EFFICIENT GRINDING OF CE-TZP WITH SIC WHEELS

Transformation toughened zirconia has been widely studied. Most of the reports on zirconia deal only with the transformation behaviour in various environments. However, for the effective use of any ceramic, information on processing is essential. In spite of stabilized zirconia being an important material for various technical applications, details on how it can be processed by grinding is lacking. The present paper reports on the grindability of ceria-stabilized zirconia with various grinding wheels. Based on the grinding forces, specific grinding energies, phase structure and grinding induced surface cracks, it is shown that SiC grinding wheels can grind Ce-TZP efficiently.