Grindability and Surface Integrity of Cast Nickel-based Superalloy in Creep Feed Grinding with Brazed CBN Abrasive Wheels

The technique of creep feed grinding is most suitable for geometrical shaping, and therefore has been expected to improve effectively material removal rate and surface quality of components with complex profile. This article studies experimentally the effects of process parameters (i.e. wheel speed, workpiece speed and depth of cut) on the grindability and surface integrity of cast nickel-based superalloys, i.e. K424, during creep feed grinding with brazed cubic boron nitride (CBN) abrasive wheels. Some important factors, such as grinding force and temperature, specific grinding energy, size stability, surface topography, microhardness and microstructure alteration of the sub-surface, residual stresses, are investigated in detail. The results show that during creep feed grinding with brazed CBN wheels, low grinding temperature at about 100 °C is obtained though the specific grinding energy of nickel-based superalloys is high up to 200-300 J/mm3. A combination of wheel speed 22.5 m/s, workpiece speed 0.1 m/min, depth of cut 0.2 mm accomplishes the straight grooves with the expected dimensional accuracy. Moreover, the compressive residual stresses are formed in the burn-free and crack-free ground surface.