A New Grinding Method for Ceramics Using a Biaxially Vibrated Nonrotational Ultrasonic Tool

Summary A new method for grinding ceramics and hard materials by using a non-rotational tool has been developed. In the method a fixed abrasive type grinding tool is vibrated by a complex ultrasonic transducer longitudinally and torsionally at the same time. Experiments showed that the complex ultrasonic vibration keeps grinding force low and stable for a long time in grinding hard ceramics even without rotating the tool. When a diamond grinding tool with a square or triangular bottom is used, this method has a great effect on producing cavities with sharp inner corners of almost zero radius on various hard-to-machine materials.