Surface integrity and modification of electro-discharge machined alumina-based ceramic composite

Increasingly more applications require ceramic parts or components with good surface integrity. This paper attempts to study the surface integrity of electro-discharge machined engineering ceramics and their surface modification by ultrasonic polishing. Flexural strength is used for evaluating the effect of the two machining processes on the surfaces of the machined specimens. The distributions of the strength data are further analyzed by the Weibull statistical method to give quantitative measures of the surface integrity of the machined specimens.