Effective Machining of Fine Ceramics by Honing: Influence of Bonding Material of Diamond Stick on Honing Performance

Influence of the bonding material of a diamond stick is investigated on honing performance. Three kinds of synthetic diamond sticks are used, that is, a metal bonded stick, a resinoid one and a vitrified one. For the metal bonded stick its bending strength is changed to find out the suitable bonding strength. Workpieces are alumina Al2O3, silicon nitride Si3N4 and silicon carbide SiC, which are sintered under atmospheric pressure. The results are as follows. The metal bonded diamond stick is most suitable for the effective honing of these three ceramics. In this stick, there is an advisable value of bending strength σb to get high productivity, namely, 120-140 MPa for Al2O3 and 80-100 MPa for Si3N4 and SiC honing, and these are less than the ordinary value 200 MPa at metal honing. This comes from necessity of creating some new cutting edges in operating. Then, the diamond grain with high toughness is recommended. Using the vitrified bonded stick and the cubic boron nitride grain is not advisable.