Adv. Manuf.
DOI 10.1007/s40436-016-0167-0
Laser conditioning and structuring of grinding tools – a review
Bahman Azarhoushang1 • Ali Zahedi1
Received: 17 June 2016 / Accepted: 21 December 2016
Ó Shanghai University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017
Abstract The conditioning of grinding tools is one of the
most important factors for achieving an optimal grinding
process. It influences the grinding forces and temperatures
and, therefore, the achievable material removal rate,
dimensional accuracy and the surface integrity of the
workpiece. Furthermore, the roundness, profile accuracy
and the wear of the grinding tools are strongly influenced
by the conditioning process. The conditioning process
should be matched to the abrasive type and the bonding of
the grinding tool. Laser conditioning is a promising
unconventional and non-contact method, which is able to
condition all kinds of abrasives and bonding types. The
main advantages of this novel method are no tool wear,
good repeatability and controllability, high precision and a
relatively short process time. Additionally, using this
method grinding tools can be micro-structured. This paper
reviews the literature on the laser conditioning of grinding
tools, covering the associated setups, wheel conditioning
and structuring mechanisms, and experimental results. It
also discusses the technical barriers that have to be over-
come before laser conditioning can be fully integrated into
manufacturing.
Keywords Laser conditioning  Structuring  Dressing 
Truing  Grinding tools  Grinding
& Bahman Azarhoushang
aza@hs-furtwangen.de
1 Cleaning is the regeneration of the micro topography of the
Institute of Precision Machining (KSF), Furtwangen
University of Applied Sciences, Jakob-Kienzle-Strasse 17,
78054 Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany
1 Introduction
Grinding is usually the last step in the machining of work-
pieces and components requiring high levels of precision
and surface quality. Therefore the performance of a grinding
tool has a great influence on the quality of the workpiece and
the process efficiency. Wheel conditioning is one of the most
important factors affecting the performance of the grinding
tool [1–5]. Owing to the mechanical and thermal loads on the
cutting grains and bonding of the tool during the grinding
process, the grinding tool is subjected to both macro- and
micro-wear [6, 7]. The roundness and the profile of the tool
change as a result of the macro wear. However, micro-wear
leads to changes in the micro topography of the grinding
tool. As a result, the grinding tool becomes dull (or sharp in
exceptional cases) [8]. Accordingly, the selection of an
appropriate conditioning process is a key prerequisite for
ensuring an efficient grinding process.
The tool conditioning is performed to generate the
required form and profile accuracy, tool roundness and
optimal micro topography of the grinding tool for a par-
ticular grinding process [4, 9]. The term ‘‘conditioning
comprises truing, dressing and cleaning processes’’
[4, 8, 10]. The required form accuracy, profile and round-
ness of the grinding tool are attained by truing. Therefore,
the truing process alters the macro topography of the
grinding tool. Dressing generates a specific micro topog-
raphy on the cutting surface of the grinding tool
[6, 8, 9, 11]. With conventional grinding tools and vitrified
bonded grinding tools both truing and dressing are usually
carried out by the same process using diamond dressers,
where the combination is commonly called dressing [11].
grinding tool by removing the grinding chips and swarf,
which penetrate into the pores of the grinding tool (loaded
123

