Lecture Notes on

Machining and Machine Tools (ME 210)

Grinding Machines

Course Instructor

Prof. P. K. Patowari

Professor

Department of Mechanical Engineering

National Institute of Technology Silchar

Silchar - 788010, Assam

 Grinding Machines
1. Introduction
Grinding is a process of removing material by the abrasive action of a revolving abrasive wheel
on the surface of a workpiece, in order to bring it to the required shape, size and surface finish.
This is used to finish the workpieces which must show a high surface quality, accuracy of shape
and dimensions.
The abrasive wheel, which acts as cutting tool, used for performing the grinding operation is
known as “grinding wheel”. It consists of sharp particles called abrasives held together by a
binding material called bond. Each of the abrasive particles act as a single cutting point and
grinding wheel acts as a multipoint cutting tool.
In most of the cases, grinding is a finishing operation and a small amount of material is removed
from the surface during the operation.

2. Kinds of grinding operations

There can be different criteria to classify grinding into different categories. On the basis of quality
of grinding, it is classified broadly into two groups.
I. Rough or non-precision grinding
II. Precision grinding

I. Rough Grinding: It involves removal of stock without any reference to the accuracy of
results. Generally, rough grinding is followed by precision grinding. The common forms of
rough grinding are snagging and off-hand grinding. The work is pressed hard against the
wheel or vice-versa. Snagging is done when a considerable amount of material is removed
without regard to the accuracy of the finished surface. The examples of snag or rough grinding
are as follows.
 Trimming the protrusions and lumps left by the sprues and risers on casting.
 Removing flash on forgings and the excess metals on welds.
 Removing scales, cracks and imperfections on steel billets.

II. Precision Grinding: Precision grinding removes negligible amount of metal. It is used to
produce parts with good surface finish and accurate dimensions. The grinding wheel and the
work both are guided in precise paths. The precision grinding in accordance with the type of
surface to be ground is classified in many forms of precision grinding, but the four major
industrial grinding processes are:
a. External Cylindrical Grinding: It produces a straight cylindrical or tapered surface on
a workpiece. The work is rotated about its own axis between the centres as it passes
lengthwise across the surface of a revolving grinding wheel. This can again be of two
types, (i) Traverse grinding and (ii) Plunge grinding as shown in Fig.1. If the work
surface to be ground is longer than the face width of the grinding wheel then either the

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 work is traversed past the wheel or the wheel past the work, at that time it is called
traverse grinding. In case the width of the wheel face is longer than or equal to the
length of the work surface to be ground then the wheel is fed in with no traversing
movement of it or that of workpiece at that time this is known as plunge grinding.

(i) Traverse grinding (ii) Plunge grinding

Fig. 1 External Cylindrical Grinding

b. Internal Cylindrical Grinding: It produces internal cylindrical or tapered holes. The

workpiece is chucked and precisely rotated about its own axis. The grinding wheel is
rotated at high speed and against the sense of rotation of the workpiece as shown in
Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 Internal Cylindrical Grinding

c. Surface Grinding: It produces a flat surface. The work may be ground either by the
periphery or by the end face of the grinding wheel. The workpiece is either reciprocated
or rotated against the grinding surface of the wheel as shown in Fig. 3.

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 Fig. 3 Surface Grinding

d. Form Grinding: It is done with specially shaped grinding wheel that grind the formed
surface. The examples are grinding of gear, threads, splines and other profiles of the
components. Some examples are shown in Fig. 4.

