Vertical Spindle Grinding of Si and Granite with a New Abrasive Disk

An investigation was reported of a new attempt in the fabrication of an ultrafine abrasive tool for vertical spindle grinding. The principle of sol-gel was applied to granulate ultra-fine abrasives in order to reduce their aggregation. The granulated abrasives were then added to resin bonds, thereby forming ultra-fine abrasive grinding disks. Before grinding, the disks were dressed to expected flatness using a brazed diamond pad. The dressed grinding disks were then used to grind silicon wafers and natural granite. Both dressing and grinding were conducted on a high precision vertical spindle grinding machine. After grinding, the morphologies of the workpiece materials were examined. With regard to the different concerns for silicon wafers and granite, surface roughness was measured for the silicon wafers and gloss readings were measured for the granite surfaces. It was found that the brazed diamond abrasives could dress the grinding disks with high efficiency and satisfactory flatness. The new ultra-fine abrasive disks were found to be able to process silicon wafers and granite slabs to acceptable results.