wheel) or which sometimes even become cold welded to
the surfaces of the individual particles of grit (grinding tool
clogging) [6, 10].
Based on the type of abrasive and bond, and the required
profile of the grinding tool, different conditioning processes
and tools may be utilized [6, 8]. The conditioning processes
can be divided into four main groups according to their
material removal mechanisms, namely mechanical, thermal,
chemical and electrochemical (hybrid) conditioning pro-
cesses [8, 12]. While mechanical process was the only type
of conditioning process to be used in industry in the past,
today there are other conditioning processes such as thermal,
chemical and hybrid conditioning processes. However,
mechanical conditioning, i.e., conditioning using diamond
dressers or SiC/Al2O3 dressing tools, is still the most com-
mon conditioning process [8]. Nevertheless, the number of
conditioning processes and their variants has grown con-
tinuously. In mechanical conditioning processes with dia-
mond dressers, the abrasive grains and the bond are cut by
the dresser [5, 8, 9]. However, aluminium oxide and silicon
carbide dressing tools, which also belong to the mechanical
conditioning tools, only cut and remove the bond [6, 8]. In
non-mechanical conditioning the grains and bond of the
grinding tool are eroded or ablated (instead of being
mechanically cut) by applying electrochemical and thermal
processes, such as laser conditioning, spark erosion electri-
cal discharge machining (EDM), and electrochemical
machining (ECM), electrolytic in process dressing [13–16].
Generally rotary diamond dressers are utilized for con-
ditioning of vitrified bonded superabrasive (cubic boron
nitride (cBN) and diamond) wheels [8, 17]. However, high
dressing forces are generated in the contact zone between
the dresser and the grinding tool, which cause wear to the
dresser and partial fracture and/or crack propagation in the
bond of the grinding tool. Owing to the gradually
increasing wear of the dressing tool, the conditioning
process loses its accuracy continuously after a certain
number of dressing cycles, requiring that the dresser be
periodically re-profiled and replaced after a defined time,
which is associated both costly and time consuming.
Compared to vitrified bonds, the conditioning of resin and
metal bonded superabrasive grinding tools is even more
complicated and time and cost intensive. For this purpose,
either aluminium oxide and/or silicon carbide tools are
generally used (in the form of a dressing wheel and as a
mechanical conditioning process). However, the material
removal rate of the conditioning process and the acquirable
profile accuracy of the grinding tool are very limited [6, 8].
The dressing (sharpening) of the resin and metal bonds,
i.e., influencing the micro topography of the grinding tool,
directly in the grinding machine is generally possible using
these conditioning tools [6, 8, 9, 18]. However, to alter the
macro topography of the resin and metal bonded
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B. Azarhoushang, A. Zahedi
superabrasive grinding tools (truing) with alumina and/or
silicon carbide conditioning wheels, the grinding tools are
generally removed from the grinding spindle and mounted
in a special conditioning machine. Thus the process is
associated with high downtimes, additional costs, inaccu-
racies, low efficiency and limited profiling flexibility.
Other disadvantages include the very high wear of the
conditioning wheel and dust production in the case of dry
machining, which is why a constant air suction in the
conditioning machine is required [8].
Several researchers have considered the structuring as
an additional conditioning step [4, 19–21]. The structuring
of grinding tools is a novel method for reducing the cutting
forces and temperatures and, hence, increasing the process
efficiency by reducing the number of static, dynamic and
kinematic cutting edges. This method has been the subject
of several studies aiming to improve the cutting efficiency
and coolant flow in the grinding zone [4, 17, 22]. The
production of structures on the surface of the grinding tools
using diamond dressers (mechanical method) is generally
limited to the vitrified bonded tools [17, 21, 23–25].
Additionally, the possible structure patterns when utilizing
diamond dressers are very limited. Furthermore, mechani-
cal structuring is associated with the same technical limi-
tations as the conditioning of superabrasive tools with
diamond dressers, e.g., high wear of the dresser and,
therefore, a continuous loss of the accuracy after each
structuring cycle.
To overcome some of the technical limitations involved
by mechanical conditioning and structuring of grinding
tools, non-mechanical and unconventional conditioning
processes such as laser conditioning have been developed
to increase the process accuracy and flexibility while
reducing costs and processing time. The application fields
for machining with laser beams have been expanding in
recent years with the advancement of the pulsed laser
technology. The laser, as a fast, efficient, non-contact and
versatile tool, is especially established in machining of
difficult to cut materials such as high strength Ti/Ni based
superalloys (e.g., Ti6Al4V [26–28], Inconel [29, 30]),
super-hard materials (e.g., diamond [31, 32], cubic boron
nitride [33]) and ceramics (e.g., Al2O3 [34, 35], SiC [34],
Si3N4 [36, 37]). In addition to its high flexibility, a pulsed
laser exhibits other positive characteristics such as targeted
heat input, a small or even no heat-affected zone, force and
contact free machining and simple spatial and temporal
control [25]. Through the use of laser beams to condition
the grinding tools, the disadvantages of mechanical con-
ditioning and structuring processes can be overcome.
Therefore, the use of a laser for the conditioning of
superabrasive grinding tools, especially with metal, resin
and hybrid bonds, can be beneficial. With the laser,
grinding tools with various bond and abrasive types are
Laser conditioning and structuring of grinding tools – a review
conditioned reproducibly, with no wear and high accuracy.
Furthermore over the long term, that is much more cost-
efficient than the conventional methods [38].
However, laser conditioning and structuring has still
not been extensively utilized in the industry. This review
paper aims to address the material removal mechanism of
the grinding tool in laser conditioning and structuring,
describe the state of the art and discuss the technical
barriers for its acceptance in manufacturing. This paper is
organized into five sections. Following the introduction,
Sect. 2 discusses the material removal mechanisms of
laser conditioning. Section 3 summarizes the setups for
laser conditioning and structuring. Experimental results
are presented in Sect. 4. The technical challenges for the
manufacturing application of laser conditioning are dis-
cussed in Sect. 5.
2 Material removal mechanisms of laser
conditioning
Laser conditioning is basically a thermal process which
ablates the grinding wheel components to the extent
required for the selected process, i.e., cleaning, sharpen-
ing, dressing and profiling. To limit the heat affected zone
within the characteristic dimensions associated with the
micro topography of common grinding wheels (grain/pore
size and distance), most of the current literature address
the application of pulsed lasers, which provide greater
controllability of the thermal ablation process. The laser
material interaction mechanism can be generally classi-
fied into three categories according to the laser pulse
width tp , electron cooling time te and lattice heating time
tl : continuous wave (CW) lasers, short pulsed lasers and
ultrashort pulsed lasers [39]. If the pulse width is much
larger than the electron-lattice coupling time (tp [ 250 ms
 tl  te ), thermal ablation takes place mainly by the
melting mechanism and the laser is said to be a CW laser
[40]. The short pulsed lasers operate over smaller pulse
width values in the order of nanoseconds, but the laser
energy absorbed by the free electrons still has enough
time to be transferred beyond the electrons and the lat-
tice [40]. In the case of short pulsed lasers there is a
slight amount of melting followed by rapid vaporization
and the heat affected zone is smaller than that of CW
laser [39]. The pulse width of ultrashort pulsed lasers is
less than the electron cooling time (tp \ te & 1 ps  tl ).
In ultrashort pulsed laser treatment there is not enough
time for the heat to be conducted into the solid medium.
Therefore, provided the pulse energy exceeds the bind-
ing energy of the lattice, the lattice bond breaks
instantaneously without any energy transfer to the
neighbouring ions [39, 41].
Accordingly, a direct solid-vapor transition can be
achieved with negligible melting and no residual debris.
Considering the variations in the grinding wheel compo-
nents (different types of abrasive grain and bond materials)
and the demand for high controllability, the CW lasers are
not suitable choices for precise grinding wheel condition-
ing. The development of the ultrashort pulsed lasers in
recent years has enhanced the applicability of lasers in
grinding. Besides the melt-free ablation, the ultrashort
pulsed lasers are able to perform selective removal of the
grinding wheel components [42, 43]. The determining
factor affecting the selective ablation is the binding energy
deviation among the radiated components. Figure 1 pre-
sents scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of two
metal-bonded cBN and diamond abrasive surfaces, where
the bonding material is selectively ablated by a picosecond
Yb:YAG laser (with an average power of 50 W and peak
pulse energy of 125 lJ) without inducing thermal damage
to the grains. The cBN tool was irradiated with 50 lJ of
pulse energy with a 10 mm/s scanning speed, while the
diamond tool was irradiated with 37.5 lJ pulse energy and
20 mm/s scanning speed. The characterization of suit-
able laser treatment parameters (pulse energy and scanning
speed) is discussed in Ref. [42], based on the desired
conditioning process and the thermal properties of the
wheel components. Accordingly, the range of conditioning
processes from cleaning and sharpening (ablation of
bonding material and chip loading, and the retention of
abrasive grains) to dressing, structuring and profiling
(controlled ablation of bonding material and abrasive
grains) can be achieved with ultrashort pulsed lasers.
The mechanism of laser processing further depends on
the kinematics of the laser-workpiece interaction. The
absorbed laser energy and the extent of beam reflection
depend on the laser incidence angle over the wheel surface
[44]. In addition, the desired conditioning process might
require proper motion characteristics of the grinding wheel
and the laser scanning. These requirements include tan-
gential or radial radiation, grinding wheel angular position
or velocity, axial motion and relative beam-workpiece
speed (scanning speed) and can be provided by the
machine axes and spindle and/or laser scanner.
3 Set-ups for laser conditioning and structuring
of grinding tools
The first laser conditioning setup was demonstrated in 1989
by Ramesh et al. [45, 46]. The setup consisted of a
Nd:YAG laser (pulsed laser with a pulse width of around
460 ls and a pulse repetition rate of 15 Hz) and a fixture
for mounting the grinding wheel, which also controlled the
rotation and axial movement of the wheel. The laser beam
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 B. Azarhoushang, A. Zahedi