Fig 4 Form Grinding

3. Classification of Grinding Machines

According to the quality of surface finish Grinding Machines may be classified as
I. Rough Grinders
a. Floor stand and bench Grinders

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 b. Portable and flexible shaft Grinders
c. Swing Frame Grinders
d. Abrasive Belt Grinders
II. Precision Grinders
a. External Cylindrical Grinders
i. Centre type Plain
ii. Centre type Universal
iii. Centreless
b. Internal Cylindrical Grinders
i. Chucking type
 Plain
 Universal
ii. Planetary
iii. Centreless
c. Surface Grinders
i. Horizontal spindle & reciprocating table
ii. Vertical spindle & reciprocating table
iii. Horizontal spindle & rotary table
iv. Vertical spindle & rotary table
d. Tool and Cutter Grinders
i. Universal
ii. Special
e. Special Grinders
i. Crank shaft Grinders
ii. Piston Grinders
iii. Roll Grinders
iv. Cam Grinders
v. Thread Grinders
vi. Way Grinders
vii. Tool Post Grinders

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I. Rough Grinders: These are the grinders whose chief work is the removal of stock without any
reference to the accuracy of the dimensions and surface finish. These are mainly of the following
types and as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Rough grinding machines

a. Floor stand and bench Grinders: It has a horizontal spindle with wheels usually at
both ends and is mounted on a base or pedestal. There is provision for driving the wheel
spindle by belt from motor at the rear or at floor level. The wheels are also mounted directly
on the motor shaft extension.
b. Portable and flexible shaft Grinders: It resembles very much with the portable electric
drills both in construction as well as in operation with the only difference that a small
grinding wheel is mounted on the spindle. These grinders are usually used in finishing
castings, forgings, welded joints in structural works, removing burrs and sharp edges,
preparing surfaces for welding by removing oxides or scales and nicks etc. A similar
purpose machine is the flexible shaft grinder. This has grinding wheel mounted on the end
of a long flexible shaft driven by a motor on a relatively stationary stand. It can easily be
moved around and may be used in removing small amount of stock from widely separated
areas.
c. Swing Frame Grinders: It has a horizontal frame about 2 to 3 m long suspended at its
center of gravity so as to move freely within the area of operation. The operator applies the
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 wheel mounted on one end of the frame to the work. This is used for snagging particularly
for large casting in foundries. This machine is moved around with a jib crane suspended
from column or by mobile units.
d. Abrasive Belt Grinders: A strip of abrasive cloth of correct length and width is formed
into an endless belt by cementing the ends together, and this is slipped over two drums,
one of which is driven at high speed. The smooth rear side of the cloth slides over a heavy
metal plate to prevent it from “giving” when the work is pressed against it. The platen or
plate may be flat, or it may be shaped to suit the shape of the particular workpiece. The
workpiece is fed, usually manually, on to the open abrasive side of the belt and passed
against the platen to perform the grinding operation. Machine may be dry belt, wet belt or
combination type.
II. Precision Grinders: Precision grinders are those that finish parts to a very accurate
dimensions. According to the type of surface generated or work done they may be classified as
follows.
a. External Cylindrical Grinders: The principle of cylindrical grinding is discussed in Section
2.II.a. There are four types of motions involved in a cylindrical centre type grinding.
1. The work must revolve.
2. The wheel must revolve.
3. The work moves pass the wheel.
4. The wheel moves pass the work.
In machines of the cylindrical type, two distinct type of grinding operation are done as shown in
Fig. 6.
(a) Transverse grinding: - The work is reciprocating as the wheel feeds to produce cylinders longer
than the width of the wheel face.
(b) Plunge grinding: - The work rotates in a fixed position as the wheel feeds to produce cylinders
of a length equal to or less than the width of the wheel.
These type of machines are again of following types.
i. Centre type Plain: The upper table carries the tailstock, headstock and the workpiece and
can be swiveled in a horizontal plane, to a maximum of 10 degree on either side along the
circular ways provided on the lower table. This enables grinding of tapered surfaces.
The lower table is mounted over horizontal guideways to provide longitudinal traverse to
the upper table, and hence the work. Table movements can be both by hand as well as well
as power. Hydraulic drives are usually preferred.
The wheel head is usually mounted on horizontal cross ways on the bed and travels along
these to feed the wheel to the work. This movement is known as infeed. The schematic
diagram of external cylindrical grinder centre type plain is as shown in Fig. 6.
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 Fig. 6 External Cylindrical Grinder Centre type
ii. Centre type Universal: A universal machine has the following additional features.
(i) The head stock spindle may be used alive or dead so that the work can be held and
revolved by a chuck as well as between centres.
(ii) The head stock can be swiveled at an angle in a horizontal plane.
(iii) The wheel head can be swiveled to + 90 degrees to grind large tapers.

