Small-hole machining of ceramic material with electrolytic interval-dressing (ELID-II) grinding

Abstract Small-hole machining of advanced ceramics is highly demanded in many industrial fields, although some problems still have to be solved. In this paper, a new kind of small-hole machining technique is presented, which takes advantage of sintered metal bond diamond wheel and incorporates micro-electric discharge truing and electrolytic interval-dressing. Some experiments on the small-hole machining of Al 2 O 3 material have been conducted with cobalt–cast iron compound bond and cast iron bond wheels. The electrical behavior in pre-dressing, and the influences of the electrical parameters on the wheel surface structure and force characteristics of the hole machining of Al 2 O 3 workpieces with ELID-II grinding have been investigated in detail. In addition, the influences of grinding fluids and wheel shape on the force characteristic have also been analyzed. The experimental results show that the new method can realize a stable grinding process even with fine abrasive wheels of #325 or #500 and it has the potential to produce micro-diameter and high-quality holes of various hard and brittle materials.