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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]. Abrasive machining has
been shown to be one of the best options for the
processing of advanced ceramics after sintering. Fig 1 Example of a defect in a just
Grinding, lapping and polishing, to improve surface sintered alumina workpiece
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
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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

Fig 2 Schematic drawing of cracks
developed in the surface during
diamond scratching (after Ruff et al,
[11])
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 simultaneously
with spalling, which is the main material removal
mechanism in 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
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parallel to the surface and are responsible for the Fig 3 Longitudinal crack resulting
spalling process. from grinding

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].

Method and processes Disc workpieces 80 mm in

Fig 4 Surface finish after lapping
Fig 5 Surface polished with wheel
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
IDR On-Line - Industrial Diamond Review - Archive
Fig 6 Surface polished with diamond
paste (the white spots are paste
residues)
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
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wheel were observed under the SEM as shown in
Figs 5 and 6.
Table 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
References
[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.
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Paulo, S‹o Carlos-SP, Brazil.

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