Experimental Investigation on Rotary Ultrasonic Face Grinding of SiCp/Al Composites

SiCp/Al composites have been widely used in many fields such as aerospace, automobile, advanced weapon system, etc. But this kind of material, especially with high volume fraction, is difficult to machine due to the reinforced particles existing in matrix, which has limited its further application. Rotary ultrasonic machining (RUM) has many excellent features and it has never been used to machine SiCp/Al composites. In order to improve the machinability and application of SiCp/Al composites, the rotary ultrasonic face grinding experiments of SiCp/Al composites reinforced with 45% volume SiC particles were carried out to investigate cutting force, surface quality, tool wear, and abrasive chip shapes. The experimental results indicate that ultrasonic vibration could reduce cutting force, surface roughness, surface defects, and increase plastic removal ratio. The cutting force could be lowered by an average of 13.86% and the surface roughness could be lowered by an average of 11.53%. The examined results of tool wear patterns suggest that tool wear is mainly caused by grain breakage and grain fall-off. Grinding wheel blockage and grinding burn were not observed in machining process.     

硬脆材料的旋转超声辅助加工

光学玻璃、功能晶体、工程陶瓷等硬脆材料具有高强度、耐高温、耐磨损等优良的物理和机械性能,目前已被广泛应用于航空航天、汽车、军工等领域.但由于这些材料具有较高的硬度和脆性,难以用传统的加工方法进行加工,从而在很大程度上制约了这些材料的进一步推广和应用.旋转超声辅助加工技术由于其特殊的加工性能,具有切削力小、低切削热等优点,适应于各种硬脆材料的加工,因此得到了广泛的应用和迅速的发展,在硬脆难加工材料的制造领域已经占据了重要的地位.本文回顾了旋转超声辅助加工技术的发展历程和特点,介绍了旋转超声辅助加工的机理及工艺设备的研究进展,并对旋转超声辅助加工技术和设备的发展趋势进行了展望.     

旋转超声磨削Si3 N4陶瓷用金刚石磨具磨损行为研究

热压烧结Si₃N₄陶瓷材料常应用于航天飞行器中关键耐高温零部件,但由于高硬度和低断裂韧性,其加工效率和加工表面质量难以满足制造需求。为了提高热压烧结Si₃N₄陶瓷旋转超声磨削加工质量,减小由于金刚石磨具磨损带来的加工误差,开展了磨具磨损行为研究。基于热压烧结Si₃N₄陶瓷旋转超声磨削加工实验,分析了金刚石磨具磨损形式;基于回归分析建立了金刚石磨具磨损量数学模型,揭示了加工参数及磨具参数与金刚石磨具磨损量间映射关系;并研究了磨损形式与磨具磨损量及加工表面粗糙度影响规律。结果表明：磨粒磨耗是旋转超声磨削Si₃N₄陶瓷用金刚石磨具最主要磨损形式,比例超过50%;主轴转速和磨粒粒度对磨具磨损量影响最为显著;且磨损量较小时,加工表面粗糙度值反而增加。以上研究可为提高旋转超声磨削Si₃N₄陶瓷加工精度和加工质量提供指导。     

超声振动辅助磨削完全烧结氧化锆陶瓷牙冠的实验研究

针对现有全锆牙在制作过程中存在二次烧结、收缩精度难以控制等问题,提出了采用超声振动辅助磨削完全烧结氧化锆陶瓷牙冠的方法。从理论分析的角度对其运动学特性进行了研究,并通过超声振动辅助磨削和普通金刚石磨削实验,对该方法的可行性进行了分析。结合牙冠的加工特点,重点研究了主轴转速对材料去除率、表面粗糙度以及最大边缘碎裂的影响规律。实验结果表明,超声振动辅助磨削不仅能提升材料的去除率,有效抑制出口边缘碎裂,同时降低了工件表面的粗糙度,是实现完全烧结氧化锆陶瓷牙冠高效低损伤加工的新方法。     

