Development of a Grinding Tool with Contact-Force Control Capability

The grinding normal force is one of the main factors that affect grinding quality. We report on the development of a compact grinding tool which not only can rotate the grind wheel but also can actively control the wheel in the fore/aft direction to modulate the contact force. The two motion degrees of freedom are coupled in the sense of mechanism yet their motions are independent. The designed grinding tool was modeled and its parameters were systemically identified. A repetitive controller was designed to suppress periodic force variation, which was mainly caused by the rotational motion of the grinding wheel, and the results were compared with other control methods. The selection of the grinding parameters was conducted using the Taguchi method. Finally, the grinding tool and the repetitive controller were experimentally evaluated, and the experimental results confirm that the proposed control strategy can reduce the force disturbance and improve the surface quality of the flat and curvy workpieces.