A general algorithm for profiling and dressing grinding wheels when using a grinding spindle on a CNC lathe

Abstract

Remarkable progress is being made in the technology for grinding complicated geometrical parts. Today, some factories are considering adding a grinding spindle to a turning lathe to save buying an additional expensive new grinding machine. The grinding spindle will be interchangeable with a turning boring bar and it will need two types of software. First is a program and subroutine to control the machine movement during the grinding profile of the work-piece. Second a program and a subroutine are needed to profile the new grinding wheels according to the grinding profiles of the work-piece, as well as dressing the grinding wheels after usage. In the case of a very small depth of cut, a long program will be required. Each different shape of grinding wheel will require different software. There are no detailed descriptions for this problem in the literature or machine manuals. This paper presents a general algorithm to make the profiling and dressing programs for grinding wheels easier. The programmer will use this algorithm for creating a subroutine suitable for the machine dressing system. This algorithm can be used on grinding machines as well as on an additional grinding spindle on a hollow spindle lathe. This subroutine will be used for profiling and dressing the most common shape of grinding wheels. The programmer will then only need to fill in the parameters which describe the contour of the grinding wheels. This algorithm has been applied on a hollow spindle lathe equipped with a numerical Sinumeric 840C control. Several grinding wheels have been profiled and dressed using the proposed approaches, and satisfactory results were obtained.