Rotary ultrasonic machining— a new cutting process and its performance

In conventional ultrasonic machining (USM), brittle materials are machined by using ultrasonic impacts on the workpiece, through a medium of abrasive slurry. In this paper a new cutting process that resulted due to introduction of an additional parameter, namely the rotation of the workpiece during the machining, is presented. This may be called ‘rotary ultrasonic machining’. The material removal rates (MRR) in rotary USM are up to four times those in conventional USM. The MRR increases with increase in speed of rotation of workpiece. An explanation for the superior performance of rotary USM is presented. The performance of rotary USM as a function of static load, abrasive grain size, concentration of abrasive slurry, diameter of tool and ratio of diameters of hollow tools, is studied and the parameters are optimized for minimum machining time or maximum material removal rate. Comparisons are made with conventional USM.     

Investigation into polishing process of CVD diamond films

A new technique used for polishing chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond films has been investigated, by which rough polishing of the CVD diamond films can be achieved efficiently. A CVD diamond film is coated with a thin layer of electrically conductive material in advance, and then electro-discharge machining (EDM) is used to machine the coated surface. As a result, peaks on the surface of the diamond film are removed rapidly. During machining, graphitization of diamond enables the EDM process to continue. The single pulse discharge shows that the material of the coated layer evidently affects removal behavior of the CVD diamond films. Compared with the machining of ordinary metal materials, the process of EDM CVD diamond films possesses a quite different characteristic. The removal mechanism of the CVD diamond films is discussed.     

Experimental investigations of ceramic machining using µ-grinding and µ-rotary ultrasonic machining processes: A comparative study

Comparative experimental investigations of µ-grinding and µ-rotary ultrasonic machining (µ-RUM) were made on borosilicate and Zerodur materials to know the efficacy of the processes for micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) application. The electroplated diamond tool of Ø 300 µm for drilling operation and Ø 300 µm to Ø 6 mm for milling operation has been tried in the computer numerical control (CNC) machine with an HSK63 ultrasonic actuator. A suitable interface has been developed to hold the micro tool with the ER11 taper in the existing ER20 collet ultrasonic tool holder. Cutting force, edge-chipping area, and taper in drilling operation; and surface finish, material removal mode, specific energy and un-deformed chip thickness in milling operation were evaluated for both processes under the same material removal rate conditions. The experimental results showed that µ-RUM could perform in a less spindle speed machine as compared to µ-grinding. It was inferred that the maximum and minimum amount of reduction in cutting force, edge chipping, and taper were found to be (49.3%, 10.8%), (87%, 40%), and (95.56%, 4.76%), respectively, in µ-RUM compared to µ-grinding for drilling operation. It was also concluded that surface finish and ductile mode of fracture were higher in µ-RUM compared to µ-grinding for the milling operations. These effects were more pronounced as tool size decreased.     

GRINDING OF SILICON AND GLASS USING A NEW DRESSING DEVICE AND AN IMPROVED COOLANT SYSTEM

Ductile mode machining of brittle materials such as ceramics is recognized as an emerging technology with important applications. Ductile machining is possible if the depth of cut is less than the critical depth of cut of the machined material. By using a new device for dressing a resin-bonded diamond wheel and an improved coolant system proposed here, ductile mode grinding of silicon and glass was achieved using an inexpensive, conventional surface-grinding machine. The low-cost dressing device also ensured minimum disruption to the grinding operation and a higher level of safety. A flooding supply of coolant at the grinding zone provided better cooling performance and lubrication. A relationship appeared to exist between the surface finish and the lightness values of ground silicon surfaces.     

