Effect of steady rest in cylindrical traverse grinding of slender workpiece

In the case of traverse grinding of a slender workpiece, the ground workpiece is easily deformed by the normal grinding force due to its low stiffness. To reduce the form error caused by the elastic deformation of the workpiece, a steady rest is widely used. Generally, a steady rest is set to push the ground area of the workpiece. However, the stepped shape error is generated at the contact point where a steady rest pushed the workpiece because the pushing force of a steady rest is decreased after the material of the contact point is removed. In this study, to reduce the stepped shape error of the ground workpiece, we proposed a new method to set a steady rest. In this method, the steady rest was set to push the area where was not ground. In addition, the traverse speed of the workpiece was adjusted to keep the elastic deformation of the workpiece constant. The suitable method to control the traverse speed was estimated by using a beam model that could simulate the elastic deformation of the workpiece during the grinding process. It was confirmed that the new method could improve the form accuracy of a slender workpiece through grinding experiments.