8. Current trends

Abrasion machining is an old technique, linked to the development of mechanical engineering in the first half of the 20th century. Over the years, however, other processes have come to compete with it in some of its traditional fields of application. These include

• Describing ordinary steels by means of a flashlight flaming process;

• Cutting rounds or profiles in low-sensitivity steels using steel discs rotating at high speed (100 m /s and more);

• fine turning using ceramic or diamond tools, to perform work comparable to that of a rough grinding wheel.

Conversely, other factors in the development of abrasive machining have emerged, such as :

• the growing demand in industry for materials that are...