Surface generation mechanism of the rotary ultrasonic vibration–assisted grinding of aspheric glass ceramics

A serious challenge faced by manufacturers of large-aperture aspheric optical components of glass ceramics is the long processing time. Ultrasonic vibration–assisted grinding (UVG) allows one to effectively shorten the subsequent polishing process by several times, which is essential for grinding of aspheric components. However, the surface creation mechanism of UVG-treated glass ceramics is rarely studied. Herein, rotary ultrasonic vibration–assisted vertical grinding (RUVG) and parallel grinding (RUPG) are applied to polish the aspheric glass ceramics. Particular attention is paid to the surface formation mechanism of UVG-processed ceramics. The single-grain kinematic functions are created and the contact characteristics between the grinding wheel and aspheric surface are analyzed for the two UVG methods in terms of contact area, velocity, and trajectory. In addition, aspheric grinding texture is simulated and comparative experiments are conducted correspondingly. According to the results, the rotary ultrasonic vibration mainly influences the microscopic grinding marks. Besides, the aspheric surface form accuracy of Pt and RMS value in RUVG is 2.16 and 3.71 times lower than those in RUPG, respectively, whereas the surface roughness–related parameters (mean deviation Sa and maximum height of profile Sz) in RUVG are 6.36% and 4.56% higher than those in RUPG. This indicates that RUVG is more suitable for high precision and efficiency grinding of the aspheric surface than RUPG due to the fact that the polishing depth is primarily determined by surface form accuracy rather than surface roughness. Thus, the current research enables an in-depth understanding of surface generation mechanism in rotary ultrasonic vibration–assisted grinding, pointing out its benefits in the high-efficiency aspheric surface manufacturing.