Investigation of machining characteristics in rotary ultrasonic machining of alumina ceramic

Alumina ceramic is well documented as a much-demanded advanced ceramic in the present competitive structure of manufacturing and industrial applications owing to its excellent and superior properties. The current article aimed to experimentally investigate the influence of several process variables, namely: spindle speed, feed rate, coolant pressure, and ultrasonic power, on considered machining characteristics of interest, i.e., chipping size and material removal rate in the rotary ultrasonic machining of alumina ceramic. Response surface methodology has been employed in the form of a central composite rotatable design to design the experiments. Variance analysis testing has also been performed with a view to observing the consequence of the considered parameters. The microstructure of machined rod samples was evaluated and analyzed using a scanning electron microscope. This analysis has revealed and confirmed the presence of plastic deformation that caused removal of material along with brittle fractures in rotary ultrasonic machining of alumina ceramic. The validity and competence of the developed mathematical model have been verified with test results. The multi-response optimization of machining responses (material removal rate and chipping size) has also been attempted by employing a desirability approach, and at an optimized parametric setting the obtained experimental values for material removal rate and chipping size were 0.4166?mm³/s and 0.5134?mm, respectively, with a combined desirability index value of 0.849.     

Partial-Ductile Grinding, Lapping, and Polishing of Aspheric and Spherical Surfaces on Glass

This paper discusses partial-ductile-mode grinding, lapping and polishing of aspheric and spherical surfaces on glass. Industrial manufacture of glass lenses usually involves three operations: grinding (known as milling in the optical industry), tapping, and polishing. The fracture mode of material removal is dominant in the grinding process. While these three operations have been successful for machining spherical lenses, aspheric lenses have been manufactured in the absence of the lapping process, because of the considerable amount of ductile mode of material removal in grinding. The parameters that helped identify and solve problems in manufacturing were surface roughness, micro-fractures and ductile streaks on glass surfaces, and interferometric fringes.     

The characteristics of machined surface controlled by multi tip arrayed tool and high speed spindle

In this study, we propose one of the ultra-precision machining methods that can be adapted brittle material as well as soft material by using multi arrayed diamond tips and high speed spindle. Conventional machining method is too hard to control surface roughness and surface texture against brittle material because particles of grinding tools are irregular size and material can be fragile. Therefore we were able to design tool paths and machine controlled pattern on surface by multi arrayed diamond tips which has uniform size made in MEMS fabrication and high speed spindle of which maximum speed is about 300,000 rpm. We defined several parameters that can have effect on machining surface. Those are multi array of diamond tips (n * n), speed of the air spindle, and feeding rate. Surface roughness and surface texture can be controlled by those parameters for micro machining.     

Surface integrity and removal mechanism in grinding sapphire wafers with novel vitrified bond diamond plates

In order to improve machining efficiency of sapphire wafer machining using the conventional loose abrasive process, fixed-abrasive diamond plates are investigated in this study for sapphire wafer grinding. Four vitrified bond diamond plates of different grain sizes (40?µm, 20?µm, 7?µm, and 2.5?µm) are developed and evaluated for grinding performance including surface roughness, surface topography, surface and subsurface damage, and material removal rate (MRR) of sapphire wafers. The material removal mechanisms, wafer surface finish, and quality of the diamond plates are also compared and discussed. The experiment results demonstrate that the surface material is removed in brittle mode when sapphire wafers are ground by the diamond plates with a grain size of 40?µm and 20?µm, and in ductile mode when that are ground by the diamond plates of grain sizes of 7?µm and 2.5?µm. The highest MRR value of 145.7?µm/min is acquired with the diamond plate with an abrasive size of 40?µm and the lowest surface roughness values of 3.5?nm in Ra is achieved with the 2.5?µm size.     

Grinding of Toroidal and Cylindrical Surfaces on SiC Using Diamond Grinding Wheels

This paper presents the methods and experimental results for grinding toroidal and cylindrical surfaces made of silicon carbide using diamond grinding wheels and an inexpensive CNC machining center. The mirrors were successfully obtained by automatic grinding operations with good shape accuracy, mirror surface finish, and low roughness heights. The time consumed in the process is very short. Industrial manufacture of lenses usually involves three operations — grinding without dressing, lapping, and polishing. In the laboratory studies, however, mirrors and lenses have been manufactured only with grinding process, because of 100% ductile-mode material removal in grinding with dressing. These processes were individually evaluated for surface roughness and surface integrity using surface roughness testers and a scanning electron microscope.     

