Module II – Part II

MACHINE TOOLS AND METROLOGY- MET 307

KTU
Easy and Quick learning for exams

Grinding, Honing, Lapping and Grinding Mechanisms–

Complete topics as per syllabus

Dr. Anand Sekhar R

 Grinding
• Grinding is a process of removing material by abrasive action of a revolving
wheel on the surface of a work-piece in order to bring it to required shape and
size.
• The wheel used for performing the grinding operation is known as grinding
wheel.
• It consists of sharp crystal called abrasive held together by a binding material
or bond.
• The wheel may be a single piece or solid type or may be composed of several
segments of abrasive blocks joined together.
 Grinding
• In grinding process an emery or corundum wheel is used as the cutting
tool.

• Emery and corundum are naturally found abrasives and are impure form
of aluminium oxide Al2O3.

• A grinding wheel is made up of thousands of tiny abrasive particles

embedded in a matrix called the ‘bond’.

• An abrasive is an extremely hard material second in hardness only to

diamond.
 Grinding Machine
• A grinding machine is a production machine tool used in the
manufacturing industry in which the grinding wheel is attached in
the tool post and the workpiece is fixed to the work table and when
the operation starts it removes the unwanted material to get the
desired surface finish, correct size, and accurate shape of the
workpiece.
 Principle of operation of grinding
• A typical grinding wheel consists of abrasive particle, bonding material and
voids.

• Grinding refers to the removal of metal by an abrasive wheel rotating at

high speeds and working on the external or internal surface of a metallic
work piece to be abraded by the grinding wheel.

• The projected abrasive particles act like cutting tool tips and remove metal.

• As cutting proceeds the abrasive particles at cutting edge becomes dull and
cracked along the cleavage plane due to resistance offered by workpiece.

• Thus new cutting points are produced which carry out further action,
continuing the process till the abrasive grains get worn out till the level of
bond.
 Grinding processes-Classification
Basically grinding processes are broadly classified into two groups

• (i) Rough or non-precision grinding: In this, considerable amount of material is removed without
considering the finish or accuracy of the workpiece. Common forms of this type of grinding are snagging
or off hand grinding.

• (ii) Precision grinding: In this, grinding is concerned with producing very good surface finish with high
dimensional accuracy. Examples are cylindrical grinding, surface grinding and form grinding. Grinding is
carried on machines called Grinders or Grinding machines.
 Grinding machines-Classification
Based on Type of surface finish

(1) Rough grinders

(i) Floor stand and Bench grinders (ii) Portable and Flexible shaft grinders (iii) Abrasive belt grinders (iv)
Swing frame grinders (v) Wire sawing

(2) Precision grinders

(a)Cylindrical grinders

(i) Centre type (Plain and Universal) (ii)Centreless type

(b) Internal grinders

(i) Chuck type (Plain and Universal) (i) Planetary (iii) Centreless
 Grinding machines-Classification
(c) Surface grinders

(i) Reciprocating table (Horizontal and Vertical) (ii) Rotating table (Horizontal and Vertical spindle)

(d) Tool and Cutter grinder

(i) Universal (ii) Vertical spindle

(e) Special grinding machine

(i) Roll grinding machines (ii) Crank pin and Cam grinding machines (iii)Honing and lapping machines

(iv) Super finishing thread grinders

Grinding Machine Parts
• Base or Bed

• Column

• Headstock

• Tailstock

• Worktable

• Wheel Head

• Grinding or Abrasive Wheel

• Crossfeed or Traversing Wheel and

• Coolant Supply Nozzle

 Grinding Machine Parts
• Base or Bed:

The base or Bed is made up of cast iron. It is situated horizontally and it is the bottom part of the
grinding machine, provides support to all the grinding parts. When machine operation starts some
vibration occurs therefore base acts as an absorber of vibrations.

• Column:

Colum is like a vertical pillar of the machine in this section the abrasive wheel, wheel head, and
wheel guard are kept. The column is also made up of cast iron.
 Grinding Machine Parts
• Headstock:

The headstock work is to match the center and helps to grip the workpiece.

Tailstock:

• Tailstock is known as dead center. It also provides gripping to the work piece.

• Work Table:

A worktable is like a magnetic chuck that holds the workpiece.

 Grinding Machine Parts
• Wheel Head:

In this section, the abrasive wheels which are our tool for operation are placed and this is moved
vertically up and down. With the use of a Feed hand, we can adjust the wheel head. Moving this
wheel head down so that the grinding wheel can touch the workpiece. The wheel head consists
of a grinding wheel and driving motor.

