An investigation on wear mechanism of resin-bonded diamond wheel in Elliptical Ultrasonic Assisted Grinding (EUAG) of monocrystal sapphire

An investigation is carried out to analyze and quantify the wear mechanisms of resin-bonded diamond wheel in Elliptical Ultrasonic Assisted Grinding (EUAG) of monocrystal sapphire. The EUAG is a new grinding method proposed by the present authors in which an elliptical ultrasonic vibration is imposed on the workpiece by using an elliptical ultrasonic vibrator. In this paper, a series of grinding experiments under the presence/absence of ultrasonic vibration assistance are performed. The grinding forces and work-surface roughness are measured, and the wheel surface is examined too. The experimental results indicate that during grinding, the steady process region performed in EUAG is longer than that in Conventional Grinding (CG) by 20%, meaning that the grinding wheel has a longer sharp cutting period in EUAG. It is validated that the main wear mechanisms in EUAG is micro-fracture and cleavage of abrasive grains, which has a positive effect on the better grinding performance, such as lower grinding forces, force ratio Fn/Ft, wheel loading, and smoother work-surface. This study demonstrates that the improved grinding performance of diamond wheel can be realized by using EUAG method.