Contact Deformation Behavior of an Elastic Silicone/SiC Abrasive in Grinding and Polishing

An elastic abrasive of the new type having the advantage of effectively controlled contact pressure and uniform deformation was developed. It provides complete lamination of the surface, effective treatment of the curved mold cavity, as well as improves the processing efficiency. It permits of fine cavity surface finishing. These soft elastic abrasive composites are based on silicone as the matrix material and modified SiC microparticles as the reinforcing element. Mechanics and contact deformation behavior of the abrasives were studied by examining sizes of reinforcing particles and their content (53.5, 59.3, and 65.4%). Mechanical compression behavior of the composite is characterized by the concave power function index. Contact deformation analysis shows that the network connectivity produced by cross-linking of silicone and a curing agent propagates through the void spaces of the crystal lattice of abrasive particles on pressure application. Elastic extension and compression of composite net chains guarantee the complete lamination of the processed surface, and hard abrasive particles introduced into the net chain spacing complement the structure of the material.