Investigation of precision grinding process on superhard molds with microstructured surface

The primary objective is to find the influence factors on inhomogeneous surface quality, and to optimize machining parameters (such as grinding mode, feed rate and spindle speed) to generate good microstructures surface and sharp edges in the precision grinding on superhard microstructured molds. The experiment results show that the better surface quality and sharper edges are obtained by using up-cut grinding mode. Reducing the tool feed rate do necessarily help to improve the surface roughness and edges of structures. The smallest average R _a values of 60 nm (side) and 89 nm (bottom) are obtained by feed rate of 0.2 mm · min ^-1. The smallest average radius 0.67 μm of edge values is obtained by feed rate of 0.5 mm · min ^-1. Compare with feed rate, the influences of spindle speed on the surface quality and edges are not significant. The surface roughness of side surface is always smaller than that of bottom surface. The variety of grinding tracks due to surface's microstructures is the main factor for inhomogeneous surface quality. In addition, the wheel wear is dominated by profile wear.