Electrolytic conditioning of resin-metal-bonded diamond grinding wheels

Recently, high form accuracy and smooth surface are two important requirements in manufacturing of optical parts. It is quite difficult to meet these two demands at the same time. To achieve a high form accuracy, a grinding wheel must have a hard body. On the other hand, to achieve a good finish the surface of the grinding wheel must be soft. As a result, the grinding wheel is required to have such antithetical characteristics. To give a grinding wheel both of these characters, electrolytic conditioning is proposed in this paper. When this conditioning technique is used for dressing a resin-metal-bonded grinding wheel, only a thin layer on the grinding wheel surface will become soft, while the wheel body remains hard. Consequently, high form accuracy and smooth surfaces can be achieved using electrolytic conditioned grinding wheels.