Grinding is widely used as a productive technique for finishing ceramic components in the manufacturing industry. However, it is still difficult to achieve a satisfying finishing quality for scarce of comprehensive engineering investigations of damage-free and economical techniques of advanced ceramics. This paper will utilize a high speed grinder to develop the grinding forces, temperature, grinding surface and subsurface features in high speed plunge grinding of SiC. The ductile grinding of SiC under a relatively high grinding speed will be investigated. A set of detecting equipment, including a rotating dynamometer and a grindable thermocouple, will be used to measure the online grinding forces and temperature. Besides, the subsurface damage, chips and ground surface will be examined by SEM micrographs. It has been found that ductile grinding of SiC can be achieved through a combination of the increase of the wheel speed and the control of grinding parameters. Via causing lower force and thermal effects, the critical value for ductile grinding of SiC can be greatly improved under high speed grinding comparing to conventional speed grinding. Moreover, the grinding subsurface integrity will not be adversely effected though improving material removal volumes under high speed grinding.

Keywords: High speed grinding (HSG), Silicon carbide, Grinding characteristics, Ductile grinding.