Stepwise approach to reduce the costs and environmental impacts of grinding processes

Grinding is a common finishing process to meet specific technological requirements; however, it is energy, resource and time consuming. Thus, the improvement of grinding processes should not only consider the technological requirements but also environmental and economic impacts. There are a number of factors involved in grinding processes. Besides the process parameters and workpiece properties, there are three enabling factors for improvement opportunities, such as tool, cutting fluid and machine tool. However, in practice, not all factors can be changed or modified easily at the same time. To support process improvement, this paper proposes a stepwise approach to compare alternative enabling factors in conjunction with the process parameters in order to reduce the costs and environmental impacts of a grinding process under consideration of technological requirements. The proposed approach is demonstrated by means of an internal cylindrical grinding process and applications of different tools, cutting fluid and machine tools.