iii. Centreless: It is a method of grinding exterior cylindrical tapered and formed surfaces on
workpiece that are not held and rotated on centres. The principle of centreless grinding
differs from centre type grinding is that the work instead of being mounted in between
centres is supported by a combination of grinding wheel, a regulating wheel and a work rest
blade. Both wheels are rotated in the same direction. The work is placed upon the work rest
and the latter, together with the regulating wheel is fed forward, forcing the work against
the grinding wheel. The axial movement of the work past the grinding wheel is obtained by
tilting the regulating wheel at a slight angle from the horizontal.

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 Fig. 7 Centerless External Cylindrical Grinder
The feed may be provided in centreless external grinding in one of the three ways as shown
in Fig. 8.
(i) Throughfeed: The work is passed completely through the space between the the grinding
wheel (G) and the regulating wheel (R), usually with guides at both ends. This method is
used when there is no shoulder or other form of interference with the passage of work. The
layer of metal removal in one pass reduces the diameter of workpiece from 0.02 to 0.3 mm.
For more removal workpiece has to be passed more than once.
(ii) Infeed: It is similar to plunge grinding or form grinding. Both grinding and regulating
wheels are more in width than the work length to be ground. The regulating wheel is drawn
back so that the workpiece may be placed on the work rest blade, then it is moved in to feed
the work against the grinding wheel. This method is useful to grind shoulders and formed
surfaces.
(iii) End feed: Used to produce taper, either the grinding or regulating wheel or both are
formed to a taper. The work is fed length wise between the wheels and is ground as it
advances until it reaches the end stop.

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 Fig. 8 Types of feed in centerless external cylindrical grinding
b. Internal Cylindrical Grinders: Internal grinders are used to finish straight, tapered or formed
holes to the correct size, shape and finish. The depth of cut depends upon the diameter of the hole
being ground and may vary from 0.5 to 0.02 mm in roughing and from 0.002 to 0.01 mm in
finishing operation.
i. Chucking type: In chucking grinders the work piece is chucked and rotated about its own axis
to bring all parts of the bore or other surfaces to grind in contact with the grinding wheel as
shown in Fig. 9.
• Plain: The work-head can be swiveled to grind a straight hole or tapers up to 45 degree
included angle. The wheel head is moved into and away from the hole and can be cross fed
into the work.
• Universal: The work head is mounted on a cross slide as in the wheel head, and can be
swiveled through a 90 degree angle.

Fig. 9 Internal Cylindrical Grinders Chucking type

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ii. Planetary: These grinders are primarily designed to grind holes in large, irregular shaped and
heavy work pieces. In this the workpiece remains stationary which is mounted on a slide. The
grinding wheel is given a rotary and planetary motion to grind cylindrical holes. The
longitudinal transverse can be obtained in the following two ways:
(i) By reciprocating movement of the grinding wheel spindle.
(ii) By moving the slide, forward and backward on which the w/p is mounted.
The spindle of the grinding wheel is given a radial infeed after completion of each planetary
circle to increase the depth of cut. The principle of planetary internal cylindrical grinder is as
shown in Fig. 10.

Fig. 10 Principle of planetary internal cylindrical grinder

iii. Centreless: The grinding wheel contacts the inside diameter of the workpiece directly
opposite the regulating rolls, thus assuring a part of absolutely uniform wall thickness and
concentric. The pressure roll is mounted to swing as to permit loading and unloading. Figure
11 shows the arrangement of centerless internal cylindrical grinder.