Fig. 1 Selective ablation of metal-bonded cBN and diamond grinding tools

was focused perpendicularly to the wheel surface through a

plano-convex lens. The rotational speed of the wheel was
synchronized with the laser pulse repetition rate, to achieve
a slight overlap of the focused laser spots and form a
continuous groove on the wheel periphery [46]. The setup
was used for the dressing of a vitrified bond aluminium
oxide grinding wheel.
The other developed laser conditioning setups are very
similar to those of Ramesh. The main differences between
the setups are the type of the laser system (e.g., Nd:YAG
[10, 21, 46–53], CO2 [10, 54–56], Yb:YAG [21, 38, 42, 57],
diode [54]), the laser beam transmitting system (i.e., mirrors
[13, 21, 38, 42, 46–48, 51, 57] or fiber-optics [10, 43, 49,
50, 55, 58, 59]) and the laser beam position relative to the
grinding tool’s surface (i.e., tangential [10, 21, 43, 52, 53,
57, 60], perpendicular [10, 46–49, 51, 52, 55, 58–60] or on a
defined incident angle [44]). The utilized laser beam can Fig. 2 Laser conditioning and structuring of grinding tools
also be classified into CW laser [50, 58, 61], pulsed laser
(pulse width C 1 ls) [10, 44, 46, 47, 49, 53, 55, 56, 62], Otherwise the grinding tool was mounted on a lathe or laser
short pulsed laser (1 ls [ pulse width C 1 ns) [21, 43, machine [48, 51, 53, 64]. However, very few studies
48, 51, 59, 63] and ultrashort pulsed laser (pulse attempted to integrate the laser system directly into the
width B 1 ns) [13, 19, 21, 38, 42, 57, 64]. The principle of grinding machine and condition the grinding tool directly
the laser conditioning and structuring is illustrated in Fig. 2. on the spindle in order to reduce the downtime and increase
Mirrors were chosen as the transmission system of the the process efficiency [38, 43, 60, 62, 63].
laser beam in Fig. 2, since the majority of the studies uti-
lized this method given the higher flexibility relative to
fiber laser heads. Moreover, the combined f-theta lens
4 Experimental results
technology provides improved process controlling. The f-
theta lenses exhibit a flat focal point, uniform spot diameter
Several experiments (as summarized in Table 1) have
and a near spot velocity at the scan plane [65].
addressed the laser conditioning and structuring of grinding
An additional difference between the utilized laser
tools. These experiments are described in this section
conditioning setups is the wheel mounting system. Gener-
according to the utilized process. When studying the effects
ally, grinding tools were conditioned by laser outside of the
of laser conditioning, some researchers used conventional
grinding machine. In this case, either a special fixture was
grinding wheels (vitrified bonded aluminum oxide wheels)
developed, consisting mainly of a motor (rotating the
[46, 47, 50, 55, 56, 58, 67], while others used superabrasive
grinding tool), a flange (mounting the wheel on the spindle)
(cBN and diamond) grinding tools.
and one or two translation axes [13, 19, 46, 48, 49, 59].

