Tribological Approach and Surface Quality Analysis of Stainless Steel for Cutlery Applications after Surface Grinding

In precision machining processes such as grinding, for example, analysis of machined surface is important one of most parameters to evaluate process performance. Equally important is to perform tribological analysis to understand chip formation and abrasive wheel wear, thus enabling manufacturing of components free of thermal damages. In grinding, due to high hardness of abrasive grains that remove material from workpiece in chip form and very low values of radial depth of cut, combination of low roughness values and tight dimensional tolerances is attained. Accordingly, the parameters involved in this process are determinant in surface quality that is primarily evaluated in terms of surface roughness and workpiece functionality. In this work, surface roughness (Rt parameter) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of ground surfaces of the AISI 420 martensitic stainless steel samples were evaluated. Tests were carried out in surface grinding with a white aluminum oxide wheel and an environmentally-friendly semisynthetic water-soluble coolant. Two values of radial depth of cut (10 μm and 25 μm) were tested. The results showed that the highest roughness values, deeper grooves on the machined surfaces as well as poorer surface quality were obtained after grinding under the severest cutting conditions.