In-process estimation of fracture surface morphology during wheel scribing of a glass sheet by high-speed photoelastic observation

Defect-free glass separation techniques are in strong demand in glass processing industries. In this study, we intended to observe the internal stress field during/after wheel scribing of a glass sheet using the photoelastic method. First, we visualized the crack propagation behavior in a 0.7-mm-thick non-alkali glass sheet during mechanical scribing with a 2.0-mm-diameter serrated diamond wheel using high-speed imaging techniques. The observation results under various applied load conditions showed that the crack propagation behavior changed dramatically at a load of approximately 9-10 N; the generated crack hardly propagated in the thickness direction under lower load conditions, in contrast to the rapid propagation under higher load conditions. The fracture surface morphology that was observed after cleavage also changed, from damaged to defect-free surfaces with increments in the applied load around the transition point (9-10 N). This result indicated that the fracture surface morphology was determined by the crack propagation behavior. Second, the birefringence phase difference was measured from the upper side of the glass sheet to enable understanding of the stress fields induced by scribing wheel indentations. As a result, the phase differences that were distributed along the scribe line were shown to differ depending on the applied loads; the phase difference changed little under lower load conditions, but vanished immediately under higher load conditions. Therefore, these differences were dependent on whether or not rapid crack propagation occurred. The measured phase difference distribution thus included information about the crack propagation behavior, and this information could be used as a criterion for estimation of the fracture surface morphology. An in-process estimation method for the fracture surface morphology during mechanical wheel scribing was therefore developed based on high-speed polarization imaging techniques.