Analysis of Surface Grinding of Thermoplastics Specimens with Inline Measurements

This paper analyzes the surface grinding of unfilled and glass-filled polyamides. The process is performed by varying the workpiece velocities to evaluate applied practical applications in the industry while being energy efficient. During the machining, the temperatures, normal forces, tangential forces, and spindle power were collected, and the surface quality was evaluated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), helping to determine material removal mechanisms and study their behavior under grinding. One of the primary outcomes of the present research was that, different from most metallic and ceramic materials, polyamides benefited from the material removal rate increase. We had higher quality material removed efficiently. Also, the specific energy of both materials converged to previously demonstrated values, showing once again that it is highly dependent on the matrix. Moreover, the time-dependent mechanical properties of the material during processing were identified. The fast application of the force at high speed gave less time to respond to the mechanical strain, determining an improvement in the surface quality of the samples. Consequently, the surface quality of the final product improved with a speed increase, leading to low roughness values.