Study on Acoustic Emission During High-Speed Grinding and Ultraprecision Grinding of Advanced Ceramics
Abstract The process of grinding produces characteristic acoustic emissions (AE) and the signals of AE could be used as ‘condition monitoring’ tool to understand the phenomenon involved in material removal. It has been observed that high-speed grinding of the ceramics improved machining productivity without deteriorating the surface quality of the ceramics, which is not common in the case of metals. Residual stress analysis on the machined ceramics indicated that built-in residual stress might have reduced the crack-formation. Critical grinding conditions limiting the formation of cracks on the ceramics were identified. The trend in AErms signals could be correlated to the grinding force and the grinding conditions. In case of ultraprecision machining, the ductile regime grinding of the ceramics was found out in terms of feed and depth of grinding with grinding velocity. Analysis with the SEM of machined ceramic surfaces and the AErms could reveal the occurrence of ductile regime grinding and also the transition of ductile to conventional brittle mode of material removal during grinding.