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Oxygen-Assisted Truncation of Coarse-Grained Electroplated CBN Grinding Wheels for Ultra-Smooth Grinding of Bearing Steel

Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Coarse-grained electroplated cubic boron nitride (CBN) grinding wheels offer high material removal capability and long tool life, but non-uniform abrasive protrusion heights can generate deep grooves, limiting their use in precision finishing. This study investigated an oxygen-assisted truncation process for forming flattened cutting edges on coarse-grained electroplated CBN wheels and evaluated its application in end-face ultra-smooth grinding. Friction tests between polycrystalline CBN (PCBN) and quartz glass produced B- and O-rich wear debris with elemental distributions consistent with the oxidative removal of CBN. Under the tested conditions, supplemental oxygen increased the measured grain-tip truncation area ratio from 2.91% to 4.08% and the grain-tip removal height from 19.045 µm to 24.079 µm. When a truncated #120 wheel was applied to GCr15 bearing steel at a feed per revolution of 3 µm/rev, no distinct grinding grooves were observed and an Sa of 3.149 nm was achieved. Sa remained below 10 nm at nominal depths of cut ranging from 1 to 15 µm; even at a nominal depth of cut of 500 µm, Sa and Sz were 10.555 nm and 71.433 nm, respectively. Among the wheels tested, the wheel with a truncation area ratio of 2.91% produced the lowest mean Sa, whereas larger area ratios were accompanied by higher grinding forces and roughness values. These results demonstrate the feasibility of combining oxygen-assisted wheel truncation with end-face grinding to generate nanometer-scale surfaces using a coarse-grained electroplated CBN wheel; however, the truncation extent should be appropriately controlled to balance the surface finish and grinding force.
DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-10760206/v1
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204758108
Cites: 19
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Related to: 10