• Grinding or Abrasive Wheel:

Grinding or Abrasive wheel is our main tool used here to remove the unwanted material from the
workpiece to get desired smoothness and surface finish. The wheels are coated with an abrasive
particle. The abrasive wheel comes with various types and properties.
 Grinding Machine Parts
Crossfeed:

• Cross feed is also an important parts of this machine used for moving up and down or left and right
of Wheel head and work table and so on.

Traversing Wheel:

• There are three types of Traversing wheel.

• Hand Traversing Wheel: This wheel is used to move the table in the horizontal direction either left or
right according to the tool and the workpiece.

• Cross Side: It is used to move the worktable in forwarding and backward directions and

• Vertical Feed Hand Wheel: The vertical feed hand traversing wheel is used to move the wheel head
in the vertically upward and downward direction.
 Grinding Machine Parts
• Coolant Supply Nozzle:

The main work of the coolant supply nozzle is to cool or reduce the temperature generated while
performing the operation. If this part is not there then there are many chances of wear and tear
happen because of the high temperature between the wheel and the workpiece. The coolant may
be water or any other oil.
 Principle of grinding
• The edges of the abrasive particles project out of the periphery of the grinding
wheel, and when grinding wheel rotates, each one of the particles acts like a
tiny cutting tool machining away the material from the surface of the work
piece.

• To the naked eye the cut material looks like metal dust mixed with powder from
the grinding wheel.

• However, seen under magnifying lens, the metal dust shows all the
characteristics of metal chips produced in other machining processes.

• The grinding process is truly a chip producing machining process.

Cylindrical grinding (centre type) machines
 Cylindrical grinding (centre type) machines
✓ Cylindrical grinding machines are used primarily for grinding cylindrical surfaces which may be parallel or
tapered or fillets on workpieces.
✓ Depending upon the method of supporting the workpiece, cylindrical grinders may be sub classified as
✓ Centre type
✓ Centreless type grinders.
 Cylindrical grinding
• In cylindrical grinding operation, the work is mounted between two centres and is rotated. A grinding wheel is
mounted on a spindle and revolves at much higher r.p.m. than the work. The work centres are mounted on a
table which can traverse at various feeds so that the entire length of the work passes to and fro in front of the
wheel. The depth of cut is very small, about 0.015 mm. When the entire length of work has passed infront of the
wheel, the wheel advances forward by another 0.015 mm at the end of the traverse and so the cycle of
machining goes on, until the desired diameter of the work piece is reached. The result is a long cylinder of
perfectly circular profile with very fine surface finish.
• There are basically four types of motions in cylindrical centre type of grinders which can be controlled as
desired.
1. Rotation of workpiece between the centers or chuck.
2. Traverse motion of workpiece passing the grinding wheel.
3. Rotation of grinding wheel.
4. Movement of grinding wheel into workpiece to give depth of cut.
 Cylindrical grinding
• Basically there are two types of grinding operations done on a cylindrical grinding machines.

• Traverse grinding In this type of operation the • In this type of operation, the work piece rotates in fixed position
workpiece reciprocates as the wheel feeds and (no traverse movement) as the wheel feeds to produce
hence cylinders whose length are longer than the cylinders of length equal to or slightly greater than width of
width of the grinding wheel face can be ground. grinding wheel face.
Centre type cylindrical grinders are of two types (i) Plain centre type grinder (ii) Universal centre type grinder

• A plain centre type grinder is similar to that of a lathe

machine in which the single point tool had been replaced
by a grinding wheel.

Plain centre type grinder

 Plunge-centre type grinding machine

• In this type of grinding machines, the wheel is plunged into

the work at a pre-determined feed rate, the grinding wheel
is withdrawn only after the required work dimension is
obtained.
• These are basically high volume production machines.
• Angular wheel slide and straight plunge grinding machines
are available
 Centre-less type grinding machine

