The present thesis studies electroplated CBN grinding wheels that are used at MTU Aero Engines, in the production of grooves and hooks of low pressure turbine vanes.
Life-times of electroplated CBN grinding wheels have a large scatter band. Starting point for the examinations is the analysis of the existing data. A method should be found to assess the condition of the grinding wheel topography. Therefore, a suitable material has to be found in order to reproduce the grinding wheels topography with high accuracy. Also different methods are examined and evaluated regarding their potential to represent the wear type of the grains.
Finally, electroplated CBN grinding wheels are investigated in the series production. Spindle-power measurements are done and analysed to find a correlation with the wear progress, which is examined by replicas. These investigations involve vanes with different profiles, which are made of different nickel-base alloys. The objectives of this thesis are: to find the causes of the fluctuations in the life-time behaviour of electroplated CBN grinding wheels and eventually to define tasks for optimisation. to evaluate the wear status of electroplated CBN grinding wheels; to investigate the shake down behaviour of electroplated CBN grinding wheels; to investigate the correlation between the increase of the spindle- power and the wear progress at the grinding wheel surface.