together abrasive grains, usually from...
