Fine grain wheels are used to fulfill high precision
grinding. However, fine grain wheels have a common weakness, that is,
the grains are easily torn loose from the wheel surfaces even under normal grinding conditions because of their small bonding areas and
strength, resulting in bad machining precision and low efficiency. With recent advances, Al 2O 3 fibers have been extensively used as reinforcing materials of FRP, FRC and FRM due to their excellent mechanical, physical and chemical properties such as high tensile strength, high modulus of elasticity, wear resistance, heat resistant temperature, acid base resistance, and good compatibility. The average diameter of Al 2O 3 fibers is about 3～5μm and their length in the range of several hundred μm, thus have relatively larger bonding areas and strength. As a result, a phenol resin bonded Al 2O 3 fiber grinding wheel has been developed. In this new wheel, the fibers are directionally aligned and uniformly set normal to the grinding wheel surface, and their ends are served as cutting edges or tips. Such fiber wheel can overcome the common shortcoming of grain wheels and have a closer texture in comparison with grain wheels. Owing to good properties of fibers, the Al 2O 3 fiber wheel can be applied to dry grinding and nano grinding. To examine the
grinding performances of the new Al 2O 3 fiber wheel, a large number of grinding experiments of difficult to cut materials such as hardened die steel SKD11 (HRC60) have been carried out in this paper. The investigations showed that a nanometer level ground surface with roughness values of Ra2.1nm and Ry22nm can be achieved.