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Laser conditioning and structuring of grinding tools – a review
Table 1 Summary of experimental results on laser conditioning and
structuring of grinding tools
Conditioning process Refs.
Dressing [10, 13, 46–51, 53, 57–59, 62, 66]
Truing [21, 43, 44, 51, 53]
Cleaning [42, 55, 67]
Structuring [19, 21, 63, 64]
4.1 Laser dressing
The first attempts to study the effects of the laser dressing
of grinding wheel surfaces were performed in the late
1980s by Ramesh and Radhakrishnan [46, 47]. They
studied the interaction of laser pulses with a vitrified
bonded alumina wheel (U250 mm 9 25 mm, AA60 K5
V8). A special fixture was developed to mount the grinding
wheel, rotate it and move the wheel axially to generate the
required helical path during laser dressing. A high power
pulsed Nd:YAG laser was used to irradiate the surface of a
rotating grinding wheel (the surface of the wheel was at the
focal plane of the scanning lens), to which the laser beam
was applied radially (perpendicularly) to the grinding
wheel. Their study found that craters were formed by the
laser irradiation, with these being surrounded by a recast
layer exhibiting multiple cracks. The extent of damage had
a direct relation with the intensity of the laser being used. It
was reported that the laser dressed wheel led to an initial
increase in the grinding forces owing to the rubbing action
of the smooth recast molten layer (which was deposited on
the wheel after laser dressing). However, this recast layer
was removed as continuing grinding, resulting in a reduc-
tion of the grinding forces and an improvement of the
workpiece surface finish [46]. With an appropriate selec-
tion of the laser intensity and its focusing conditions, the
laser dressing generated a wheel surface topography, which
could produce grinding results comparable to or better than
those obtained with sharp diamond dressers [46]. Figure 3
shows the surface topography of the laser dressed grinding
wheel.
Hosokawa et al. [49] investigated the laser dressing of a
metal (bronze) bonded diamond grinding wheel
(SD120N75M; 30 mm 9 30 mm 9 15 mm). The wheel
surface was irradiated perpendicularly by a pulsed Nd:
YAG laser (pulse width 2.5 ls). The irradiation removed
the bond partially, which was subject to melting, vapor-
ization and resolidification. To prevent the solidification of
the molten bond on the wheel surface, an air jet was
directed on the laser irradiated spot. The whole wheel
surface was dressed and the appropriate grain protrusion
height was generated by precise control of the laser pulse
width, repetition rate and wheel rotation speed. Utilizing
optimized laser parameters led to damage free diamond
particles, where micro-cracks and graphitization of the
diamond grains were not observed. HP-SiC was plunge-
ground with conventionally dressed and laser dressed
grinding wheels in order to examine the grinding perfor-
mance of the laser dressed diamond wheel. Both grinding
wheels (i.e., conventionally and laser dressed wheels,
which had the same specification) indicated almost com-
parable forces, which were kept fairly constant up to
Vw0 = 50 mm3/mm (stock removed per unit width of cut).
The surface topography changes of the laser dressed wheel
before and after grinding are shown in Fig. 4. Figure 4
indicates that, the metal bond firmly holds the diamond
grains during the grinding process and is not thermally
deteriorated as a result of laser dressing [49].
The above mentioned efforts into the application of a
laser as a dressing tool were mainly based on the non-
contact thermal ablation, which could resemble the action
of a dressing tool. However, owing to the available laser
devices, which were either CW or pulsed lasers with a
rather large pulse width (microseconds or longer), it was
not physically possible to distinguish between the grinding
wheel components during the thermal ablation. Therefore,
almost the same grinding force and surface roughness
levels as those produced by conventional dressing methods
could be achieved.
Zahedi and Azarhoushang [13, 66] compared the
grinding performance of laser dressed and conventionally
dressed grinding wheels. A Yb:YAG picosecond laser
(pulse width: 10 ps, the maximum pulse energy: 125 lJ,
repetition frequency: 400 kHz) was used for the laser
dressing. The laser beam was conducted to a 2D-optical
laser scanner through a set of mirrors and guides. A resin
bonded cBN grinding wheel (B151C75BH-R, B1A1
D:100 T:15 X:5 H:20H7) was chosen for the cylindrical
plunge grinding of hardened 100Cr6 bars (56 HRc).
Considering the results of previously performed thermal
analyses of the pulsed laser treatment [38, 42], and with
regard to the thermal and mechanical properties of the
cBN grains and the resin bond, the required pulse energy
values for the effective ablation of the grains and the bond
material were found to be about 62 lJ and 5 lJ, respec-
tively. The gap between these energy values defines the
range of pulse energies required for the treatment of bond
material without damaging the cBN grains [13]. Therefore,
the chosen pulse energy was 50 lJ and the rotational
speed of the grinding wheel and the axial feed of the laser
scanner were adjusted so that the relative scanning speed
was 200 mm/s, while the pitch of the laser grooves was
50 lm. Accordingly, the groove depth was measured and
found to be about 70 lm on the grinding wheel surface.
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 B. Azarhoushang, A. Zahedi

Fig. 3 Photograph of a the laser dressed wheel surface (Nd:YAG laser, pulse width 460 ls, focussed spot diameter 0.15 mm, wheel rotation
speed: 0.25 r/min, pulse repetition rate: 15 Hz) and b the diamond dressed wheel surface (single point dresser) [46]