Fig. 11 Arrangement of centerless internal cylindrical grinder

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 A common important point with all the internal grinders is that the grinding wheel used on
these machines are much smaller than those used on cylindrical or surface grinders. As such,
their spindles are operating at much higher speeds so as to obtain the required surface finish.
c. Surface Grinders: Surface grinders are employed to finish plane or flat surfaces. But they are
also capable of grinding irregular, curved, tapered, convex, concave surfaces. There are four
different types of setup of surface grinders as shown in Fig. 12. Block diagrams of surface grinders
are as shown in Fig. 13.
i. Horizontal spindle & reciprocating table
ii. Vertical spindle & reciprocating table
iii. Horizontal spindle & rotary table
iv. Vertical spindle & rotary table

The majority of surface grinders are of the horizontal spindle type. In the horizontal type
of machine, grinding is normally done in the periphery of the wheel. The area of contact is small,
and the speed is uniform over the grinding surface. Small grain wheels can be used, and the finest
finishes obtained.
In the vertical spindle type surface grinders the face or side of the wheel is applied on the
workpiece. The cupped, cylindrical or segmented wheels are used. The area of contact may be
large, and stock can be removed rapidly. But a crisscross pattern of grinding scratches are left on
the work surface.

Fig. 12 Different types of setup of surface grinders

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 Fig. 13 Block diagrams of surface grinders

d. Tool and Cutter Grinders: Tool and Cutter grinders are used mainly to sharpen and
recondition multiple tooth cutters like reamers, milling cutters, drills, tops, hobs and other types
of tools used in the shop. With various attachments they can also do light surface, cylindrical and
internal grinding to finish items such as jigs, fixture, die and gauge details and sharpen single point
tools. They are classified, according to the purpose of grinding into two groups.
i. Universal: Universal types are particularly intended for sharpening of miscellaneous cutters is
as shown in Fig. 14. The saddle is mounted directly on the top of the base. It moves on anti-friction
ball bearings on hardened ways. The column supporting the wheel head is mounted on the saddle
and it can be moved up and down and swiveled to either side. The saddle also provides the means
for moving the work forward and backward.
The table rests and moves on a top base which is mounted over the saddle. The top of the base
contains the gears and mechanism which control the table movement. The work table is mounted
on the sub-table which has T-slots for mounting the work and attachments used on the machines.
The work table can be swiveled which enables the operator to grind tapers. The workpiece is
positioned between the headstock and tailstock and driven exactly as in cylindrical grinder. The
wheel head is mounted on the column on the back of the machine and can be swiveled and
positioned on the base for varied setup.

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 Fig. 14 Tool and cutter grinder
ii. Special or single purpose tool grinders: These include the profile or contour grinder and
monoset tool and cutter grinder. The former is used to reproduce a template form on a flat or round
cutter. The latter is mainly used in grinding spiral fluted cutters and twist drills. Another tool
grinder, known as carbide tool grinder, is used for grinding various angles on single point tools,
mainly carbide tipped tools.
e. Special Grinders: Many grinding machines are produced to the highly specialized work, some
of them are discussed below.
i. Crank Shaft Grinders: Crankshaft grinder is really cylindrical grinding where the principle of
‘plunge grinding’ has been adapted. These grinders are used for grinding the crankshaft of
automobile, engine, aircraft engine, diesel engine, compressor etc. as shown in Fig. 15.