• In centre-less type grinders, the work is not supported

between centres but is held against the face of grinding
wheel by combination of supporting rest and a regulating
wheel.
• Thus it does not require centre holes, drivers and other
work holding fixtures.
 Principle of working of Centre-less type grinding machine
• The larger wheel is the grinding wheel and smaller wheel is the
pressure or regulating wheel.
• In operation, the pressure exerted by the grinding wheel on the
work, forces the work against the work rest and regulating
wheel, controlling the size and imparting the necessary rotational
and longitudinal feed.
• Both the wheels rotate in same direction. The work rest assists
in supporting the workpiece, while it is being ground, being
extended on both the sides to direct the work travel to and from
the wheels.
• The axial movement of the workpiece past the grinding wheel is
obtained by tilting the regulating wheel at a slight angle from
horizontal. Angular adjustment of 0 to 10° is provided in the
machine for this purpose.
 Methods of centreless grinding

• Basically centreless grinding is done in three methods

• (i) Through-feed
• (ii) End-feed
• (iii) In-feed
 Through-feedgrinding
• This is simplest method and is applicable only for plain
parallel parts such as roller pins and straight long bars which
are difficult to grind by ordinary grinding method.
• In this, the regulating wheel is first positioned for the proper
diameter i.e the gap between the regulating wheel and
grinding wheel is adjusted equal to the diameter of the
workpiece and then job is fed and passed through the
wheels.
• In this, the work goes in one side of the machine and comes
out on the other side. The work rest for through feed grinding
has adjustable guides on each end to steer the work
between the grinding wheel.
• In this grinding, one pass removes material by 0.02 to 0.3
mm diametrically.
 In-feed centreless grinding (plunge cut grinding)
• This method is used for grinding workpiece having head, step
or taper form. In this case, there is no axial movement of
workpiece as the length of grinding has to be controlled.
• The only movement occurring during this process is rotating
movement.
• The workpiece is placed on the work rest against an end stop
and then the regulating wheel is advanced towards grinding
wheel by some level arrangement and grinding continues till
the workpiece is reduced to the required diameter.
• The regulating wheel is given a slight inclination of 0.5 to
retain the work against the end stop. The length of
workpiece that can be ground is limited to 30 cm. In this
process, form grinding can also be done.
 End-feed centreless grinding
• This process is used for headed components
which are too long to be ground by infeed
method. i.e. when the length of the workpiece
to be ground is greater than the face width of
the grinding wheel.
• It is also used for taper jobs.
• The work is fed as in case of in-feed method
and after a certain portion of length of
workpiece has been ground, the axial
movement takes place until the whole length
has been ground.
• In taper grinding, both grinding wheel and
regulating wheel are trued to obtain the
required taper
 Internal grinders
• Internal grinders are used for finishing internal bores and tubes which are generally straight, tapered or
stepped having more than one diameters.
• The finishing is generally for the purpose of bringing the hole to the correct size and shape and to give it
good surface quality.
• Internal grinding is frequently used on production parts that have not been heat treated to save reaming
cost.
• Internal grinders are of three types
(i) Work rotating type (or) Chucking type (ii) Planetary type (iii) Centreless type
 Work rotating type or chucking type
• These are commonly used in tool and die rooms.
In chucking grinders, the workpiece is chucked
and rotated about its own axis to bring all parts of
the bore or other surfaces to get in contact with
the grinding wheel.
• In this grinder, the wheel head may be stationary
with a reciprocating work table or the wheel head
may be reciprocal and the work table may
remain stationary.
• Both machines have the wheel head mounted
on a slide with provisions for feeding the wheel to
the work.
 Planetary type
• In planetary type, the wheel spindle is so
arranged that besides rotating on its axis,
it can also be made to run eccentrically,
thus making it possible to grind large holes
of varying diameter depending upon how
much the wheel spindle is made to run
eccentric.
• The work is mounted on table which has
vertical, horizontal and longitudinal
adjustments similar to that of the plain
milling machine.
 Centreless type
• In centreless internal grinding, the work is supported by
three rolls.
• One is regulating roll and other two are - pressure roll to
hold the workpiece firmly against the support and
regulating roll.
• The grinding wheel contacts the inside diameter of work
directly opposite to the regulating roll, thus giving uniform
thickness of workpiece and concentricity. Internal
centreless grinding are used to grind internal diameters
with a purpose to truing to its outside diameters eg. bearing
races.
• The errors like waviness can be eliminated for thin walled
component. Internal centreless grinding obtain very
accurate size and good finish with tolerance of few mm for
600 mm diameter and above.
 Surface grinding
• Surface grinding is grinding of flat or plain surfaces. Angular
or formed surface can also be obtained by using special
fixtures and form dressing devices.
• A surface grinding does the operations like a milling,
shaping or planing machine with high degree of
dimensional tolerance and surface finish.
• Principle and construction Basically a surface grinder
consists of a movable table with a horizontal or vertical
spindle grinding wheel mounted on it.
• The grinding wheel is mounted on a column which allows it
to be raised and lowered atleast 350 - 500 mm and more
on large machines.
• The table can be moved longitudinally or cross wise.
• The work holding device is usually a magnetic chuck
clamped on the table.
Surface grinding
 Types of surface grinding machines
• Types of surface grinding machines Surface grinders are broadly classified as below
(i) Planar or reciprocating table
(a) Horizontal spindle
(b) Vertical spindle
(ii) Rotary table
(a) Horizontal spindle
(b) Vertical spindle
 Planar or reciprocating table
• In reciprocating type, the work table reciprocates
back and forth under the grinding wheel.
• The cross feed may also be provided either on the
table or on the wheel head.
• In horizontal spindle type, it has a horizontal
spindle and the face of the wheel is used for
grinding.
• The work is traversed under the wheel face
gradually. Work is also fed laterally at each end of
the stroke so that a required area may be ground.

