The Effect of Ultrasonic Vibration on the 3D Printing Fabrication and Grinding Performance of Structured CBN Grinding Wheel

The abrasives of traditional grinding wheels are usually randomly arranged on the substrate, reducing the number of effective abrasive grains involved in the machining during the grinding process. However, there are some problems such as uneven distribution of chip storage space, high grinding temperature, and easy surface burn. In trying to address this issue, an ultrasonic vibration 3D printing method is introduced to fabricate the structured CBN (Cubic Boron Nitride) grinding wheel. The effects of the fabricated process parameters, overlap rate, scanning path, and ultrasonic amplitude were analyzed. The effects of laser power, scanning speed, and powder disk rotation speed on the topography of the printing layer were analyzed by orthogonal tests. The obtained data were input into the GA-BP (Genetic Algorithm-Back Propagation) neural network for training, and the trained model was utilized to derive the optimal process parameters. Then, the experiments were carried out to optimize the overlap rate and the scanning path. The effect of ultrasonic vibration amplitude on the surface topography and the microhardness of the printing layer was observed and investigated. The structured CBN grinding wheels were fabricated using the optimal parameters, and the performance of the grinding wheels was evaluated. The workpiece surface roughness ground by the grinding wheel fabricated with ultrasonic vibration was smaller than that without ultrasonic vibration, and a better workpiece surface quality was obtained.