Study on the effect of ultrasonic-assisted grinding process on the surface roughness of microcrystalline glass

The high brittleness and hardness of microcrystalline glass can lead to chipping and cracking during the grinding process, which affects its performance and lifetime. In this paper, an experimental study on ultrasonic-assisted grinding of microcrystalline glass was conducted to investigate the influence of the process parameters (spindle speed, grinding depth and feed rate) and the difference of sintered grinding head grit number on the surface roughness and surface topography of microcrystalline glass. The results showed that ultrasonic grinding significantly reduced the surface roughness values of microcrystalline glass by 2.03% to 36.03% in the studied spindle speed section, 9.76% to 17.99% in the grinding depth section, and 6.98% to 36.23% in the feed rate section; compared with non-supersonic grinding, ultrasonic grinding was more effective in improving the surface roughness of microcrystalline glass under the conditions of smaller spindle speed, grinding depth and feed rate. The surface roughness of microcrystalline glass was improved by ultrasonic grinding with smaller spindle speed, grinding depth and feed rate.