Environmentally friendly manufacturing of grinding wheels from nonwoven abrasive waste: method and performance evaluation

Abstract Abrasive pads are used in a wide range of applications. The production of these pads creates significant quantities of waste consisting of plastics combined with ceramic grits, which hinders conventional recycling methods. A Research team at the University of Stuttgart utilized this waste in a novel process for the production of grinding wheels. This approach promises to save time, energy, and money. Although we faced difficulties in handling and dosing the material, iteratively changing the mixture and pressing parameters yielded usable grinding wheels. Mixing the waste material with 15% fresh phenolic resin binder resulted in a grinding wheel with mechanical and tribological properties similar to conventional products. However, its performance remains somewhat inferior to those of traditional abrasives. In real-life application tests, it withstands a rated angular velocity higher than 12,000 revolutions per minute and creates surfaces with a roughness of approximately 1.5 µm on painted metal parts. Future work should focus on developing better pore-forming agents, since those tested thus far have not sufficiently reduced surface clogging.