2000 Issue 1 - Abrasive machining of advanced Ceramics

The industrial demand for structural ceramic products with narrow tolerances
and a high-quality surface finish has increased the need for machining processes
capable of producing ceramic components to the required specification. This
work aims to review a number of processes used in the abrasive machining of
advanced ceramics, aided by the use of scanning electron micrographs. A design
proposal for lapping and polishing wheels is also introduced.
Contributed by Inacio Regiani, Carlos Alberto Fortulan and Benedito de Moraes Purquerio

The industrial demand for structural ceramic

products with narrow tolerances and a
high-quality surface finish has increased the
need for machining processes appropriate
for such advanced ceramic components [1].
Conformation processes by means of
powder technology result in poor
dimensional accuracy due to shrinkage
during the sintering process [2]. When
dimensional and surface tolerances are
narrow, it is necessary to develop abrasive
processes to machine ceramics after
sintering. Because of the hardness and
brittleness of such materials, it is difficult to
apply conventional machining processes
such as drilling, turning and boring [2]. Fig 1 Example of a defect in a just
Abrasive machining has been shown to be sintered alumina workpiece
one of the best options for the processing of
advanced ceramics after sintering. Grinding,
lapping and polishing, to improve surface
finish, and ultrasound techniques, to make
holes, may be cited as appropriate
processes for machining advanced ceramics
[3].

The grinding process usually introduces

surface damage in ceramic workpieces, such
as cracks, that reduce the mechanical
strength of the component, thus making it
necessary to follow this up with subsequent
machining operations such as lapping and
polishing [3]. This work seeks to identify the
dominant material removal mechanisms in
each abrasive machining process and
presents the results of a design proposal for
abrasive wheels for the machining of
advanced ceramics.

Machining of advanced ceramics

The abrasive machining of advanced ceramics is influenced by many factors, such as the
viscosity of the cutting fluid, the stiffness of the machine tool, the grade of the abrasive
and the microstructure of the ceramic workpiece [2,4]. The microstructure of the material
has a strong influence on crack propagation generated by grinding. In the case of silicon
carbide, a heterogeneous microstructure in which the crystal grains have different sizes
and shapes is less susceptible to deep cracks than a homogeneous microstructure in which
the grains are regular in size and shape. On the other hand, inclusions, pores and grain
boundaries are barriers to crack propagation caused by any abrasive machining process
[5]. Cutting fluid, abrasive grain size and type, and the features of the machine tool
influence the predominant material removal mechanism of the process. The machine tool
 used for grinding ceramic must have high stiffness, a low level of vibration, an active
cutting fluid system, precision of its movements and positioning, a dynamic balancing
process, a wheel dressing system and CNC capability in many axes [7].

Material removal mechanisms

There are four main mechanisms involved
in the removal of material during the
machining of advanced ceramics: grain
removal, spalling, pulverisation and ductile
chip formation. In the grain removal
process, material is removed by the
breaking and removal of entire crystalline
grains from the surface of the workpiece.
This mechanism usually takes place
Fig 2 Schematic drawing of cracks
simultaneously with spalling, which is the
developed in the surface during diamond
main material removal mechanism in
scratching (after Ruff et al, [11])
grinding [7]. In the case of spalling,
material is removed by the lateral and
radial crack propagation which occurs
during abrasive machining. The main
problem is deep crack propagation which
reduces the mechanical strength of the
workpiece [3]. Pulverisation is a
mechanism model that seeks to explain the
difference between the microstructure in
the region around the scratch and that in
the bulk region of the workpiece. According
to this mechanism, during the contact
between the abrasive grain and the surface
of the workpiece, crystal grains in the
surface region are pulverised to
sub-micron dimensions. The pressure
exerted on the surface by the action of the
abrasive grains generates heat by friction,
so some of these new grains in the
workpiece are subjected to a second
sintering effect and aggregate to the
surface again [8]. The ductile material
removal mechanism supposes that any
brittle material can be removed through
plastic flow under certain machining
conditions. These conditions are usually
related to depth of cut. Some scratch
studies have removed material from
advanced ceramics by this ductile
mechanism, but only to a depth of cut of a
few microns [9]

