The Role of Chip Thickness in Grinding

Abstract Grinding chips are classified into five types depending upon their relative thickness-to-length ratio and equations are derived for computing the length or thickness of chips of all types for external, surface, internal, and plunge-grinding operations. Representative experimental grinding data are presented and discussed to illustrate the use of the equations and to emphasize the importance of chip thickness as a grinding parameter. The force on a single grain is derived and the result applied to explain relative wheel hardness.