Precision Grinding and Slicing of Glass-Like-Carbon

High density and isotropic poreless structure of Glass-like-carbon makes it practically used for fuel cells of space-shuttles and hard disk substrate etc. Glass-like-carbon is one of the new materials which attract attention, but it is so hard and brittle that precise machining of this material is difficult. Surface grinding and slicing were performed to collect the fundamental data of precise machining. The main results obtained in this study are as follows. (1) The transition from brittle mode to ductile mode in surface grinding occurs at a grain mesh size between #5000 and #3000. (2) The maximum grain depth of cut ‘dg’ necessary for ductile mode grinding is 0.021-0.006 mm or less. (3) When it is being sliced, the kerf width of the #1000 grinding wheel becomes wider than that of the #2000 grinding wheel because of the fact that the material removal capability of the #1000 grinding wheel is bigger than that of the #2000 grinding wheel. (4) It is extremely effective to use the fine grinding wheel, since the Young's modulus of glass-like-carbon is considerably low and eventually causes compression transformation,.