Three-dimensional characterization and modeling of diamond electroplated grinding wheels

This paper presents a study on the three-dimensional characterization and modeling of morphology of diamond abrasive grains and electroplated diamond grinding wheels. A diamond abrasive grain was modeled by a cubo-octahedron that was determined by the intersection between an octahedron and a cube. The study revealed that the side length of octahedron and its side-length ratio followed a normal distribution and a generalized extreme value distribution, respectively. High-precision characterizations of grain density and protrusion height were realized by measuring wheel replicas with laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM). It was found that the grain protrusion height followed a normal distribution with an average of ∼40% of the grain size. Considering the randomly-distributed shape, size, position and protrusion height of abrasive grains, a geometric model of electroplated diamond wheels was established. The results show that the predicted morphology of grinding wheels agreed well with the experimentally measured. The model enables an accurate kinematic simulation for designing precision grinding processes.