New systematic and time-saving procedure to design cup grinding wheels for the application of ultrasonic-assisted grinding

Abstract

Since glass and ceramic materials have beneficial properties, they have gained more importance in numerous technical applications during the last 30 years. For example, nowadays, ceramics are used as artificial hip joints or as mechanical seals for highest relative speeds. Glass components are used for multitude of optical applications like cameras and reflectors. But besides a lot of advantages, the processing of these materials is very difficult. In particular, this contains the manufacturing of small components like microreactor plates or glass wafers with hundreds of small holes, too. Using ultrasonic-assisted grinding, the treatment can significantly be optimized and higher removal rates can be realized. For the generation of ultrasonic waves, often piezoactors are used that excite the grinding tools with vibrations of 20 kHz and amplitudes of a few microns (Markov 1966; Kuttruff 1988). Using an ultrasonic wave, the tool geometry is strongly restricted to guarantee the hybrid functionality (Siegert 2002; Dawe Instruments Ltd. 1967; Derks 1984). The paper describes a new way to calculate the design of tools suitable for their use in ultrasonic-assisted grinding. As a machining process, the manufacturing of spherical optics with cup-grinding wheels is selected.