Advances in Ultrasonic Assisted Grinding of Ceramic Materials

The competitiveness of component parts made of advanced ceramics results almost exclusively from the properties of the material in use. However, it is restricted by the constantly high costs of part manufacture especially in the finishing stage. The results of recent investigations being presented in this paper demonstrate an increase in productivity of material removal via the application of the innovative technology of ultrasonic assisted grinding. During the manufacture of through holes or grooves in ceramic materials such as Al2O3, Zr2O, SSN and SiC this process is characterized by significant less process forces and lower process temperatures in comparison with conventional grinding processes. In order to deepen the process knowledge of this modified grinding process two different simulation tools have been introduced. A voxel-based approach for modeling of the material removal as well as CFD-simulation of the unique cooling lubricant flow conditions proved their capability as an optimization tool.