Ultrasonic vibration assisted grinding of bio-ceramic materials: an experimental study on edge chippings with Hertzian indentation tests

Bio-ceramics are biocompatible ceramic materials that are widely used for biomedical engineering applications due to their excellent properties. Because of their inherent hardness and brittleness properties, bio-ceramics are difficult to machine. Abrasive machining such as diamond grinding is one of the most widely used machining for bio-ceramic materials. However, one of the key technical challenges resulted from grinding is edge chipping. The presence of edge chipping in a workpiece affects its dimensional accuracy, machining cost, and potential service time. It is, therefore, crucial to develop a new cost-effective manufacturing process relevant to control edge chipping in diamond grinding of bio-ceramics. In this paper, an ultrasonic vibration-assisted grinding (UVAG) system is developed to investigate the effect of ultrasonic vibration on edge chippings. Hertzian indentation tests are also conducted to validate the experimental results. Results reveal that edge chipping of bio-ceramic materials can be reduced significantly with the assistance of ultrasonic vibration. The results of this study can be applied to other manufacturing process when edge chippings of brittle materials are expected to be controlled.