Grinding is a key technology for production of advanced products and surfaces in a wide range of industries. Grinding is usually employed where one or more of the following factors apply.
1.2.1 High Accuracy Required
Grinding processes are mostly used to produce high-quality parts to high accuracy and to close tolerances. Examples range from very large parts, such as machine tool slide-ways to small parts, such as contact lenses, needles, electronic components, silicon wafers, and rolling bearings.
1.2.2 High Removal Rate Required
Grinding processes are also used for high removal rate. A typical example is high-removal-rate grinding for the flutes of hardened twist drills. The flutes are ground into solid round bars in one fast operation. Twist drills are produced in very large quantities at high speeds explaining why grinding is a key process for low costs, high production rates, and high quality.
1.2.3 Machining of Hard Materials
While accuracy and surface-texture requirements are common reasons for selecting abrasive processes, there is another reason. Abrasive processes are the natural choice for machining and finishing very hard materials and hardened surfaces. In many cases, grinding is the only practical way of machining some hard materials. The ability to machine hard material has become more and more important with the increasing application of brittle ceramics and other hard materials such as those used in aerospace engines.