Research on the surface characteristics in ultrasonic grinding nano-zirconia ceramics

Nano-ceramics possesses ascendant mechanical property and physical characteristics contrast with traditional engineering ceramics, and its machining with ultrasonic assistance has been considered as one of the most efficient methods. In the present paper a novel ultrasonic grinding vibration device has been designed and the theoretical models of surface roughness was created for ultrasonic vibration grinding. The influences of grinding parameters on surface roughness were tested. According to the experimental data and AFM pictures, the microsurface characteristics and the critical ductile depth of cut with/without ultrasonic assistance was analyzed. It has been discovered that the critical ductile depth of cut is larger than that in common grinding and than that of traditional ZrO2 engineering ceramics. The experimental results showed that machining nano-ZrO2 ceramics with ultrasonic assistance by nano-class scale is feasible.