7.4. Electrical aspects of ELID grinding
The current Iw and voltage Ew vary during a complete ELID procedure. When the predressing stage starts, the active surface of the wheel has a high electrical conductivity. Consequently, the current is high, while the voltage between the wheel and the electrode is low, as indicated by vertical Line 1 in Figure 7.6. After several minutes, the cast iron bond material is removed by electrolysis, being transformed into Fe2+ ions. According to the chemical transformations shown in Figure 7.2, the ionized Fe forms hydroxides of Fe(OH)2 or Fe(OH)3. The hydroxides further change into oxides Fe2O3 through electrolysis. The electroconductivity of the wheel surface is reduced by the oxide that acts as an insulating layer (about 20 μm thick). The current decreases while the voltage increases as shown by the vertical Line 2 in Figure 7.6.
The grinding process can now commence with the protruding abrasive grains. As the grains are worn, the insulating oxide layer is also worn, which increases the electroconductivity of the wheel so the electrolysis will intensify and generate a fresh insulating layer depicted by the vertical Line 3 in Figure 7.6. The protrusion of the grains remains approximately constant. The layer of oxide has a larger flexibility and a lower retention characteristic than the bulk bond material [4].
Figure 7.7 depicts the characteristics of the oxide film thickness required for different types of grinding operation: roughing or finishing. For rough grinding, a thin insulating layer is required so the abrasive grains can significantly protrude out of the bond and help increase the material removal rate, while for a mirror-finish ELID grinding a relatively thick insulating layer is preferred because it will limit the real depth of cut of the abrasive grains. The thickness of the oxide layer can be controlled by modifying the characteristics of the electrical current output by the ELID power source. This modification creates the possibility of running both rough and finish grinding operations using the same setup and adjusting only the current characteristics of ELID and relative speed between the wheel and the work.
Figure 7.7.
Ideal wheel conditions for: (a) efficient grinding and (b) mirror-surface finish [20]
Figure options
An important aspect during ELID dressing is a small increase of the wheel diameter (or thickness) that occurs during ELID grinding due to formation of the etched and oxide layers [4]. In Figure 7.8 typical increases in wheel diameter due to insulating layer formation are shown for different types of electrolyte.
Figure 7.8.
The depth of etched and oxide layers with different electrolytes [4]
Figure options
7.5. Grinding wheels for ELID applications
Wheels for ELID applications include the following types:
Cast Iron–Bonded Diamond
These wheels are manufactured by mixing diamond abrasive, cast iron powder or fibers, and a small amount of carbonyl iron powder. The compound is shaped to the desired form under a pressure of 6–8 ton/cm2, and then sintered in an atmosphere of ammonia. These wheels are unsuitable for continuous grinding for long periods of time, particularly for metals for the following reasons:
1.
A tough metal-bonded wheel is difficult to dress, so efficient and stable grinding cannot be achieved.
2.
High material removal rate wears the abrasive and requires frequent redressing.
3.
The wheel becomes embedded with swarf during grinding of steels and other metals.
Cast Iron Fiber–Bonded Diamond
These wheels provide high grinding ratio and high material removal rates.
Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN)
Tough metal-bonded CBN wheels can be dressed during the grinding process using the ELID technique. This process can be used to control abrasive protrusion before and during the grinding of ceramics.
7.6. ELID grinding of ceramics
In recent years, a number of publications confirm the merits of ELID grinding for common brittle materials, but also for BK-7 glass, silicon, and fused silica using fine-mesh superabrasive wheels [5]. Many of these publications report that ELID system provides the ability to obtain spectacularly fine finishes after grinding operations on brittle material surfaces, down to the nanometer scale of 4 to 6 nm. For some applications, this process completely eliminates the need for loose abrasive lapping and/or polishing operations. ELID grinding has also been applied to the fabrication of large optical components 150–250 mm in diameter. The data also suggest that ELID grinding can be successfully applied to thin deposited substrates.
