Material removal behavior in ultrasonic-assisted scratching of SiC ceramics with a single diamond tool

• The intermittent and continuous scratching modes occur in UAS.
• Cutting ability of the tool was significantly improved by the assistance of the ultrasonic vibration.
• Critical depth of cut is increased by 56.25% once ultrasonic vibration is applied.
• The impact and cutting action at the tool tip on the machining surface are the main factors contributing to the material removal.

Ultrasonic-assisted grinding (UAG) has been extensively employed in manufacturing industries for processing hard and brittle materials. However, its potential has not been sufficiently developed because the material removal mechanism in UAG has not been elucidated. This paper focuses on the material removal mechanism in the UAG of silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics by investigating the material removal behaviors in ultrasonic-assisted scratching (UAS) of SiC ceramics. The UAS test was conducted on an NC (Numerical Control) surface grinder connected to a self-designed ultrasonic unit; a single diamond tool was fixed onto the end-face of the ultrasonic unit to achieve an ultrasonic vibration (UV). Conventional scratching (CS) test was also carried out on the same experimental rig but without UV for comparison. During testing, the material deformation/fracture behavior and the scratching forces were investigated. The experimental results show that (1) there are two scratching modes in the UAS process depending on actual depth of cut: an intermittent mode and a continuous mode; (2) the mean groove depth in UAS is much bigger than that in CS, indicating that the cutting ability of the tool was significantly improved by the assistance of the UV; (3) the critical depth of cut is increased by 56.25% once UV is applied; the stiffness of the experiment setup is improved in the UAS compared to CS; the UV in y-direction strongly contributes to the material removal, whereas the UV in z-direction only results in variation of the cutting trace and hardly contributes to the material removal in the UAS process; (4) in UAS, the scratching forces sinusoidally fluctuate with the same period as that of the UV of the tool when the material removal is in ductile mode, when the material removal is in brittle mode, the forces heavily vary but the period is different from that of the UV of the tool; (5) the cutting efficiency of the tool is improved by the assistance of the UV. The impact and cutting action at the tool tip on the machining surface are the main factors contributing to the material removal. The observed features were rationalized by analyzing kinematic characteristics of the tool and material removal mechanism in UAS. This study confirms that UAG is a highly effective processing method for machining hard and brittle materials.