Conventionally, grinding of aluminium, copper and stainless steel is difficult owing to the mechanical properties such as low hardness and high toughness which result in the wheel loading and poor surface finish. In order to grind these materials easily, a discontinuous grinding wheel with multi-porous grooves has been recently developed. The multi-porous grooves were formed during wheel manufacturing. The discontinuous grinding wheel dramatically increases the grinding performance. It is desirable to use discontinuous grinding wheel when grinding materials with high efficiency and accuracy which is impossible using conventional wheels. In this paper, the construction and manufacturing method of discontinuous grinding wheel with multi-porous grooves are explained. The grinding characteristics of the discontinuous grinding wheel is also illustrated. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.