Evaluation of approaches to compensate the thermo-mechanical distortion effects during profile grinding

This paper presents the results of a distortion analysis of profiled workpieces after the grinding process and a distortion compensation. Heat treatments and machining processes such as grinding change the residual stress state of steel workpieces in a quite uncontrolled manner. This significantly influences the deformation of the quenched and tempered steel workpieces used in this work. The lack of a detailed representation of profile grinding processes and the stress-related distortions of slim components still poses a great challenge in research. Simulative mapping of the thermo-mechanical effects on profiled components has proved difficult in literature. The influences of different cutting depths and feed speeds of the grinding wheel on the distortion were investigated with developed finite element simulations as well as experimentally. The grinding model, validated by experimental results, expands the understanding of the profile grinding process. This enables a detailed evaluation and an analysis of the occurring effects. As an approximation to linear guide rails, a V-groove was ground to improve the surface quality. Inside the V-groove, the machining parameters and thus the generated three-dimensional heat flux influence the residual stresses. The simulated workpiece distortions match very well to the experiments, especially when varying the defined depths of cut. The results provide a model for distortion prediction. Based on this model, approaches to use a laser-based treatment and deep rolling as distortion compensation strategies can be addressed.