Title: The influence of wheel grain size on the surface roughness in ELID fine grinding of SiC ceramics

Authors: Ahmed Bakr Khoshaim; Ioan D. Marinescu

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia ' Precision Micro Machining Centre (PMMC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, USA

Abstract: The demand for silicon carbide ceramics has increased significantly in the last decade due to its reliable properties. Sometimes, single side grinding is preferable over surface grinding, because it has the ability to produce flat surfaces. However, the manufacturing cost is still high because of the high tool wear and long machining time. Additionally, most of these grinding processes are followed by a lapping process. One of the ways to eliminate the lapping process is to use electrolysis in process dressing technique (ELID). Part of the solution also entails investigating the influence of different variables on the workpiece surface finish. This paper presents the influence of different grain size on roughness. In order to do this based on the experimental results, a full factorial experiment was developed for each grit size (wheel) on three levels of each variable: the spindle and wheel speed, the applied load and eccentricity. These four variables have been investigated for each grinding wheel mesh size and a model has been established for each wheel individually. The influence of using different grinding wheel mesh size is then founded.

Keywords: silicon carbide; SiC ceramics; fine grinding; material removal mechanism; electrolytic in process dressing; ELID; roughness modelling; wheel grain size; surface roughness; surface quality; spindle speed; wheel speed; applied load; eccentricity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAT.2014.065841

International Journal of Abrasive Technology, 2014 Vol.6 No.4, pp.324 - 335

Received: 14 Mar 2014
Accepted: 08 Aug 2014

Published online: 28 Nov 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article