Removal Behaviors of Different SiC Ceramics during Polishing

Comparative experiments were conducted to reveal the removal behaviors of three kinds of silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics during polishing and the effects of ceramic microstructure on the surface quality were also reported. Experimental results show that the second phase in SiC ceramics plays an important role in the surface quality when its size is large enough. The surface quality is enslaved to the formation of steps at interfaces between second phase and SiC matrix that results from different elastic modulus and hardness between two phases. Under 3 μm abrasive grains polishing condition, different SiC ceramics show different removal mechanisms. With decreasing abrasive grain size, all of different SiC ceramics exhibit a ductile removal mode, which decreases surface roughness efficiently.