Silicon carbide ceramic offers excellent resistance against corrosion, mechanical wear, thermal fatigue and is used e.g. for sliding bearings or seal rings in power plants. The high melting point and outstanding hardness represent a challenge regarding (micro-)surface structuring, e.g. to improve frictional behavior of sliding contacts. This results in high tool wear ratio, respectively, in thermal ablation technologies. Electrochemical machining with closed electrolytic free jet (Jet-ECM) represents a promising alternative, since mechanical properties of the material do not influence the removal result and surface structuring is possible without tool wear. However, solid state-sintered silicon carbide (SSiC) forms stable oxide layers and a wide range of passivity, which must be overcome to allow material removal. In this study, applicable processing parameters such as electrolytes and voltage were analyzed to generate calotte-shaped micro surface structures on an SSiC ceramic.
