CREEP FEED GRINDING OF ADVANCED CERAMICS

Experimental investigation of Creep feed grinding of ceramics and their advanced composites is described. Among silicon carbide, zirconia, alumina and silicon nitride, the latter was found to be the most difficult to grind ceramic. fibre-reinforced silicon nitride was ground in three directions to the fibre. It is shown that grinding normal to the fibre direction required the highest grinding power. However, this was still half of the power required for pure silicon nitride. By contrast, silicon nitride that was reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers required considerably more energy to be ground. Aluminium-reinforced alumina, as expected, was easier to grind than pure alumina. Measurements of the surface roughness of all ground workpieces are also presented.