6 Post-Processing Techniques Of Ceramic Materials (Part 1)
Common ceramic processing methods mainly include: mechanical processing, laser processing, ultrasonic processing, abrasive water jet processing, microwave processing, electrical processing and other methods.
1. Machining
Machining mainly include turning, drilling, milling, grinding, grinding and polishing.
For turning of ceramic materials, diamond or cubic boron nitride tools are generally used. Due to the high hardness and brittleness of ceramic materials, turning processing is difficult to ensure its accuracy requirements and affects processing efficiency, so turning processing is not widely used, and it is basically still in the research stage.
Grinding of ceramic materials is one of the most widely used processing methods at present. The friction between the diamond grinding needle or the grinding wheel and the workpiece is used to remove the material through plastic deformation, brittle fracture, etc.
In grinding, the removal of chips is a major problem, and coolant is generally used for cleaning. The coolant not only plays the role of flushing the chip powder, but also can reduce the temperature of the grinding zone, improve the grinding quality, and reduce the thermal decomposition of the binder around the abrasive particles.
The size of diamond particles is another main factor affecting the surface quality of ceramic workpieces. The larger the particles, the greater the roughness of the processed surface, but the higher the processing efficiency. When grinding ceramic materials, the uneven force during the processing is easy to cause cracks.
In some areas of industrial production, grinding alone cannot meet the surface finish requirements of ceramic parts, and grinding and polishing are usually used.
Therefore, grinding is not only to achieve a certain roughness and high shape accuracy, but also to improve the strength of the workpiece; polishing is a finishing process that uses a soft polisher and fine powder abrasive particles to act on the workpiece at a lower pressure. process.
2. Laser Processing
As a non-contact high-energy beam precision machining technology, laser has the characteristics of high efficiency and controllability, small heat affected zone, no cutting force, no tool wear, and can process difficult-to-machine materials with high hardness, high brittleness, and high melting point. , receiving more and more attention.
The principle of laser processing is to use a uniform laser beam with high power density as a heat source, and focus on the surface of the material through the integration of the laser light path, so that a high temperature is instantaneously generated at the local position to reach the melting or gasification temperature of the material, thereby realizing material cutting. The disadvantage is that the large amount of heat generated in the laser processing process can easily cause cracks and oxidation on the surface of the workpiece.
3. Ultrasonic Machining
Ultrasonic machining is the use of ultrasonic vibration tools in abrasive liquid media or dry abrasives to produce abrasive impact, polishing, hydraulic impact and the resulting cavitation to remove materials, or apply ultrasonic waves to the tool or workpiece in a certain direction. Vibration processing using high frequency vibration, or a processing method that uses ultrasonic vibration to combine workpieces with each other.
Ultrasonic machining technology is applied to milling, drilling, grinding, turning, grinding, etc. of ceramics, which can effectively solve the processing problems of ceramic materials, significantly reduce cutting force and machining damage, reduce tool wear, inhibit edge damage of brittle materials, reduce The generation of surface micro-cracks improves the surface processing quality of the workpiece.
However, the efficiency of ultrasonic machining is low, and it is difficult to process complex curved parts.
