Influence of the material properties on the honing of ceramics

Thanks to the excellent combination of a wear-resistant material with a machining method for the production of tribologically favorable surface topographies, honing is of special importance for the machining of ceramics. The following article presents test results obtained with alumina, zirconia and sintered silicon-nitride in order to determine the fundamental relations between honing conditions, material properties and honing result. As the results show, a material-depending value of the normal force at each diamond cutting grain has to be exceeded. Apart from the machining parameters and tool specifications the scattering of material properties within the material groups has a strong influence on the material properties. In order to examine the influence of the material properties on honing, eight alumina specifications were examined. As the investigations show, the size of alumina-grains determines the transition from transcrystalline to intercrystalline material removal mechanisms . In order to describe the honing process a model was developed in which the material removal is traced back to the conditions at each diamond grain. The model allows to explain the dependence of the material removal rate on the tool specification and the stone pressure as well as to adjust the honing parameters for unknown alumina based on some basic experiments.