N. Arunachalam

Study on grinding of pre-sintered zirconia using diamond wheel

ABSTRACT Zirconia-based ceramics are the most preferred materials used in implants due to their excellent mechanical properties compared with other alternatives. These materials available in the pre-sintered form are appropriate to grind due to their soft nature. However, it is challenging to achieve a required surface finish in grinding these ceramic materials owing to chipping, which limits its usage in industries. In this work, the pre-sintered yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia (Y-TZP) component was ground using a resin-bonded diamond-grinding wheel under different cooling environments. The components ground under the minimum quantity lubrication conditions exhibited a reduced grinding force with better surface finish compared to wet (flood coolant) and dry conditions. The resultant specific energy was reduced with the increase in maximum chip thickness for different cooling conditions. The critical depth of cut estimated from the pre-sintered zirconia was witnessed to be higher, which indicated that the initiation of ductile to brittle transition occurred at a deeper depth of cut. The material removal mechanism observed in the pre-sintered zirconia was dominated by brittle fracture. This was evident from the obtained chips and ground surface morphology.

Effect of grinding on subsurface modifications of pre-sintered zirconia under different cooling and lubrication conditions

Pre-sintered zirconia is preferred as a restoration material in dental applications due to its excellent strength and fracture toughness. When abrasive processes were used to obtain the required shape of (Y-TZP) yttria-stabilized tetragonal pre-sintered zirconia, it resulted in material strength degradation in the presence of coolant. Therefore, experiments were carried out on pre-sintered zirconia with diamond grinding wheel to evaluate the performance of cooling conditions such as dry, wet and minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). The effects of different environments on the grinding performance were studied based on the temperature distribution, phase transformation, flexural strength, microhardness and edge chipping damage. The Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis were used to estimate the quantity of monoclinic phase in pre-sintered zirconia. The temperature rise of the workpiece material during the grinding experiment was not higher and insufficient to cause the thermal stresses. The microstructural changes induced by grinding under different cooling strategies were associated with the quantitative assessment of monoclinic phase. The flexural strength of ground components was improved in the dry condition compared to the other process due to the absence of the defective layer and the occurrence of Y3+ ions segregation. After grinding, there was a slight decrease in the hardness value by (1-8 HV), which was due to the formation of microcracks in the subsurface layer of the ground surface. In addition, to ensure the presence of microcracks, the edge chipping depth was measured. The damage depth obtained from the wet condition showed a higher value of 30 µm compared to the dry and MQL conditions.