The Growth of Micro Grinding Technology Using Bonded Superabrasive...

In any discipline, research and development favors certain popular areas of interest. In the grinding arena, current "hot" topics include high speed cylindrical grinding, creep feed grinding with superabrasives and engineered ceramic grains, and the battle between grinding and alternate machining processes such as milling, broaching and hard turning. The demands that drive these developments - tighter tolerances, higher productivity, reduced machine tool investment, environmental issues - are precisely the same as those driving a much quieter revolution in the processing of flat parts. The battle lines are every bit as fierce and driven both by new technologies (e.g. the semi conductor and opto-electronics industries) and an overlap of grinding and an alternate metal removal process namely lapping. Author: Michael Hitchiner, Universal Superabrasives, Romulus, MI.