Title: The effect of different slurries on material removal of sapphire surface in fixed-abrasive lapping

Authors: Zhilan Ju; Yongwei Zhu; Jianbin Wang; Dunwen Zuo

Addresses: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China; School of Mechanical Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China ' College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China ' College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China ' College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China

Abstract: Softened film on the sapphire substrate exerts a great effect on the material removal rate (MRR). By studying the sapphire MRR and the softened film thickness on the surface in the chemical reaction of lapping, the material removal mechanism of sapphire is explored by fixed-abrasive lapping. In this paper, a serial of nanoindentation experiment was carried out for sapphire using four different chemical slurries, i.e., de-ionised water, ethylenediamine, triethanolamine and ethylene glycol. The softened film thickness of sapphire samples after saturated in slurries were evaluated. Although MRR was calculated using the above different slurries, the results indicate that the addition of ethylene glycol is beneficial to form the softened film. The MRR of sapphire is well in correlation with a synergetic effect of chemical slurry action and self-conditioning property of hydrophilic FA pad. That can provide processing parameters for the ductile lapping of sapphires.

Keywords: softened film; material removal rate; MRR; hydrophilic FAP; fixed abrasive pads; self-conditioning; chemical slurries; sapphire substrate; fixed-abrasive lapping; film thickness; nanoindentation; ethylene glycol.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2015.069215

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2015 Vol.17 No.1, pp.39 - 48

Received: 20 Sep 2014
Accepted: 24 Nov 2014
Published online: 05 May 2015 *

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