Machining Characteristics of Inconel 718 by Sinking-EDM and Wire-EDM

Inconel 718 superalloy has wide applications in several industries due to its excellent mechanical properties. However, it is very difficult to machine using conventional cutting and grinding because of its high strength at elevated temperatures. Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is an alternative competitive process to machine Inconel alloys by electrical erosion. However, machinability and surface characteristics of EDMed Inconel surfaces are poorly understood. This study focuses on the machining characteristics of Inconel 718 by Wire-EDM and Sinking-EDM with a new Cu-SiC electrode, respectively. Material removal efficiency, surface roughness, surface topography, surface alloying, and electrode wear have been characterized. It is found that the high toughness of Inconel 718 would be the major contributing factor to the absence of microcracks on the EDMed surface. The new fabricated Cu-SiC electrode for Sinking-EDM has better performance in terms of material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness, and electrode wear. The higher melting temperature and fine microstructure of SiC contribute to the lower electrode wear of the new Cu-SiC electrode than the traditional Cu electrode.     

An Experimental Investigation on Ultrasonic Vibration-Assisted Grinding of SiO2f/SiO2 Composites

Fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composite (FRCMC) have been widely used in aerospace and other high-technology fields due to their excellent mechanical and physical properties. However, FRCMC is a kind of typical material with anisotropic and inhomogeneous structure; thus, it is difficult to guarantee the precision and surface quality using traditional machining. The present paper employed ultrasonic vibration-assisted grinding (UAG) to machine 2.5D woven SiO_2f/SiO₂ composites. By comparing the grinding force, surface microstructure, chip formation, surface topography and surface roughness with and without ultrasonic vibration for the machining of SiO_2f/SiO₂ composites, the feasibility of UAG on FRCMC was investigated experimentally. In addition, the effects of the process parameters (including spindle speed, feed rate, grinding depth, grain mesh size and ultrasonic power) on grinding force and surface roughness were studied through an orthogonal experiment. The research obtained can be a useful technical support for the development of UAG in the machining of FRCMC.     

Machining of high performance workpiece materials with CBN coated cutting tools

The machining of high performance workpiece materials requires significantly harder cutting materials. In hard machining, the early tool wear occurs due to high process forces and temperatures. The hardest known material is the diamond, but steel materials cannot be machined with diamond tools because of the reactivity of iron with carbon. Cubic boron nitride (cBN) is the second hardest of all known materials. The supply of such PcBN indexable inserts, which are only geometrically simple and available, requires several work procedures and is cost-intensive. The development of a cBN coating for cutting tools, combine the advantages of a thin film system and of cBN. Flexible cemented carbide tools, in respect to the geometry can be coated. The cBN films with a thickness of up to 2 µm on cemented carbide substrates show excellent mechanical and physical properties. This paper describes the results of the machining of various workpiece materials in turning and milling operations regarding the tool life, resultant cutting force components and workpiece surface roughness. In turning tests of Inconel 718 and milling tests of chrome steel the high potential of cBN coatings for dry machining was proven. The results of the experiments were compared with common used tool coatings for the hard machining. Additionally, the wear mechanisms adhesion, abrasion, surface fatigue and tribo-oxidation were researched in model wear experiments.     

Effect of machining on fracture toughness of corundum

Different machining processes such as ultrasonic machining and grinding by a diamond wheel produce varying degrees of surface damage. The amount of surface damage appeared to be related to the type of machining process. However, the degree of surface damage could not be related to the surface roughness for different machining processes. The surface damage created by the machining process can be fully or partially recovered by heat treatment subsequent to machining. The degree of recovery by heat treatment seems to be dependent on the severity of the surface damage during the machining process. Observation of the surface microcracks and determination of the fracture toughness of the material after machining or heat treatment indicated recovery of some of the microcracks during the heat treatment.     

