An assessment of the applicability of cold air and oil mist in surface grinding

This paper discusses the application of an eco-grinding system using a mixture of compressed cold air and vegetable oil. The feasibility of the system was assessed using the surface grinding of plain carbon steel 1045 with a BWA60MVA1 wheel. The investigation showed that cold air can be used to suppress surface burning under certain material removal rates and has an advantage of reduced grinding forces. With the addition of very small amount of vegetable oil, a larger depth of cut can be performed without burning while keeping a good grinding quality. Grinding chips were of lamellar and leafy shapes, indicating a shearing mechanism of chip formation. There was no significant difference in subsurface hardness of the components ground with coolant or with cold air and oil mist (CAOM), although the latter showed a stronger dependence of surface residual stresses on the depth of cut due to the limited cooling capacity of CAOM. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.