Grinding machines produce flat, cylindrical, and other surfaces through high-speed rotating abrasive wheels. Grinding is a means of giving a more accurate finish to a part already machined but is also a machining process in its own right. The main types of machine are the ‘surface grinding machine’ for flat surfaces; and the ‘cylindrical grinding machine’ for cylindrical surfaces. More complex shapes are produced by shaped wheels called ‘contour grinding wheels’. ‘Bench’ and ‘pedestal’ grinders are used for tool sharpening, etc.

A grinding machine, often shortened to grinder, is one of the power tools or machine tools used for grinding, it is a type of machining using an abrasive wheel as the cutting tool. Each grain of abrasive on the wheel’s surface cuts a small chip from the workpiece via shear deformation.

Grinding is used to finish workpieces that must show high surface quality (e.g., low surface roughness) and high accuracy of shape and dimension. As the accuracy in dimensions in grinding is of the order of 0.000025 mm, in most applications, it tends to be a finishing operation and removes comparatively little metal, about 0.25 to 0.50 mm depth. However, there are some roughing applications in which grinding removes high volumes of metal quite rapidly. Thus, grinding is a diverse field.

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