Efficiency measures for process improvements
Grinding was once though to be a secondary finishing process, providing good surface finish and close geometrical tolerances. With recent advances in grinding wheel and machine tool technologies, it has become a critical machining operation and an attractive material removal process. Further improving the energy and resource-efficiency of the grinding process by a holistic approach addressing the entire grinding system was the ultimate objective of the ENGY project. While looking at the machining process outputs, optimisation of the machining tools' performance and the coolant support was sought along with the establishment of adequate energy balances. To achieve these ambitious goals, a detailed knowledge of the process behaviour had to be evaluated by detecting grinding forces and power demanded on the spindle motor driving grinding wheels. In most manufacturing operations, grinding processes are adjusted to speeds and feeds set by the operators who follow a company-determined baseline for a particular job. In addition, it is the operator that judges if these company set parameters can be adjusted to obtain an acceptable quality in reduced processing time. The mobile measurement system developed by the grinding tool manufacturer Tyrolit - Schleifmittelwerke Swarovski KG allows flexible monitoring and evaluation of fundamental process properties. Such simple information can retain much of the operator's experience, and importantly can help troubleshooting and achievement of the desired productivity. Non-intrusive monitoring techniques can prove to be, in the future, a valuable method for acquiring grinding process experience and the company preserving the operator's experience after his/her departure.
