Experimental studies on matching performance of grinding and vibration parameters in ultrasonic assisted grinding of SiC ceramics

Ultrasonic assisted grinding (UAG) is an outstanding technology suitable to machine advanced ceramics. During UAG, the effect of ultrasonic vibration on grinding process is mainly determined by matching performance between grinding and vibration parameters in theory. However, this problem is still lack of deep study. With an objective to study the matching performance deeply, conventional grinding (CG) and UAG tests were conducted. The effects of grinding parameters on grinding force, ground surface profile wave, and ground surface roughness between UAG and CG were studied. The results showed that the grinding force, ground surface profile wave height, and ground surface roughness during UAG were reduced in varying degrees compared to CG. Additionally, the reduction percentage that means the effect of ultrasonic vibration on grinding process decreased significantly with increasing grinding speed while affected slightly by increasing of feedrate and grinding depth. To deeply analyze this variety law of the ultrasonic vibration effect during UAG, a matching performance equation referred to grinding wheel diameter, grinding, and vibration parameters is proposed. When the grinding speed increases from 1.26 to 31.5 m/s for feedrate of 100 mm/min and grinding depth of 5 mu m, reduction percentage in grinding force for UAG compared to CG (K (F)) decreases from about 20 to 4 % and in ground surface roughness (K (R)) decreases from 35 to 4 %. With regard to the average difference height (Delta h) between the UAG and CG profile waves, it decreases from 2.77 mu m almost to zero.