Surface quality and residual stress variation of ceramics after abrasive grinding under pre-compressive stress

Abstract

Grinding surface quality and residual stress of Al2O3 and ZrO2 ceramics were investigated after grinding under pre-compressive stress. The damage induced by abrasive grinding on the Al2O3 and ZrO2 ceramics surface was decreased using a pre-compressive stress grinding method. Pre-compressive stress on ceramics was applied by a custom-made compressive stress loader before abrasive grinding. The surface quality of both the Al2O3 and ZrO2 ceramics was improved after pre-compressive stress grinding. However, the surface roughness of ZrO2 was lower than that of Al2O3 under the same grinding parameters. Surface residual stress variation is found to be related to both grinding depth and pre-compressive stress. After abrasive grinding with pre-compressive stress, the surface residual stress tended to be compressive. Furthermore, in both Al2O3 and ZrO2 ceramics, the residual compressive stress was higher at a grinding depth of 30 μm under the same grinding parameters.