Study on subsurface damage and surface quality of silicon carbide ceramic induced by a novel non-resonant vibration-assisted roll-type polishing

Subsurface damage (SSD) and surface roughness (SR) induced by the finishing process significantly influence the industrial and technological application of optical components. In this paper, a novel non-resonant vibration-assisted roll-type polishing (NVRP) was presented to process the silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic workpiece. The feasibility of the two-dimensional vibration-assisted processing device (2D-VPD) was verified, and the predicted value of SSD was modelled. Besides, the surface deformation and SSD during the polishing process of the SiC workpiece were discussed by numerical simulation. To experimentally verify the proposed polishing method, a set of contrast experiments were conducted on SiC samples to evaluate the effects of different processing conditions on SR and SSD quantitatively. The experimental results further demonstrated a good consistency with the theoretical values in terms of SSD depth, considering the rotational angle of the grain and polishing depth. Also, relatively lower subsurface/surface damages and good surface uniformity were achieved through combining non-resonant vibration-assisted technology and roll-type polishing system. Finally, the comparative experiment of the material removal rate (MRR) between NVRP and non-vibration roll-type polishing (NRP) is conducted.