Surface damage
The main types of surface damage that are already
present on just sintered ceramic components
include pores, cracks (Fig 1), craters, depressions
and inclusions, among others. In order to remove
these defects and correct dimensional errors, the
component must be machined, usually by grinding.
Although grinding is a process applied to correct
dimensional variations in ceramic components, it
can cause damage, mainly in the form of cracks
[3]. Cracks produced by grinding can be radial,
lateral and longitudinal, as shown in Fig 2. These
are all produced by the stresses generated by the
interaction between the ceramic and the abrasive
grain. Radial cracks run perpendicular to the
surface and machining direction. Lateral cracks run
parallel to the surface and are responsible
for the spalling process.
These longitudinal and radial cracks, when
deep, reduce the mechanical strength of
the component [3]. Lapping and polishing
are the most commonly used processes for
removing cracks made by grinding, and
they also improve the geometry and
surface finish of the component. However,
these processes also damage the surface of
the workpiece, usually leaving residual
compressive stresses in the surface zone
and tension in the layers just below the
surface [10].
Fig 4 Surface finish after lapping
Fig 5 Surface polished with wheel
Fig 3 Longitudinal crack resulting from
grinding
Method and processes Disc workpieces 80
mm in diameter and 6 mm thick made of
alumina, Alcan 5S-G, were used to
investigate experimentally the abrasive
machining of advanced ceramics. They
were pressed uniaxially at 80 MPa and
sintered for 3 hours at 1610¡C. These
workpieces were ground under the
following conditions: peripheral wheel
speed of 27 m/s, workpiece speed of 3
m/min, feed rate of 2.5 mm per pass, and
depth of cut of
0.05 mm, with the application of copious
amounts of cutting fluid. A resin bond
diamond wheel from Winter was used, with
a grain size of 91 µm and in a
concentration of 0.66 g/cm3. The discs
were analysed with a scanning electron
microscope (SEM) before and after grinding
to examine the cracks and broken grains
resulting from this abrasive machining
process (Fig 3). In all the experiments the
authors used a EDS-960 microscope made
by Zeiss. Roughness and flatness were
measured with a Surtronic 3P and Talyrond
250 respectively, both made by
Taylor-Hobson. After grinding, the discs
were lapped with silicon carbide wheels of
grit size 180, 33, 12 and 10 µm
respectively, for 30 minutes with each
wheel. The wheels were developed for this
study and contained an abrasive layer
made with epoxy resin with an abrasive
concentration of 0.66 g/cm3. The abrasive
layer was bonded to an elastomeric silicone
layer to improve the contact between the
ceramic workpiece and the wheel. Both
layers were produced in nylon 99 moulds.
Fig 4 shows a surface subjected to this
experiment. Roughness and flatness were
measured after lapping. Some of these
workpieces were polished with diamond
pastes of 4 and 1 µm over synthetic silk,
PA-W- PELLON, made by Struers. The
others were polished with a new wheel,
also developed in the course of this
research, having an abrasive layer
containing 6 µm synthetic diamond grit
from De Beers Industrial Diamonds
(Debid), similarly in a concentration of 0.66
g/cm3. The roughness and flatness of all
the workpieces were measured. Pieces
polished with the diamond pastes and the

Table
References
Fig 6 Surface polished with diamond paste
(the white spots are paste residues)
wheel were observed under the SEM as
shown in Figs 5 and 6.
1 Average values for
roughness(Ra) and flatness
• Process Roughness (µm) / Flatness
(µm)
• Sintering 0.85 <1000
• Grinding 0.98 / 10
• Lapping 0.65 / 5
• Polishing with paste 0.25 / 5
• Polishing with wheel 0.23 / 13
[1] W. Kšnig, M. Popp. Precision machining
of advanced ceramics, Am. Ceram. Soc.
Bull., Vol. 8, No. 3, pp 550-553 (1989). [2]
K. Wolf. Diamond machining of engineering
ceramics, Industrial Diamond Review, Vol.
55, No. 564, pp 7-14 (1995). [3] D.W.
Richerson. Modern ceramic engineering,
properties, processing and use in design,
Ed. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York, EUA
(1992). [4] A. Lammer. Ceramics after
grinding, Industrial Diamond Review, Vol.
50, No. 537, pp 94-98 (1990). [5] N.P.
Padture, C.J. Evan, H.H.K. Xu, B.R. Lawn.
Enhanced machinability of silicon carbide
via microstructural design, J. Am. Ceram.
Soc., Vol. 78, No. 1, pp 215-217 (1995).
[6] I. Zarudi, L. Zhang, Y.W. Mai.
Subsurface damage in alumina induced by
single-point scratching, J. Mat. Sci., Vol.
31, pp 905-914 (1996). [7] K.
Subramanian, S. Ramanath, Y.O. Matsuda.
Precision production grinding of fine
ceramics, Industrial Diamond Review, Vol
50, No. 540, pp 254-261 (1990). [8] B.
Zhang, D.T. Howes. Material-removal
mechanisms in grinding ceramics, Annals of
the CIRP, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp 305-308
(1994). [9] G. Warnecke, U. Rosenberger.
Basics of process parameter selection in
grinding of advanced ceramics, Annals of
the CIRP, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp 283-286
(1995). [10] S. Chandrasekar,
K. Kokini, B. Bhushan. The effect of
abrasive properties on surface finishing
damage in ceramics. In: Winter annual
meeting of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, Intersociety
symposium on machining of advanced
ceramic materials and components, New
York, ASME pp 33-46 (1988).
[11] A.W. Ruff, H. Shin, C.J. Evans.
Damage processes in ceramics resulting
from diamond tool indentation and
scratching in various environments, Wear,
Vol.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank CNPq and FAPESP for financial support. All authors are from the
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering School of S‹o Carlos, University of S‹o
Paulo, S‹o Carlos-SP, Brazil.

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