Ductile grinding of Silicon carbide in high speed grinding

Ductile grinding of brittle materials has been demonstrated in achieving desired machining quality without deteriorating surface and subsurface quality and any post processing work. However, it is still in a low efficiency in micro-machining or conventional grinding. In this paper, a high speed diamond grinder was exploited to explore ductile grinding of SiC at a relatively higher material removal. A combination of ground surface, subsurface and grinding chips SEM observations are given to explain the high speed grinding mechanism for SiC. This study indicates that ductile grinding of SiC can be achieved through a combination of the increase of the wheel speed and the control of grinding depth. Moreover, the critical chip thickness for ductile grinding of SiC can be greatly improved under a higher grinding speed comparing to conventional speed grinding. Correspondingly, the material removal volumes can be substantially enhanced in high speed grinding while not affecting subsurface and surface integrity.