Planar sapphire grinding investigations on a CNC lever machine

The material sapphire is becoming increasingly important in many technical applications. Due to its high hardness, however, high-quality and efficient mechanical processing of the material poses major challenges. Investigations into planar machining with resin-bonded diamond tools on a CNC lever machine setup are presented. The achievable removal rates are shown to be highly dependent on the tool grain size and are adjustable by the grinding parameters in certain ranges. Minimal roughness Rq≈0.15 µm is achievable with fine D28 grain.