(marked with the red ellipse), and adjacent laser grooves on

Fig. 4 Grinding wheel surface topography a after laser dressing, b
after 100 grinding passes (cutting speed vs = 25 m/s, workpiece
speed vw = 10 m/min, depth of cut ae = 10 lm) [49]
Therefore, the grains (with an average size of about
151 lm) were not lost, while a sufficient amount of cut-
ting edges and chip pockets were provided. At the same
time an equivalent grinding wheel was dressed conven-
tionally with a green SiC dressing wheel and sharpened
using alumina blocks. Table 2 presents the laser and
conventional dressing and cylindrical plunge grinding
parameters.
Images of the two processes and the resulting surfaces
are presented in Fig. 5. Pullout of some grains on the
surface of the conventionally dressed grinding wheel
the laser-dressed grinding wheel can be seen in Fig. 5 [66].
The conventionally dressed and sharpened wheel,
compared to the laser dressed grinding wheel, incurred a
higher grinding force and power [13]. Grinding with the
laser dressed grinding wheel reduced the tangential force
values up to 45%. It was reported that the more effective
ablation of the bond material and retention of the grains
(selective treatment of the components), as well as the
more effective protrusion of the grains in the laser-dressed
wheel were the main reasons for the reduction in the
grinding force. Figure 6 presents the values of the specific
grinding power and the tangential force resulting from
plunge cylindrical grinding with both conventionally and
laser dressed grinding wheels at various cutting speeds and
infeed velocities [13].
Other researchers also studied the effects of laser
dressing on the grinding process. Timmer [52] used a
Nd:YAG laser to dress both diamond and cBN grinding
wheels with different bond types, both radially and tan-
gentially relative to the wheel surface. Yung et al. [68]
utilized an acousto-optical Q-switched Nd:YAG laser to
dress a resin bond cBN wheel. A 10%–15% reduction of
grinding force compared to conventional dressing, as well

Table 2 Laser and conventional dressing and cylindrical plunge grinding parameters
Laser dressing Conventional dressing Cylindrical plunge grinding
Pulse Scanning Pulse Cutting Depth of Axial feed speed by Cutting Infeed velocity Speed ratio
energy speed vls/ frequency speed vs/ cut ae/lm dressing vfad/ speed vs/ vfr/(mmmin-1)
ep/lJ (mms-1) fp/kHz (ms-1) (mmmin-1) (ms-1)

50 200 400 30, 50 5 800 30, 50 1, 2, 3, 4 60

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Laser conditioning and structuring of grinding tools – a review

Fig. 5 Comparison between conventional and laser dressed grinding wheels a dressing procedure and the generated surface topography (before
sharpening) of the conventionally dressed grinding wheel, b the laser dressed grinding wheel, c confocal images of the conventionally dressed
wheel, and d laser-dressed grinding wheel [13]

Fig. 6 a Grinding power, and b tangential force vs. infeed velocity for conventionally dressed and laser-dressed wheels [13]

as a damage free wheel surface (no damaged cBN grains),
was reported. Furthermore, the Q-switched laser exhibited
a lower heat accumulation on the wheel surface relative to
continuous wave laser processing. Dold et al. [57] studied
the touch dressing of electroplated diamond wheels, using
an ultrashort pulsed picosecond laser. Diamond grains
could be cut without any remarkable graphitization effects.
A comparison of the wheel topography before and after
mechanical and laser touch dressing shows that the Abbott-
Firestone-Curves are very similar, as surface roughness
values (Ra and Rz). Rabiey et al. [59] investigated the
potential of the laser dressing of hybrid bonded (a mixture
of vitrified and metal bonds) grinding wheels using short
pulsed fiber laser (pulse width: 125 ns). It was reported that
lower grinding forces and consequently a lower specific
energy and heat generation resulted from utilizing the laser

