"When CBN is used at high wheel speed and at an increased removal rate in creep-feed grinding with a copious supply of fluid a new grinding concept called high-efficiency deep grinding (HEDG) emerges. When CBN is used with increased wheel speed it is possible to increase removal rate (productivity)."

"Wes Lee president of Edgetek Machine Corp (Meriden CT) which has sold over 55 CNC machine tools using plated single layer CBN form wheels formerly referred to the process as HEDG grinding....today Lee insists that the process is not grinding at all. He calls it 'superabrasive machining'"

"The preformed steel core wheels are electroplated with CBN and mounted on the spindle. the wheels act more like a milling cutter than a grinding wheel. At high rpms. and relatively high feed rates the CBN wheels provide surface finishes equal to grinding."

".....benefits from machining with plated CBN include high productivity, good surface integrity and size control, consistent finish, and usually a burr-free part. Less thermal stress enhances part quality."

"Plated CBN form wheels have several advantages over bonded conventional or superabrasive wheels, according to Joe Eramo of Abrasive Technology Inc. (Westerville, OH). 'Plated wheels have higher material removal rate capabilities, but are freer cutting, which reduces thermal metallurgical damage to the work's surface. Plated wheels grind virtually the same profile from the first cut to the last, grinding hundreds or thousands of workpieces. The times associated with set ups, wheel changing, and wheel dressing are significantly reduced or eliminated.'
'We can turn the wheel's steel core to precision complex forms.' According to Eramo, 'Plated technology has improved to the point that profile tolerances of plus or minus 0.0006" (0.015 mm) may be held today, an improvement over the plus or minus 0.002" (0.05 mm) of five years ago. The steel core provides for safety at high operating speeds (>20,000 sfm or 6100 m/min). The wheels may be stripped of worn CBN and replated several times, resulting in a greatly reduced average wheel price.'
'Although plated wheels cost less than vitrified and metal-bonded wheels, it is not the cost that is driving the trend toward plated CBN but the productivity,' reports Eramo. 'Smaller production runs and more setups, he says, means that many companies no longer have the luxury to amortize the cost of diamond rolls and the long nonproductive setup times associated with bonded wheels, over long production runs. Plated technology fills the need for high metal removal rates with short setup times and eliminates the need for dressing.'

"Skepticism is an issue. At Fortune 500 companies, traditional grinding people and manufacturing managers often say 'You can't do that,' when told of this process. As the Chinese proverb says, 'Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.' What follows are stories of the people doing it, even if they can't decide what to call it."

"Gary Leever of Leever's Grinding.............,'CBN grinding lends itself well to Inconel,' he says. 'We machined the roots of 25,000 cast Inconel 718 jet engine turbine blanks..............The CBN cuts well, and wheel life from Abrasive Technology's wheels is decent.'"

"James Frisbie, production manager, and Michael Sabadosa, milling supervisor (Westfield Gage), report that, with form CBN wheels from Abrasive Technology Inc., they cut slots in one or two passes on their superabrasive machine and save about 50%-80% of the milling time. 'We run hundreds of parts on a wheel; whereas a set of milling inserts lasts only a few dozen parts with some of the materials,' says Sabadosa."

"Mark Tedeschi, a manufacturing engineer at Doncasters Turbo Products Div........................Keeping a half-dozen CBN wheels in stock is much less costly and is more timely than broach maintenance, and, besides, says Tedeschi, 'Broach setup is so long that we can not always ship blades within 24 hours. With the Edgetek and a supply of wheels, we can often build one order and start a different design within 24 hours. Setup time has been reduced by as much as 90% over broaching.' That is important in the land-turbine industry where a utilities power generator off-line awaiting parts is very costly.
'It is unusual to use CBN to grind soft stainless steel, such as the Rc 28 403 stainless on one of the blades run in the cell,' says Tedeschi, 'But the cut is fast, and it will produce a distortion-free long root form, a difficult task with broaching.'"