• In case of vertical spindle, flat surfaces are produced with the side of wheel mounted on the vertical spindle.
It is also called cup-grinding. The wheel head remains fixed and is fed down or up, until the work is finished.
 Rotary table type
• Rotary table type of machines have circular work table
which revolves under the rotating grinding wheel.
Horizontal rotary grinder also known as ring grinder has a
horizontal wheel spindle having a reciprocating motion
similar to that of a shaper arm and a revolving magnetic
chuck table supported by columns at the front of
machine.
• The work table can be raised or lowered and has
provisions for tilting the table for concave or convex
grinding. It is also provided with coolant supply tank and
pump for wet grinding. It is used for production of flat,
convex, concave surfaces. Vertical rotary grinder has a
cylindrical wheel mounted on a vertical spindle and
supported on a vertical column. Vertical column can be
lowered.
 Rotary table type
• Vertical rotary grinder has a cylindrical wheel
mounted on a vertical spindle and supported on a
vertical column. Vertical column can be lowered or
raised.
• The work table consists of revolving magnetic
chuck supported on ways or slides which provide
a means of moving the work to and from the
wheel.
• The machine uses a cup, cylinder or segmented
grinding wheels.
 Grinding mechanisms
• The cutting action of abrasives in a grinding wheel in grinding
process is shown in figure.
• All the grains here are assumed to be identical.
• Figure shows a detail view of chip formation in grinding.
• The cross sectional area of chip is assumed to be a triangle.
Grinding mechanisms
 Grinding Wheel
• A grinding wheel is an expendable wheel that is composed of an abrasive compound used for various
grinding (abrasive cutting) and abrasive machining processes.

• They are used in grinding machines.

• The wheels are generally made from a matrix of coarse particles pressed and bonded together to form a
solid, circular shape.

• Various profiles and cross sections are available depending upon the intended usage of wheel.

• They may also be made from a solid steel or aluminium disc with particles bonded to the surface.
 Characteristics of Grinding wheel
• There are six important characteristics of a Grinding wheel

• (i) Material (Type of abrasive used);

• (ii) Grain size;

• (iii) Wheel grade;

• (iv) Grain spacing;

• (v) Bond type;

• (vi) Size and shape.

Abrasive
 Grit
• Grit indicates, the size of abrasive grain.

• The grinding wheel is made up of thousands of abrasive grains. The grain size or grit number indicates

the size of the abrasive grains used in making a wheel, or the size of the cutting teeth. Grain size is

denoted by a number indicating the number of meshes per linear inch of the screen through which the

grains pass when they are graded. There are four different groups of the grain size namely coarse,

medium, fine and very fine. If the grit number is large, the size of the abrasive is fine and a small grit

number indicates a large grain of abrasive.

Grit
 Bond
• A bond is an adhesive substance that is employed to hold abrasive grains together in the form of

grinding wheels.

• There are several types of bonds.

• Different grinding wheels are manufactured by mixing hard abrasives with suitable bonds.
 Types of Bond
• (a) Vitrified bond

• In vitrified bond process, abrasive grains, feldspar or flint or clay with sufficient water are mixed uniformly

and poured into moulds and allowed to dry.

• Dried mould material is then cut/trimmed to perfect size, shape and placed in the kiln and heated upto

1200 °C.

• During burning, the clay fuses and forms a porcelain or glass like substance (vitrification) and connects

the abrasive grains (fusing). Such a bond is called vitrified bond.

