GRIND Applications

The GRIND were published in the year 2000, and the first version of the software used for generating and manipulating these descriptors (ALMOND) [7], was available in the same year. Since then, more than 20 applications of GRIND in the most diverse fields have been published (see Table 6.1). 

Apart from their application in practical problems, the GRIND have been the subject of some theoretical papers, dealing for instance [28] with their information content, performing comparisons with other descriptors and discussing their suitability in drug discovery. 

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Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) is a different material altogether from h-BN, with a structure similar to that of diamond, which is characterized by extremely high hardness (second to diamond) and high thermal conductivity.As such, it is a material of great interest and a potential competitor to diamond, particularly for cutting and grinding applications. Its characteristics and properties are shown in Table 10.3... 

Chemical Resistance. C-BN is essentially inert to all reagents at room temperature. It does not react with carbide formers such as Fe, Co, Ni, Al, Ta, and B at approximately 1000°C (while diamond does) this is a useful characteristic in machining and grinding applications. However, it reacts with aluminum at 1050°C and with Fe and Ni alloys containing Al above 1250°C.P4]... 

Cubic Phase of Boron Nitride c-BN. The cubic phase of boron nitride (c-BN) is one of the hardest materials, second only to diamond and with similar crystal structure. It is the first example of a new material theoretically predicted and then synthesized in laboratory. From automated synthesis a microcrystalline phase of cubic boron nitride is recovered at ambient conditions in a metastable state, providing the basic material for a wide range of cutting and grinding applications. Synthetic polycrystalline diamonds and nitrides are principally used as abrasives but in spite of the greater hardness of diamond, its employment as a superabrasive is limited by a relatively low chemical and thermal stability. Cubic boron nitride, on the contrary, has only half the hardness of diamond but an extremely high thermal stability and inertness. 

There is a clear need for other size classifiers which combine a high separation efficiency with flexibility and compactness. Hydrocyclones have a small volume, are simple in operation and are standard size classification equipment, for example in closed circuit grinding applications. The recent development of the flat-bottom hydrocyclone, which permits classification in the coarse size range, creates an additional motive to study the use of hydrocyclones for Crystal Size Distribution (CSD) control. Furthermore, throttling of a flat botom hydrocyclone does not necessarily provoke blockage but allows continuous control of its cut size when a controlled throttling valve is used. There is a clear incentive for its use in this application since it may provide an additional process input. 

The tetraboron carbide produced by these processes consists of coarse hard particles suitable for grinding applications (ca. 360 t/a) or as starting materials for the manufacture of metallic borides (see Section 5.6.8),... 

There is a small demand within the soluble oil sector for fully synthetic true solutions , particularly for light-duty and grinding applications. These solutions may be formulated using water-soluble PAGs as base stock where their inverse solubility characteristic is advantageous in coating metal surfaces with a film of polymer to give lubrication and reduced tool wear. Biostability, low toxicity and little or no skin irritancy are additional benefits. 

The Work Index is claimed to be capable of predicting the power for a ball mill of 8 ft (2.43 m) in diameter in closed circuit wet grinding. In dry grinding applications, the value of WI has to be multiplied by an empirical constant of 1.3. The Work Index is also supposed to represent the energy in kWh required to reduce one short ton (907 kg) of mineral from a theoretical infinite size to a size distribution at which 80% is smaller than 100 microns. 

Microstructure. Crystal size, porosity, and impurity phases play a major role in fixing the fracture characteristics and toughness of an abrasive grain. As an example, rapidly cooled fused aluminum oxide has a microcrystalline structure promoting toughness for heavy-duty grinding applications, whereas the same composition cooled slowly has a macrocrystalline structure more suitable for medium-duty grinding. 

Formulated for grinding applications. Ferrous metals only. Formulation F-821... 

This section will focus upon the crystallization principles used to produce commercially synthetic diamond grit abrasives. The size of particles discussed here are within an envelope of about 850-200 pm for grits used mainly in stone and concrete sawing (saw sizes) and from about 200-50 pm used for grinding applications (wheel sizes). 

Grinding with Diamond Abrasives In grinding applications, the main types of bond used are metal and resin bonds. 

Spray nozzles are designed to produce a flat fan, or cone, of high pressure fluid to clean embedded chips from the grinding wheel surface or for minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) grinding applications. The distance of these nozzles from the wheel surface has to be maintained for optimum benefit to be achieved. 

Chapter 7 was written by a team from the Precision Micro-Machining Center of the University of Toledo, Ohio. The chapter presents a method that is new and not very familiar to the industry belt centerless grinding of ceramics materials using special diamond belts. This method is used mainly for high-efficiency grinding applications where the main objective is the stock removal rate and the second objective is the quality of the surface. 

For industrial welding and grinding applications, our Titanium Series welding helmets will not be outperformed. Designed for repetitive, long-term use. Miller offers an extensive choice of products. 

FIGURE 9.5 A spiked-nickel coating on resin-bond diamond increases tool life in many wet grinding applications. Increased life comes from greater mechanical crystal retention in the bond matrix due to the increased surface area created by spikes on the coating surface. 

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