Studies on the grindability of some alloy steels

The grindability of an austenitic manganese steel has been compared with that of a microalloyed steel and a low alloy steel, both having tempered martensitic matrices. Grinding has been conducted in both dry and liquid nitrogen environments. The results indicate that for all the steels the grinding forces required at cryo-temperature are in general lower than that needed for grinding at ambient temperature. In case of both the die steel and the microalloyed steel, metal removal mechanism did not change very much due to cryogenic cooling. In case of the hadfield steel, however, the metal removal mechanism changed in cryogenic grinding. Such difference is caused presumably due to transformation of manganese-stabilised austenite to martensite at cryo-temperature. It is also known that cryogenic cooling reduces in general the wheel loading and deterioration of the surface integrity of the steels.