Ceramic Balls Machining by Centerless Grinding Using a Surface Grinder

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel method for machining ceramic balls by centerless grinding technique performed on a surface grinder. In this method, a compact unit consisting mainly of an ultrasonic shoe, an ultrasonic regulator, a relay controller, a blade, a stopper and their respective holders is installed on the worktable of a surface grinder to conduct centerless grinding operations of ceramic balls. The ultrasonic shoe and regulator are produced by bonding a piezoelectric ceramic device (PZT) onto a metal elastic body, and when two phases of AC voltage are applied to the PZT an elliptic motion occurs on their end-faces which can be used to control the ball rotational motion in the radial and axial direction of the wheel, respectively. The function of the relay controller is to regulate the alternating current “on” and “off” time which is applied on the regulator for achieving the whole spherical surface grinding process. A grinding unit was actually constructed and it was experimentally confirmed that the ball rotational speed can be controlled well by the shoe or regulator. Grinding tests were subsequently carried out and the obtained results indicated that the constructed grinding unit performed well on actual ball centerless grinding operations.