Avaliação da eficiência energética no processo de retificação de metal duro

Abstract

The quest to make manufacturing processes sustainable is an increasingly important need. In this context, the present work assessed the grinding process of cemented tungsten carbide inserts with SNGN geometry (square, with zero clearance angle and without edge preparation) and WC-5%CO composition (ISO grade K10), one of the most used in the industry. The following cutting conditions were varied: cutting speed (12, 40 and 60 m/s), feed speed (2 and 12 mm/min) and coolant fluid flow (12.6 and 16.2 l/min). The combination of the proposed parameters led to 12 conditions applied for each type of diamond grinding wheel, with concentration C100 (0.88 g/cm³), different abrasive grain sizes and bonding materials: grain size of 15 μm and resinoid binder (D15R), grain size of 15 μm and vitrified binder (D15V), grain size of 46 μm and resinoid binder (D46R), grain size of 46 μm and vitrified binder (D46V). The grinding tests were carried out to assess the influence of the different parameters on surface and edge roughness, as well as on energy consumption and efficiency. As a result, it was observed that the variation of grinding parameters had little influence on the insert quality, although a slight increase could be noticed with the use of the vitrified bonded diamond grinding with bigger grain size. The increase in the single grain chip thickness led to an increase in cutting forces and a decrease in specific energy, but there was no influence of grinding conditions on the electric power, being the energy consumption reduced by 62.8% only by changing the feed speed from 2 to 12 mm/min, which actually caused a decrease in processing time.