Experiment and Simulation Prediction of Grinding Burn of Gear Steel 18Cr2Ni4WA

18Cr2Ni4WA steel has been widely used to manufacture the heavy-duty gears, such as spiral bevel gear, which is characterized by high toughness and high strength. Grinding burn easily occurs due to the high temperature during grinding, which makes the grinding precision and surface quality difficult to meet the requirements. The surface hardness, hardness gradient and surface morphology of workpiece are analyzed through single factor experiment, and the degree of grinding burn is simulated using the finite element analysis software. The results show that, with the increase in grinding depth, the degree of grinding burn is aggravated, the color of oxide layer is changed from faint yellow to brown, and finally becomes cyan, and the surface morphology is changed from clear texture to heavily coated. The hardness of surface layer decreases and a tempered sorbite is produced due to tempering burn. The measured and simulated values of grinding burn depth are basically identical, which shows that the degree of grinding burn can be predicted by the finite element simulation.