Investigation of the surface integrity, flexural strength on the grinding of alumina for biomedical applications

This paper presents the analytical and experimental investigations on different factors such as surface integrity, flexural strength and grinding energy and cost of Alumina through the use of various diamond grinding wheels. For obtaining the analytical model for single-grit grinding, the effect of strain rate and grinding temperature are also included in the formulation. Moreover, the experimental tests are conducted with four different diamond grinding wheels to grind Alumina blocks. The applied force during grinding is measured. Then, the other important parameters, including surface roughness, wheel wear, and grinding cost are analyzed. According to the obtained results, a good agreement between the experimental and analytical results were achieved in all cases. Furthermore, it was found that controlling the grinding condition would be resulted in 11% reduction in the subsurface damages (SSD) according to the images of Scanning electron microscope (SEM) results at the distance of 150 μm under the ground surface. A converging improvement trend of the surface integrity and flexural strength was also observed. Also, approximately 29% improvement was attained for the flexural strength in optimum condition. In addition, the optimal condition for grinding was determined, in which 66% decrease in surface roughness and 75% decrease in grinding cost were accomplished.