International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 02 Issue: 04 | July-2015 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2015, IRJET.NET- All Rights Reserved Page 269 Experimental Investigation of Machining Characteristics of AISI D3 Steel with Abrasive Assisted Surface Grinding Kamaldeep Singh 1 , Dr. Beant Singh 2 , Mandeep Kumar 3 1 Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Punjab College of Engineering & Technology, Lalru Mandi, Punjab, India 2 Head of Department, Mechanical Engineering, Punjab College of Engineering & Technology, Lalru Mandi, Punjab, India 3 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Chandigarh University, Gharuan, Punjab, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - Grinding is a very important technique in which material is removed at a high rate with high level of surface finish. In this research work Taguchi method is applied to find optimum process parameters for abrasive assisted surface grinding of AISI D3 tool steel. Experiments are conducted on horizontal spindle reciprocating table surface grinding machine with L18 orthogonal array with input machining variables as type of wheel, depth of cut, table speed, grain size and slurry concentration. After conducting the experiments, MRR is calculated and surface roughness is measured using surface roughness tester. Results are optimized by S/N ratio and analyzed by ANOVA. This study demonstrates that c-BN grinding wheel is preferred for higher MRR and Al2 O3 grinding wheel for better surface finish. Depth of cut is the most significant factor for both MRR and surface roughness. Key Words: Surface grinding, MRR, surface roughness, Taguchi method, Abrasives 1. INTRODUCTION Today in modern scenario technology is developing day by day. With this development of technology, designers & manufacturers are facing more & more challenges. So more & more researches are going on machining processes and further more researches are required. Machines, tools, materials and processes need to be improved. In machining, raw material is converted into finished goods. Manufacturer spends money, machinery, manpower and most precious time for converting raw material to useful goods. If finished product is not as per customer requirements, then whole efforts go waste. Also these days, competition is increasing. If any organization wants to be in market, it requires continuous improvement as per customer needs. It is a fact that with the increase in material removal rate surface finish goes down. . Increased rate of material removal result in low time consumption but at the same time surface finish is also important. Machining processes need to be optimized for more material removal and higher surface finish. Surface texture is property of a material which needs to be optimum. It is not necessary that always a smooth surface required. As in some cases like brakes, clutch plates, etc rough surface is required. So the surface finish should be optimum. Grinding is the most common form of abrasive machining. It is a material cutting process which uses an abrasive tool whose cutting elements are grains of abrasive material known as grit. The grits are held together by a suitable bonding material to give shape of an abrasive tool. Grinding is a true metal-cutting process. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The History of Grinding begins at the start of agriculture and size reduction developed over the centuries. In 1870 Poole built a cylindrical grinder for Norton that appears to be a first for large scale and accuracy. As per S Vulc [20] the roughness of the tungsten carbide depends on the grit of the grinding wheel and on the cutting regime parameters. PV Vinay [19] analysis the grinding of AISI D3 steel with a production level grinding wheel. Dry grinding yields good surface finish than wet grinding. The most acceptable abrasive machining process is grinding process. Metal removal rate and surface finish are the important output responses in the production with respect to quantity and quality respectively. To achieve the maximum metal removal rate, employ highest depth of cut, lowest work speed and high grinding wheel speed [9]. Taguchi’s method of off-line quality control is most comprehensive and effective system. This method eliminates the need for repeated experiments [10]. Abrasives not only used for cooling purpose but also increases the surface finish, MRR and reduce tool wear. The study was concerned with optimization of surface roughness when drilling of stainless steel SS304 with HSS drill [22]. While grinding AISI H11 steel with aluminum oxide grinding wheel under dry, wet & compressed gas conditions, it is observed that under compressed gas,