An Experimental Study on the Ultrasonic Machining Characteristics of Engineering Ceramics

Engineering ceramics have many unique characteristics both in mechanical and physical properties such as high temperature hardness, high thermal, chemical and electrical resistance. However, its machinability is very poor in conventional machining due to its high hardness and severe tool wear. In the current experimental study, alumina $(Al_2O_3)$ was ultrasonically machined using SiC abrasives under various machining conditions to investigate the material removal rate and surface quality of the machined samples. Under the applied amplitude of 0.02mm, 27kHz frequency, three slurry ratios of 1:1, 1:3 and 1:5 with different tool shapes and applied static pressure levels, the machining was conducted. Using the mesh number of 240 abrasive, slurry ratio of 1:1 and static pressure of $2.5kg/cm^2$, maximum material removal rate of $18.97mm^3/min$ was achieved. With mesh number of 600 SiC abrasives and static pressure of $3.0kg/cm^2$, best surface roughness of $0.76{\mu}m$ Ra was obtained.