Development of Higly Eficient and Environmentally Friendly Grinding Technology Through a Minimum coolant approach

Objective

Among metal machining processes, grinding is one of the most inefficient applications. But their finishing capabilities are not attainable by other methods. The main characteristic of grinding processes is the extremely high temperature in the contact zone, which makes necessary to use a cooling system to ensure a proper heat evacuation and to avoid piece damages. Cooling systems are based on applying a large quantity of liquid to the contact zone. Their cost, space utilisation and power consumption are the responsible of the “inefficiency” of grinding applications. The MQL (Minimum Quantity Lubrication) techniques used with a remarkable success in the cutting processes are based on a spray or mist application of cooling fluid to the cutting edge in operations like drilling, turning or milling, providing (when tools have well-defined edges). In grinding, a large number of trials have been executed in order to obtain some benefit in this extent, but the results have not been very promising, because the grinding wheel (the tool in grinding applications) is composed by an agglomeration of abrasive grains that act as micro-cutting tools in contact with the workpiece and their porosity difficult a good lubrication (some contact-grains working in dry condition, damaging tool and piece). Consortium partners have joined their efforts to develop a new approach, the MCG: Minimum Coolant for Grinding. MCG technique would provide to all cutting grains the required cooling fluid, in a minimal quantity but without loosing effectiveness. The technique is based on the use of two nozzles, not necessarily placed very close to the grinding wheel. The first nozzle will launch an oil spray which will enter through the wheel pores. The second nozzle will launch a gas that will freeze the oil. The frozen or adhered oil is liquefied progressively by the heat generated in the process contributing to the cooling effect.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

• engineering and technology mechanical engineering tribology lubrication
• engineering and technology mechanical engineering thermodynamic engineering
• agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds
• engineering and technology mechanical engineering manufacturing engineering subtractive manufacturing

Programme(s)

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• FP7-SME - Specific Programme "Capacities": Research for the benefit of SMEs

Topic(s)

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• SME-1 - Research for SMEs

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-SME-2010-1
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

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BSG-SME - Research for SMEs

Coordinator

Participants (11)