Wear behavior of alumina abrasive belt and its effect on surface integrity of titanium alloy during conventional and creep-feed grinding

Abrasive belt grinding is commonly used in the surface processing of key components of major equipment, such as blade, blisk and rail, due to its cold and flexible processing characteristics. Creep feed belt grinding (CFBG) can effectively improve the processing efficiency; however, it will result in severe abrasive belts wear and low grinding quality. This study comparatively investigated the abrasive belt wear behavior and its effect on surface integrity of titanium alloy during CFBG and conventional belt grinding (CBG), It was revealed that CFBG led to more severe abrasive belt wear than CBG, and the main wear form of abrasive belt was abrasive grain fracture (account for more than 40%) during CFBG, while that was abrasive grain attrition during CBG. Besides, the grinding temperature and grinding force in CFBG were more significant than those in CBG. With the increase of the abrasive belt wear, the grinding temperature and grinding force gradually decreased. Furthermore, as the abrasive belt worn, the ground surface was gradually flattened, and the roughness of CFBG reduced from 1.16 to 0.50 μm, while that in CBG reduced from 0.704 to 0.560 μm. Compared with CBG, an apparent plastic flow and oxidation of titanium alloy occurred due to the temperature effect during CFBG, and the surface residual stress transformed from compressive to tensile as abrasive belt wore.