Fig. 15 Crank shaft grinder

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ii. Piston Grinders: The grinding of pistons of high speed internal combustion engine is basically
cylindrical grinding but it deviates slightly from plain cylindrical grinding. Many such pistons are
truly cylindrical but slightly ‘elliptical’. Moreover, they are slightly tapered. On a piston grinder,
therefore a mechanism is provided to automatically and synchronously move the grinding piston
alternately toward an elliptical form. At the same time the work moves progressively away from
the wheel during its longitudinal movement, thus grinding the desired taper.
iii. Cam Grinders: A cam grinder is really a special form of cylindrical grinder and used to
generate cams. The head stock and tail stock are mounted on a base on the bed ways so that they
can oscillate about a centre and below the work. The head stock contains a shortened, hardened
replica of the finished camshaft. This template rotates with the work and runs against a fixed roller
which causes the head stock to oscillate. The work which is mounted between centres rotates at
very slow speed and oscillates continuously, moving towards or away from the wheel to generate
the cam shape. All movements in the machine are automatic.
iv. Thread Grinders: Thread grinders which are used to generate threads belongs to cylindrical
grinding machine family. They make it possible to coordinate the traversing of the workpiece with
workpiece rotation by means of a lead screw so that the grinding wheel follows a desired helix or
thread form. The wheel itself is shaped to the thread profile and the wheel spindle is inclined to
the helix angle of the thread. Thread grinding process is illustrated in Fig. 16.

Fig. 16 Thread Grinding

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v. Way Grinders: These are large heavy single purpose machines intended principally to grind the
various surfaces of the ways and beds of machines. The wheel is cup, ring or segmented, mounted
on a vertical spindle which can be usually tilted at an angle. All sorts of angle maybe produced on
this machining. Figure 17 shows how the ways of machines are ground.

Fig. 17 Way grinding Fig. 18 Gear grinding

vi. Gear Teeth Grinder: The teeth of gears are ground on gear grinding machines either by the
generating process or by a forming process in which formed wheels are used. The generating
process illustrated in Fig. 18 makes use of two saucer shaped grinding wheels, whereas in the
formed wheel grinding of gear a special fixture is used.
vii. Roll Grinders: Roll grinders are much larger, heavier and more rigid than plain cylindrical
grinders. They are built to grind the huge rolls (used in basic processing of steel or aluminium
sheet and strips), and differ from conventional cylindrical grinders only in their greater than normal
dimensional and load-carrying capacity.
viii. Tool Post Grinders: Tool-post grinders sometimes called lathe grinders are used for
miscellaneous and small grinding work on a lathe. They are held on the tool post and fed across
the work. The longitudinal and cross feed being used whenever necessary. A tool-post grinder is
very commonly used for truing up of lathe centres.

4. Size and specifications of grinders

Grinding Machines are specified according to the size of the largest work piece that can be
mounted on the machine.
Cylindrical centre type grinders are usually designated by the diameter and length both expressed
in mm of the large work piece can be normally accommodated by between the centres. The
diameter of the work piece should not exceed the one half of the nominal capacity of the machine.
Internal centre type grinders are specified by the diameter of the work piece that can be swing and
the maximum length of the stroke of the wheel, all expressed in mm.
Surface Grinders - For all type of surface grinder particularly for a reciprocating grinder the size
is generally expressed in terms of table area and maximum height from the table wheel. For rotary
surface grinders the diameter of the chuck and the table specifies the grinder. In contrast to the

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cylindrical type grinders the actual working capacity of surface grinder is approximately equal to
the nominal capacity.
Tool and cutter grinders- The same rule apply for this grinder whenever applicable. In some cases
where the machines do not make use of the tables the size is specified by the maximum size of
tool that can be sharpened and dressed.

Texts/References:
1. S K Hajra Choudhury: Workshop Technology Vol II Machine Tools: Media Promoters & Publishers
Pvt. Ltd.
2. B S Raghuwanshi: A Course in Workshop Technology Vol II (Machine Tools): Dhanpat Rai & Co.
3. P N Rao: Manufacturing Technology Vol 2- Metal Cutting and Machine Tools: Tata Mc Graw Hill
4. G Boothroyd & W A Knight: Fundamentals of Machining and Machine Tools: CRC Press Taylor &
Francis Group
5. Schey: Introduction to Manufacturing Process: McGraw-Hill
6. H Gerling: All About Machine Tools: New Age Int. (P) Ltd.
7. R K Jain: Production Technology: Khanna Publishers
8. A. Ghosh & A. K. Mallik: Manufacturing Science: Affiliated East-West Press Pvt. Ltd.

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