Fabrication of New Porous Metal-Bonded Grinding Wheels by Hip Method and Machining Electronic Ceramics

Grinding wheels with different abrasive grains and different bonding materials were fabricated using hot isostatic press (HIP) sintering. Poly-crystal diamond powder of #1000 mesh size, single-crystal diamond powder of #1000 mesh size, and synthetic single-crystal diamond abrasive grains of #325 mesh size were used as abrasive grains. Cast-iron, and two different particle sizes of iron powders were used for the bonding material. The grinding capacity of these grinding wheels as well as conventional grinding wheels was evaluated by constant-pressure-grinding method to grind Al₂O₃-TiC component ceramics, which are typical electronic ceramics used for magnetic memory devices. The hardness of the bonding materials, the adhesion strength between abrasive diamond grains and the bonding materials, and the porosity of sintered body strongly relate to the grinding capacity. The porous bonded grinding wheels showed higher grinding capacity than the conventional wheels. The HIP method enables to fabricate excellent porous metal-bonded grinding wheels.