SURFACE FINISHING PROCESS USING DIRECTIONALLY ALIGNED SIC WHISKER LAP

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Fixed abrasives have been applied for the lapping of hard and brittle materials, such as ceramic, silicon wafer and glass, in order to perform the process automatically at a high production rate.In a previous work, the authors developed a SiC whisker grinding wheel with its whiskers aligned normally to the grinding surface. The SiC whisker wheel is characterized by highperformance ultra precision grinding because of the high aspect ratio of whisker, which is 0.3-1 mu m in diameter and 30-50 mu m in length. The authors have studied the abrasive characteristics of this wheel.In this work, a fixed abrasive lap of aligned SiC whisker was prepared, and its lapping performance was investigated. Moreover, an in-process cleaner was used to suppress the problems of loading and scratching involved in fixed abrasive lapping. The effectiveness of the cleaner in lapping process was examined with a SiC whisker lap.Lapping using a SiC whisker unidirectionally aligned lap was examined. The following conclusions were obtained :(1) The effects of lapping load and speed were clarified. A low load decreases the lapping efficiency but a better surface finish is obtained. A higher speed slightly improves the surface finish.(2) In-process lap cleaning improved the lapping efficiency. Cleaner was found to be remarkably effective for glass and silicon wafer but not for hardened die steel lapping.(3) The best surface finish was produced with a surface roughness of 18 nmRmax when using the cleaner in lapping the hardened die ateel.