Investigation on Polishing of Zirconia Ceramics Using Magnetic Compound Fluid: Relationship Between Material Removal and Surface Roughness

Zirconia ceramics have excellent applicability in the aerospace, defense, new energy, automotive, electronics, and biomedical fields. However, few investigations have been conducted on the high-precision polishing of zirconia ceramics. In this work, a polishing method using a magnetic compound fluid slurry is proposed. First, the principle and the constructed experimental setup were presented. Then, the experiments were performed that characterized the surface profile after polishing, the effect of the working gap, and the effect of the concentration of carbonyl iron particles (CIPs) on the material removal and surface quality. The results showed that the material removal ability correlated positively with the surface roughness; the smallest working gap (0.5 mm) induced greater material removal ability and better surface roughness; higher CIP concentration enabled a higher polishing force to obtain higher material removal and better surface quality. The polishing results show that surface roughness Rz of 55 nm was obtained at the surfaces of zirconia ceramics, confirming that the proposed method has the potential for polishing of zirconia ceramics.