Effects of electricity parameters on surface quality of reaction bonded silicon carbide ceramic with electrical discharge diamond grinding

With some conductivity and low grinding affectivity, a hybrid machining process termed electrical discharge diamond grinding (EDDG) is applied to the precision machining of reaction bonded silicon carbide (RB-SiC) ceramic. As there is electrical spark in the hybrid machining process, the electrical parameters are varied to explore their effects on the surface quality of RB-SiC ceramic with EDDG. In this paper, the experiments of different polarity and gap voltage with EEDG were investigated, and the microstructure and surface roughness on the machined surface of RB-SiC ceramic were analyzed. The surface morphology and micro-cracks were examined with a scanning electron microscope, and the surface roughness was measured with a confocal scanning laser microscope. It is found that surface roughness initially increases and then decreases with increase of the gap voltages and is higher with negative polarity than that with positive polarity. The micromorphology Micro-cracks were observed on the surface machined and are outstanding in re-solidified zone with EDDG.