123

dressed wheel, relative to the conventionally dressed (i.e.,
dressing with SiC wheels) one. However, the laser dressed
wheel had a higher surface roughness and showed a higher
radial wear.
The introduction of the short pulsed, and subsequently
the ultrashort pulsed lasers to the grinding technology
made it possible to control the thermal effects of the laser
radiation on the individual components of different grind-
ing wheel types. As a result, a wide range of laser-dressed
grinding wheels, for which the grain protrusion and extent
of thermal ablation could be selectively controlled, pro-
viding more favourable grinding force and workpiece
surface characteristics than conventionally dressed wheels.
Furthermore, the process time could be reduced and a
higher dressing precision and repeatability could be
achieved. As the mechanical dressing of superabrasive
grinding wheels is challenging, and the deviation in the
thermal properties of superabrasive wheel components
(cBN/diamond grains and different bond types) is generally
larger than that in conventional wheels, laser dressing can
be especially considered as being a promising alternative
for mechanical dressing for superabrasive grinding tools.
4.2 Laser truing
The truing of grinding tools using a laser enables the gen-
eration of complicated convex and concave profiles on the
surface of the grinding tools (regardless of the abrasive and
bond types) and hence defines the macroscopic form of the
grinding wheel. Accordingly, it requires the highest degree
of precision among all the laser-conditioning processes. The
technical limitations of mechanical truing can be overcome
by laser truing. Not only can laser conditioning ablate
abrasive grains and bond from the grinding tool surface to
generate the required geometry reproducibly and with high
accuracy, it is much more cost-effective in the long-term
than the conventional mechanical methods [38].
Researchers have examined mainly tangential laser
irradiation on the grinding wheel surface, to define a pre-
cise geometry around the wheel periphery when perform-
ing laser truing [21, 43, 53, 60]. The tangential laser
conditioning improves the controllability of the laser pen-
etration depth into the wheel surface, and hence the profile
accuracy. Kang et al. [53] conducted the truing of resin and
metal bonded diamond wheels by utilizing pulsed Nd:YAG
laser radiation on the grinding wheel surface. It was
observed that the resin bond started to decompose, the
bronze bond either melted or evaporated, and all damaged
diamond grains were removed owing to the sputtering
effects of the bond material. Wang et al. [44] utilized a
pulsed YAG laser (pulse width 0.2–0.5 ms) with a maxi-
mum power of 400 W for the truing of a small vitrified
cBN grinding wheel. The highest processing speed was
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B. Azarhoushang, A. Zahedi
1 500 mm/min; the pulse frequency was varied from 100 Hz
to 400 Hz, and the rotational speed of the wheel was
maintained between 1 000 r/m and 2 000 r/m. The laser
truing result (macro topography of the wheel) and the
micro-profile after mechanical and laser processing are
shown in Fig. 7. Characterization of the wheel surface after
laser processing revealed (unlike the mechanical process-
ing, Fig. 7c) resolidification of molten ceramic (see
Fig. 7b), which exhibited a porous structure different from
that of the original wheel surface. Additionally, using the
energy balance equation, they developed a model to cal-
culate several of the parameters required for laser truing. A
new spatial distribution was obtained for the laser energy
absorption at any position on a cylindrical surface between
0° and 90°. The presented model predicted the effect of
processing parameters such as the incident angle (irradia-
tion position) and focal offset on the absorbed energy and
the effect of incident power and processing speed on the
volume of material removed.
Walter et al. [60] introduced an online (integrated into a
five-axis machine) laser truing method for relatively small
hybrid bonded cBN grinding tools (tool diameter, D:
10–15 mm, tool width, b: 10 mm, grit size B91) using a short
pulsed fiber laser (pulse width \ 200 ns). The influence of
the laser processing parameters on the truing performance
was characterized and demonstration tools with different
profile geometries were successfully produced. A minimum
edge radius of redge \ 20 lm was measured at the tip of a 90°
profile edge on the ground workpiece, which was equivalent
to the corner radius of the tool profile. The authors believe
that the generation of such edge or corner qualities requires
not only the removal of the bond material, but also the pre-
cision truing of the abrasive grains (considering the com-
parably large grain size), which cannot be realized by
conventional dressing methods (e.g., by SiC wheels). Long-
term grinding tests with the laser profiled tools (up grinding
of hardened bearing steel 100Cr6; 60 HRc) demonstrated
good in-service behaviour (constant grinding forces) and
overall durability of the laser trued and profiled wheels.
The generation of larger macrostructures is also possible
through tangential laser radiation and precise relative
positioning of the laser beam and grinding wheel surface
according to the desired profile form. In a recent research
performed by KSF, a metal-bonded diamond grinding
wheel (D76-C50-MB from Baerhausen) was used for pro-
filing experiments to generate equilateral notch profiles
with a depth of 2 mm and width of 4 mm. Figure 8 shows
the grinding wheel during tangential laser ablation and the
trace of the laser beam across the generated wheel profile.
In this study, a picosecond Yb:YAG laser (pulse width:
10 ps, the maximum pulse energy: 125 lJ, repetition fre-
quency: 400 kHz) was used with a pulse energy of 100 lJ
and a scanning speed of 200 mm/s.
Laser conditioning and structuring of grinding tools – a review

Fig. 7 a Wheel surface profile after laser turning, b wheel surface conditions after laser processing, and c after mechanical preparation [44]

Fig. 8 a Tangential laser ablation for profiling of a diamond grinding wheel, and b the scanned profile across the wheel periphery

The topography of the two abreast profiles and the actual
microscopic views of a generated notch are illustrated in
Fig. 9. The retained diamond grains on the grinding wheel
surface, which exhibit sufficient protrusion, are suitable si-
tuation for the material removal process. In the case of
coarse grinding wheels with a larger average grain size,
where higher protrusion of the grains would be required
prior to grinding, the selective feature of laser treatment
would be of great advantage. Accordingly, the above
mentioned procedure can be followed by a finishing phase,
where the laser power is set not to damage the grains and to
remove the bond material.
Chen et al. [43] designed and constructed an online
(integrated in a surface grinding machine) tangential laser
profiling device. The device consisted of a pulsed fiber
laser (pulse width: 210 ns, average power: 40 W), a surface
grinder, a motorized three-dimensional (3D) translation
stage, laser displacement sensors and a laser power meter,
and was used to true a coarse-grained bronze-bonded dia-
mond grinding wheel (diameter 100 mm; width 10 mm;

