Ultraprecision Smooth Surface Finishing with ELID-Iap Grinding using Metal-Resin Bonded Wheels

Abstract

As our society becomes increasingly information-oriented, various high-tech devices are developed to support its growth. As these high-tech devices become more and more advanced and compact in the recent years, the optical and electronic part, which make up these devices also need to be more accurate and smaller. These parts are commonly ground by loose abrasive lapping and polishing, but these methods have such disadvantages as wastewater processing problem, mechanical damages, wear by scatting abrasives, dirty workplace, and difficulty in using different grains on the same machine. For these reasons, new grinding methods are required as alternatives to the finishing method using loose abrasives. To answer to such needs, the authors have proposed a lap grinding method applying the electrically in-process dressing1) (ELID-lap grinding2)) and are carrying out studies to realize efficient and highly accurate machining. The latest bonding system which is composed of metal and resin was investigated for the ELID-lap grinding in order to improve the grinding quality by addition of the vibration absorbing function during grinding operation3). In this paper, Si which is typical material for X-ray mirror, was ground using metal-resin bonded wheels with different grain sizes, and the grinding characteristics were investigated.