Chemical-assisted Ultrasonic Machining of Glass by Using HF Substitute Solution

Ultrasonic machining has been known as one of the conventional machining methods in the glass fabrication processes. In ultrasonic machining, typically, glass is removed by the impulse energy of the abrasive generated by the ultrasonic power. However, when the machining feature decrease under hundreds of micrometers, as conventional ultrasonic machining uses only the impulse energy of the abrasive, the speed of ultrasonic machining decreases significantly and the surface roughness becomes deteriorated. To overcome this size effect, the chemicals which can erode glasses, such as HF, XF, etc, are added to the slurry. The chemical-assisted ultrasonic machining method, so called, is another alternating effective way for micro machining of glasses. In previous work, we used the hydrofluoric acid (HF) as an additive chemical. But, as the HF solution is too poisonous to be used as a ultrasonic process additive, it is needed to be substituted by other safe chemicals. As results of the machinability comparison of several chemicals, the GST-500F was selected to replace the HF. The GST-500F (pH $4.0{\pm}1.0$) is non-volatile, odorless. During experimental works, it was shown that the machining rate increases 1.5 times faster than the conventional ultrasonic machining. The machining load also decreases. However, the enlargement of the hole diameter and significant tool wear are still the problems to be solved.

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