According to the American Ceramic Society, the U.S. structural ceramics market was estimated at more than $3.5 billion as compared with $20 million in 1974, $350 million in 1990, and $865 million in 1995 (http://www.acers.org/news/factsheets.asp). Applications of ceramics are found in tool manufacture, automotive, aerospace, electrical and electronics industries, communications, fiber optics, and medicine.
The properties of ceramic materials, as for all materials, depend on the types of atoms, the types of bonding between the atoms, and the way the atoms are packed together, known also as the atomic scale structure. Most ceramics are compounded of two or more elements. The atoms in ceramic materials are held together by a chemical bond. The two most common chemical bonds for ceramic materials are covalent and ionic, which are much stronger than metallic chemical bonds. That is why, in general, metals are ductile and ceramics are brittle.
The atomic structure primarily affects the chemical, physical, thermal, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties. The microstructure also affects the properties but has its major effect on mechanical properties and on the rate of chemical reaction. For ceramics, the microstructure can be entirely glassy (glasses), entirely crystalline, or a combination of crystalline and glassy. In the last case, the glassy phase usually surrounds small crystals, bonding them together.
The most important characteristics of ceramic materials are high hardness, resistance to high compressive force, resistance to high temperature, brittleness, chemical inertness, electrical insulation properties, superior electrical properties, high magnetic permeability, special optic, and conductive properties.
The interest in advanced structural ceramics has increased significantly in recent years due to their unique physical characteristics and due to significant improvements in their mechanical properties and reliability. Despite these advantages, the use of structural ceramics in various applications has not increased as rapidly as one might have expected due, partly, to the high machining cost. The cost of grinding ceramics may account for up to 75% percent of the component cost compared to 5–15% percent for many metallic components [6].
The primary cost drivers in the grinding of ceramics are:
•
Low efficiency machining operations due to the low removal rate
•
High expensive superabrasive wheel wear rate
•
Long wheel dressing times [6]
A conventional grinding process applied to ceramic materials often results in surface fracture damage, nullifying the benefits of advanced ceramic processing methods [7]. These defects are sensitive to grinding parameters and can significantly reduce the strength and reliability of the finished components. It is, therefore, important to reduce the depth of grain penetration to minimum values so that the grain force is below the critical level for structural damage. The critical value of grain penetration depth for a hard ceramic is typically less than 0.2 μm. This small value of grain penetration depth is made possible using the ELID grinding technique with fine grain wheels.
Although ELID grinding is good for workpiece accuracy, it is not necessarily beneficial to workpiece strength as the following discussion of the effects of removal rates demonstrates [8]. Stock removal rate increases with increasing number of passes, higher stock removal rates being obtained with a stiffer machine tool in the first few passes. For grinding wheels of a similar bond type, a larger stock removal rate is obtained for the wheels of larger grit sizes. Cast iron–bonded wheels used during the ELID grinding allow a larger stock removal rate, yet a lower grinding force than a vitrified bond grinding wheel used in a conventional grinding process. Machine stiffness has little effect on residual strength of ground silicon under multipass grinding conditions, which can be attributed to the effect of the actual wheel depth of cut on workpiece strength [9]. As the number of passes increases, the actual depth of cut approaches the set depth of cut, which means that regardless of machine tool stiffness, grinding force does not necessarily alter workpiece strength in a stable grinding process. Also, more compressive residual stress can be induced with a dull grinding wheel, with a grinding wheel of a larger grit size, or with a wheel with a stiff and strong bond material. However, a larger grinding-wheel grit size causes a greater depth of damage in the surface of the ground workpiece. As the number of passes increases, the normal grinding force also increases. This increase of force is steep initially and slows down as the number of passes increases, a phenomenon more evident for a high stiffness machine tool. Due to machine tool deflection, the normal grinding force is initially smaller with lower machine stiffness [9]. Eventually, the normal force approaches a limit value, regardless of the machine stiffness characteristics [9]. To avoid damage to the workpiece, it is necessary to limit the grain penetration depth, which is more directly dependent on the removal rate than on the grinding force.
A controversial and little studied aspect of the ceramic grinding process is the pulverization phenomenon that takes place in the surface layer of a ceramic workpiece during gr