123

Fig. 9 a Confocal image of two notches generated with tangential laser profiling, and b the microscopic view of a laser-generated notch
grain size 120#). Figure 10 shows the circular runout error
of the grinding wheel surface as measured by a laser dis-
placement sensor at three different cross-sections, which
were equally spaced along the wheel axis before and after
profiling. Utilizing the laser truing device, the mean cir-
cular runout and the axial gradient error of the grinding
wheel surface reached 9.5 lm and 0.8 lm, respectively,
thus satisfying the application requirements for a coarse-
grained grinding wheel. However, the diamond grains on
the surface of the profiled wheels were graphitized in an air
atmosphere, where the relative intensity of the graphite
characteristic peak (1 581.96 cm-1) in the Raman spec-
trum was 8.46 9 103 a.u. The degree of graphitization
decreased as a result of either blowing air or spraying a
water mist from the side, such that the relative intensities of
the graphite characteristic peaks dropped to 6.56 9 103
a.u. and 5.82 9 103 a.u., respectively.
Owing to the force-free material removal process, the
relatively small diameter of the laser beam at its focus
Fig. 10 Circular runout error at different locations on wheel surface a before, and b after profiling [43]
123
B. Azarhoushang, A. Zahedi
point and the small heat affected zone point to the use of an
ultrashort pulsed lasers (owing to very low or no thermal
damages on the surface of the grinding tool) is particularly
interesting for precise, sharp-edged convex and concave
profiles. The production of these kinds of profiles with
mechanical truing, i.e., utilizing diamond dresser or SiC
dressing wheels, is either very demanding or impossible.
It should be noted that, as the beam energy is not uni-
formly distributed over the cross-section of a normal laser
beam, precise truing within a range of few micrometers
could lead to a considerable loss of energy through the core
of the beam, given that it barely comes into contact with
the target surface. Accordingly, when using the same set of
equipment laser truing is more time-consuming than other
laser conditioning processes and could require laser units
with a higher average power. This could be an economic
barrier. Furthermore, in this aspect, short pulsed lasers
might be preferable to the ultra-short pulsed ones, which
are normally available with higher average powers with the
Laser conditioning and structuring of grinding tools – a review
same amount of investment and technical effort. However,
highly attainable precision and controllability with ultra-
short pulsed lasers could be required to reach a compro-
mise between the two laser categories.
4.3 Laser cleaning
Lasers were used by several researchers [42, 55, 67] to
clean ground chips and remove loaded materials from the
surface of a grinding tool while causing minimal damage to
the bond and abrasive grains. In term of the thermal
properties, the bond material, cutting grains (abrasives) and
ground chips are different, and the selective characteristics
of ultrashort pulsed laser treatment would be a determining
factor when cleaning of abrasive surfaces [42]. In the case
of metal grinding, the cleaning takes place either by direct
evaporation of the clogged chips, or by releasing the chips
through the slight ablation of the surrounding bond mate-
rial. However, unlike laser dressing, the only aim of laser
cleaning is the ablation of the loaded and clogged materials
(ground chips) from the surface of the grinding tool with-
out any ablation of the bond material and/or the abrasives.
Chen et al. [55] used two types of pulsed lasers (a
Nd:YAG laser with a pulse width range of 0.3–20 ms and a
CO2 laser with a pulse width range of 0.3–80 ms) to explore
the effects of laser irradiation on an aluminum oxide
grinding wheel (grit size 46) with clogged metal chips (In-
conel 718). The offset between the lens focus point and the
wheel surface was introduced as one of the most important
parameters affecting the laser cleaning and was changed
between 5 mm and 105 mm. The process was influenced by
the offset distance, since the laser power density decreases as
the focus offset increases. The other influential factors were
founded to be the laser energy and the pulse length. Effective
laser cleaning of an aluminium oxide grinding wheel could
be achieved with either a Nd:YAG laser or a CO2 laser as
long as reasonable laser parameters were applied. However,
as the CO2 laser had a longer wave length than the Nd:YAG
laser, the energy absorption of the metal chips was conse-
quently smaller. Therefore, a higher CO2 laser intensity was
required to melt the metal chips.
Figure 11 shows the laser cleaning of a grinding wheel
under different conditions and with a laser focus offset of
105 mm. The laser pulse was radiated continually onto the
wheel surface (the surface shown on the left side of the
figure) for about 3 min. Because of the heat accumulation,
the temperature on the wheel surface was elevated, causing
the wheel surface to be thermally damaged, even though the
laser was not powerful enough to clean the clogged chips.
The wheel surface became darker after being subjected to
the laser radiation, which indicated that the wheel surface
was damaged. The surface presented on the right side of the
figure was radiated with the same laser power and a reduced
Fig. 11 Nd:YAG laser cleaning of a rotating Al2O3 grinding wheel
[55]
focus offset distance and the laser pulses were radiated over
the wheel surface for 3 min including continuous 5 s pulses
and 25 s intervals. Because of the dissipated heat during the
radiation intervals, the wheel surface was not damaged and
the most of the metal chips were melted and removed owing
to higher laser power density.
Chen et al. [55] claimed that the high speed of the
rotating wheel may help with the cleaning process by
expelling the melted chips from the wheel surface. Laser
cleaning experiments demonstrated that the cleaning effect
depends not only on the laser parameters but also on the
heat accumulation in the wheel during the laser cleaning
process. A suitable irradiation interval could help to pre-
vent any heat accumulation.
The thermal behaviour of the target surface is the key
point affecting the laser cleaning of grinding wheels. Since
ultra-short pulsed lasers provide the highest selectivity and
controllability in the thermal ablation of radiated media,
these laser types are the most suitable for the removal of
clogged chips. In the case of vitrified or hybrid bonded
grinding wheels, where the thermal properties of the chips
and the bonding material lie in different ranges, the laser
cleaning parameters could be set according to the thresh-
olds of the workpiece material; however, in the case of
resin and metal bonded wheels, a slight ablation of the
bonding material would be inevitable, as their thermal
properties would be lower or within the same range as the
clogged chips. In this case, the laser cleaning would be
accompanied by a sharpening effect.
4.4 Laser structuring
Laser structuring is a new, non-mechanical preparation
method for grinding tools. Using mainly ultrashort pulsed
lasers precise micro-structures can be produced on the
123

