Material-based basic investigations to extend the understanding of the erodibility of electrically conductive ceramics with an oxide matrix

 

Due to their good mechanical properties - in particular hardness and wear resistance - structural ceramics are used in a variety of applications such as mechanical engineering and medical technology. Due to these mechanical properties, machining with conventional manufacturing processes is complex and requires near-net-shape blanks.

EDM machining makes it possible to produce ceramics with high precision, but requires electrically conductive ceramics. The process established in metalworking has so far not been sufficiently understood for ceramic processing. In the project applied for, two material systems with an oxide matrix and conductive carbide dispersion will be used to investigate the extent to which the erodibility as well as the surface and component properties can be derived from their microstructure and material composition. The composition of the materials will be systematically varied to determine the interactions with the parameters of the machining process. For this purpose, the materials are characterized with special attention to the process zones created by the machining process and the machine data are recorded in addition. The correlations found in the multidimensional parameter space spanned in this way are analysed and serve as output variables for the creation of a model. The aim is to achieve a model-like description of the spark erosion process of ceramics by understanding the ablation mechanisms.

The basic knowledge gained serves the industrial environment as a basis both for application- and process-specific ceramic production and for a structured technology design for spark erosion machining. For this purpose, the present proposal bundles the materials science and manufacturing expertise of the two project partners in the field of ceramics.