 Types of Bond
(a) Vitrified bond

• In vitrified bond process, abrasive grains, feldspar or flint or clay with sufficient water are mixed uniformly and
poured into moulds and allowed to dry.

• Dried mould material is then cut/trimmed to perfect size, shape and placed in the kiln and heated upto 1200
°C.

• During burning, the clay fuses and forms a porcelain or glass like substance (vitrification) and connects the
abrasive grains (fusing). Such a bond is called vitrified bond.

• It is denoted by letter ‘V’.

(b) Silicate bond

• In silicate bond process Sodium Silicate is mixed with abrasive grains and are then pressed in mould, dried
and then baked at 260 °C for 1 to 4 days to obtain the grinding wheels.

• It is denoted by letter ‘S’.

 Types of Bond
(c) Shellac bond

• In shellac bonding process, the abrasive grain particles are coated with shellac and mixture is heated to give
uniform mixing and the mixture is then rolled or pressed in heated moulds. The shapes are later baked upto
150 ºC for few hours.

• Shellac bond wheels are also known as elastic bonded wheels.

• Shellac bonded wheel is denoted by letter ‘E’.

(d) Rubber bonding

• In Rubber bonding process, wheels are prepared by mixing abrasive grains with pure rubber and sulphur. The
mixture is then spread like rubber sheets and they are then rolled to desired thickness.

• The wheels are punched out of the sheets using punching press.

• The wheels are then vulcanized. Rubber bonded wheel is denoted by letter ‘R’.
 Types of Bond
(e) Bakelite or Resinoid bond

In this process, abrasive particles are mixed with synthetic resin and a liquid solvent which dissolves resin.

The mixture is then placed in mould and heated at about 200 °C.

Bakelite (or) Resinoid wheels are denoted by letter ‘B’.

(f) Oxychloride bond

• In oxychloride bond process, abrasives are mixed with oxide and chloride of magnesium.

• The mixing of bond and abrasive is performed in the same way as that of vitrified bonded wheels.

Oxychloride bonds are denoted by letter ‘O’.

The table containing the types of wheels manufactured using different types of bonds and their symbols
 Grade
• The grade of a grinding wheel refers to the hardness with which the wheel holds the abrasive grains in

place. It does not refer to the hardness of the abrasive grains. The grade is indicated by a letter of the

English alphabet. The term ‘soft’ or ‘hard’ refers to the resistance a bond offers to disruption of the

abrasives. A wheel from which the abrasive grains can easily be dislodged is called soft whereas the one,

which holds the grains more securely, is called hard. The grade of the bond can be classified in three

categories.
 Structure
• The relative spacing occupied by the abrasives and the bond is referred to as structure. It is

denoted by the number and size of void spaces between grains. It may be ‘dense’ or ‘open’.

Open structured wheels are used to grind soft and ductile materials. Dense wheels are useful

in grinding brittle materials.

 Standard marking system of grinding wheels
• The Indian standard marking system for grinding wheels has been prepared with a view of

establishing a uniform system of marking of grinding wheels to designate their various

characteristics.
Standard marking system of grinding wheels
 Selection of Grinding wheels
• To obtain better surface finish, dimensional and tolerance accuracy with more life of wheel, proper selection of
grinding wheel is very important.

• The necessary guidelines and recommendations in proper selection of grinding wheel is given by Indian
Standard IS:1249-1958 for different grinding processes.

• The factors which influence the proper selection of grinding wheel are given here.

1. Constant factors

• Amount of stock removal

• Material of work piece

• Area of contact between wheel & work piece

• Type of grinding machine used

• Finish and accuracy required.

 Selection of Grinding wheels
2. Variable factors

• Wheel speed

• Workpiece speed

• Condition of machine

• Operator factors

The other factors are

3. Severity of Grinding operation.

4. Type of bond.

5. Abrasive grain size, grade and structure.

6. Wet or dry grinding [i.e with or without lubrication].

 MICROFINISHING PROCESSES
• Microfinishing processes are employed for final machining of workpieces.

• In these processes, the peaks of surface micro irregularities remaining after a previous machining operation are
removed.

• Parts like bearings, shafts, seals, machine ways, gears must be dimensionally and geometrically accurate.
Microfinishing operation provides both very close dimensional accuracy and very high surface finish.

• Surface finish has a vital influence on the properties like wear, friction, fatigue and corrosion resistance.