surface of grinding tools. The laser structuring of grinding
tools, as an additional conditioning step, has been investi-
gated by several researchers in order to enhance the cutting
conditions [4, 19, 21, 38, 42, 64]. The structuring increases
the percentage of active cutting grains and the chip thickness
per grain and thereby the overall grinding efficiency [18].
Walter et al. [19, 64] presented a structuring method,
utilizing a picosecond pulsed laser, which was found to be
applicable to the micro scale structuring of superabrasive
cBN grinding tools. The process allowed for the fabrication
of arbitrary precise surface structures, enabling a high
degree of geometrical and dimensional control of the
generated features and, thus, the grinding behaviour of a
tool [64]. SEM images and micro-Raman analysis indi-
cated that the thermal impact of picosecond laser pro-
cessing on the cBN abrasives could be neglected. Several
structured cBN grinding tools with different patterns but
equal active tool surface areas were fabricated, to study the
influence of the pattern geometry on the grinding behaviour
of the tools. The grinding performance and wear of the
structured tools were tested and compared with a non-
structured (mechanically dressed and sharpened) tool [19].
The experiments (grinding of hardened bearing steel type
100Cr6; 60 HRc) were carried out at a constant specific
material removal rate of Q0w = 2 mm3/(mms) and a con-
stant cutting velocity (vc = 60 m/s). The corresponding
normal grinding force Fn and surface roughness Ra values
are shown in Fig. 12. For a non-structured benchmark tool,
the measurements showed a steady rise in the cutting force.
In contrast, the structured tools maintained relatively con-
stant cutting forces throughout the entire test period. The
force results were interpreted in combination with the
Fig. 12 a Normal grinding force and b workpiece roughness Ra vs. specific material removal for non-structured and different structured tools
[19]
123
B. Azarhoushang, A. Zahedi
workpiece roughness measurements. Figure 12a shows that
the surface roughness produced with the non-structured
tool remains constant after initial run-in. On the other hand,
a steady increase of the workpiece roughness was observed
with the structured tools [19].
Figure 13 compares SEM micrographs of the structured
tool surfaces immediately after laser structuring (top) and
0
after endurance tests with Vw = 10 200 mm3/mm material
removal, where structure traces are still visible on the worn
tool surfaces [64]. However, comparison with the initial
surface conditions reveals a considerable degradation of
the original structures. The enhanced micro wear did not
lead to significantly higher radial tool wear, relative to that
of the non-structured tool. The authors claimed that there
was a critical dimension for the features of a pattern
(minimum size of abrasives clusters) below which an
undesirably high level of degradation of the tool topogra-
phy was inevitable.
The investigations indicated that the pattern geometry
had a strong effect on the grinding characteristics. Grinding
forces could be reduced by up to 50% by using the laser
structured tools. However, depending on the pattern type, a
significant increase in the ground surface roughness and an
increase in the radial wear of the structured tools were
reported [19].
Given that high quality scanning in two and three
dimensions is currently possible, laser structuring is a
promising method for generating micro and macro struc-
tures over a vast range of grinding wheel types using dif-
ferent grain and bonding systems. Owing to the high
controllability of the thermal effects, ultra-short pulsed
lasers are the best choice for this purpose. The literatures
Laser conditioning and structuring of grinding tools – a review
Fig. 13 SEM micrographs of a structured tool surface after laser structuring (top) and after wear test with Vw = 10 200 mm3/mm material
removal (bottom) at different magnifications [64]
provide some pointers on the types of structures and their
corresponding performance. However, as an infinite num-
ber of structures at the micro and macro level could be
generated, which could exhibit different lubricating and
kinematic features, laser structuring could still be an open
research topic for different applications. Long-term struc-
ture persistence and the corresponding wheel behaviour are
the key factors affecting decisions about a desirable
structure type.
5 Concluding remarks
Given the evidence in the available literature, it can be
concluded that effective and reliable laser conditioning
processes can be achieved using an appropriate laser type,
and setup and process parameters. The selection of a laser
type might be dependent on a compromise between the
process time, precision and controllability. Short and ultra-
short pulsed lasers provide outstanding ablation control,
while the attainable treatment rate could be limited. This
limitation could be a determining factor in profiling and
truing processes, where the ablation rate is of a great sig-
nificance. However, controllability is more important to the
cleaning, dressing and structuring processes, for which the
ultrashort pulsed lasers are the most suitable choices. With
the current state of the laser technology nearly every grinding
wheel conditioning process can be covered. However, the
successful and efficient application of laser conditioning
requires the characterization of process parameters, i.e., the
0
laser pulse energy, scanning speed and pulse frequency in
addition to the laser type. The establishment of process
kinematics is another critical step towards this purpose,
where the radiation strategies, i.e., normal or tangential
ablation, and the setup mobility requirements should be
defined. Accordingly, combined conditioning processes for
achieving the desired micro and macro topographies on the
grinding wheels could be realized.
Furthermore, the economic aspects of laser conditioning
in terms of capital investment regarding the apparatus,
qualified and trained personnel and process time have to be
precisely evaluated. A better understanding of the laser
conditioning process, to enable the optimal selection of the
equipment and parameters, will widen the acceptance and
application of lasers in grinding technology. Moreover,
novel development in laser technology, which will support
both academia and industry with more efficient and eco-
nomically effective units will give further impetus to the
promotion of the laser conditioning concept.
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