Effect of Tool Rotation on MRR,TWR, and Surface Integrity of AISI-D3 Steel using the Rotary EDM Process

Electric discharge machining (EDM) is an acclaimed non-conventional machining process that is used for machining of hard or geometrically complex and electrically conductive materials which are extremely difficult to machine by conventional methods. One of the foremost demerits of this process is its very low material removal rate (MRR). For this, researchers have proposed some modifications like; providing rotational motion to the tool or workpiece, mixing of conducting fine powders (such as SiC, Cr, Al, graphite etc.) in the dielectric, providing vibrations to either the tool or the workpiece etc.

The present research examines how the MRR and tool wear rates (TWR) vary with the variation in the tool rotation speed and their effects on the surface integrity of the workpiece. The results obtained clearly indicate that the tool rotation significantly improves the average MRR up to 49%. Moreover, the average surface finish also gets improved by around 9–10% while using the rotational tool EDM. Due to the tool rotation, the recast layer thickness is less for the rotary EDM as compared with the stationary tool EDM process. Furthermore, the micro-cracking on the recast surface of the workpiece is also less for the rotary tool EDM as compared with the stationary tool EDM.     

Nano finish grinding of brittle materials using electrolytic in-process dressing (ELID) technique

Recent developments in grinding have opened up new avenues for finishing of hard and brittle materials with nano-surface finish, high tolerance and accuracy. Grinding with superabrasive wheels is an excellent way to produce ultraprecision surface finish. However, superabrasive diamond grits need higher bonding strength while grinding, which metal-bonded grinding wheels can offer. Truing and dressing of the wheels are major problems and they tend to glaze because of wheel loading. When grinding with superabrasive wheels, wheel loading can be avoided by dressing periodically to obtain continuous grinding. Electrolytic inprocess dressing (ELID) is the most suitable process for dressing metal-bonded grinding wheels during the grinding process. Nano-surface finish can be achieved only when chip removal is done at the atomic level. Recent developments of ductile mode machining of hard and brittle materials show that plastically deformed chip removal minimizes the subsurface damage of the workpiece. When chip deformation takes place in the ductile regime, a defect-free nano-surface is possible and it completely eliminates the polishing process. ELID is one of the processes used for atomic level metal removal and nano-surface finish. However, no proper and detailed studies have been carried out to clarify the fundamental characteristics for making this process a robust one. Consequently, an attempt has been made in this study to understand the fundamental characteristics of ELID grinding and their influence on surface finish.     

Experimental Studies on the Grind-Hardening Effect in Cylindrical Grinding

In recent years high-strength and high-temperature alloys are used for structural and other applications. These newer high-performance materials are inherently “more difficult to machine” and also necessitate the need for higher dimensional and geometrical accuracy. Grinding is one of the most familiar and common abrasive machining processes used for the finishing operation. Compared to other machining processes such as turning, milling, etc., the specific energy developed during grinding is very high. At a critical level of specific grinding energy, the temperature rise[1]experienced by the workpiece may be such that thermal damage is induced. Heat damage induced by the grinding process is well documented and may be categorized by temper colors that are at least unsightly and probably indicative of more serious damage, including thermal cracks, tempered zone, etc.,[2]which can lead to catastrophic failure of critical machine parts that shortens the life of products subject to cyclic loading. In this work, a new heat treatment process called “grind hardening” and a mathematical model are introduced, and this work deals with how the in-process energy in grinding can be effectively utilized to improve the surface hardness and surface texture, and also to prevent damages. An experimental study has also been carried out in grinding AISI 6150 and AISI 52100 steels with an alumina wheel, and the results are discussed.