Influence of Alkaline Slurry on the Processing Performance of Fluid Jet Polishing

摘要

The slurry of fluid jet polishing mainly consists of deionized water and abrasives. Material removal is mostly regarded as plastic removal by the strike of the abrasives on the workpiece surface. Since jet pressure is relatively low, which result in a low material removal rate and bring a limitation of applying to this processing method. To improve the material removal rate of glass (Fused Silica, UBK7, K9, etc.), alkaline slurry was used to enhance chemical effects during polishing. Firstly, the material removal of conventional neutral slurry (pH≈7) and the new alkaline slurry (pH≈10, 11, 12, 13) were compared and the results showed that alkaline slurry brought an obvious increase in material removal rate. Then, four kinds of slurry of different alkalinity (pH≈10, 11, 12, 13) were used in polishing experiments to make clear the influence of alkaline intensity on the material removal rate. It was found that a larger material removal rate would be obtained with a higher pH slurry. Finally, the surface roughness which were made by slurry with different alkalinity were also compared, the results reached as that slurry with higher pH could bring lower surface roughness. It could be drawn from this study that enhance the chemical effects in fluid jet polishing could be an effective way to enlarge the material removal rate and improve the processing performance.