Types of microfinishing processes

• (i) Honing (ii) Lapping (iii) Super-finishing

 Honing
• Honing is an abrasive machining process of removing stock from metallic or non metallic surfaces by means of
revolving honing tool that also reciprocates up and down inside the work piece.

• Honing is used to correct local irregularities such as ovality, waviness of axis or non parallelism of cylindrical
surfaces and to develop a particular texture.

• Honing is usually applied to internal cylindrical surfaces but special machines have been developed for honing
external surfaces also.

The purpose of honing operation is

• (i) To remove metal upto 0.5 mm from primary honing and upto 0.01 mm for secondary or mirror honing.

• (ii) To generate roundness and straightness.

• (iii) To generate hole sizes upto 50 mm diameter with 0.005 mm accuracy and holes between 50 to 150 mm
with accuracy of 0.01 mm.

• (iv) To produce very high surface finish of 0.075 µm CLA.

 Honing
• Honing stones are made from common abrasive stones
called hones.

• Honing stones are made from common abrasive and

bonding materials impregnated with sulphur, resin or wax to
improve cutting action and lengthen tool life.

• Honing stones may be loosely held in holders, cemented into metal shells which are
clamped into holders, cemented directly in holder or cast into plastic tabs which are held
in holders.

• Some stones are spaced at regular intervals around the holder while others are
interlocked so that they present a continuous surface to bore.

• The hone rotates at 0.5 to 2.5 m/sec and reciprocates at 0.2 to 0.5 m/sec.

• The coolants are essential for honing operation to flush away small chips and keep
uniform temperature.
 Honing
• Honing can be considered as a machining process
because it involves metal removal in form of
microchips.

• The word “Honing” is developed by the word

“Hone”. Hone is used for a cylindrical tool dressed
with some abrasive material.

• This abrasive material is used in the form of sticks

which are mounted on the mandrel.

• This process is used for accurate dimensioning of

cylindrical holes.

• It is best suited for finishing of engine cylinders.

• It is used for finishing gear where tool made with

plastic impregnated with abrasive.
 Honing
• In honing process a well-dressed (with
abrasive particles) cylindrical tool rotates at
its own axis.

• The tool diameter is almost equal to the

work piece internal diameter.

• This tool rotates at its own axis and also

reciprocates which allows to remove
material in form of microchips.

• It can achieve tolerance of about 0.25 – 1.5

micron.

• This cutting form a cross lay hatched

pattern at work piece.
 Lapping
• Lapping is an abrasive machining process for refining surface finish and geometrical accuracy of flat,
cylindrical and spherical surfaces.

• It is a process used to produce geometrically true surface, remove surface roughness, correct surface
imperfections, tool marks, surface tracks from grinding and produce very close fit.

• Lapping is a low speed, low pressure abrading process that accomplishes one or more of the following

(i) Extreme accuracy (ii) Correction of minor imperfection (iii) Refinement of surface finish (iv) Extremely
close fit between mating surfaces.

• Lapping removes very thin layers of material about 0.005 to 0.01 mm.

• Lapping is done with loose grains abrasive or with bonded abrasive disc or wheel.

• No sparking is produced in lapping.

 Lapping
• Loose Abrasive Process-(LAP)

• Lapping Involves the Use of Abrasive Particles to Modify the Work-Pieces

• The Abrasive Particles are Mixed with a Water-Base or Oil Base Liquid. The Combined Abrasive and
Liquid are Called a “Slurry”, this is a Liquid Cutting Tool

• The Slurry is Placed on a Rotating Motorized Platform Called a “Lap Plate”

• The Work-Piece is then Placed Against the Slurry on the Rotating Lap Plate and the Surface of the
Work-Piece is Modified

• Rolling/Sliding Action of Abrasive Grains Between Plate and Work piece

Lapping
 Lapping Theory
✓ The basic theory of lapping starts with the components being placed within the confines of conditioning rings
directly onto the surface of a rotating lap plate that is coated with a precision film layer of slurry.
✓ The components should never come into direct contact with the lap plate surface.
✓ Through powered lap plate rotation, the loose and rolling abrasive particles within the slurry layer transfer
cutting energy with their sharp cutting edges by penetrating the contact surface of the components removing
microscopic chips of material.
✓ Concurrently the abrasive is acting on the lap plate via the contact surface of both the components and
conditioning rings causing wear that when controlled by adjustable radial ring position will effect spherical
curvature changes to maintain a flat lap plate condition.