Ceramic materials machinability

Owing to the results of this research project, belt manufacturers will have the necessary information to modify their products to achieve better efficiency in the grinding of ceramic materials. Machine tools manufacturers could use the data to adapt their machines to the specific conditions of high-efficiency grinding of hard and brittle materials. 

Oxides are not the only technically important ceramic materials. Carbides (SiC, B4C, TiC) and nitrides (BN, AIN, TiN, Si3N4) are of prime importance as bonded components in advanced developments for the machine tool, microelectronics, aircraft, automobile and heat exchanger industries. 

B. Bhattacharyya, B.N. Doloi, S.K. Sorkhel Experimental investigations into electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) of non-conductive ceramic materials. Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999), p. 145. 

Thulium metal is soft, ductile, and malleable and can be cut with a knife. It tarnishes when in contact with air and reacts with water. Thuhum has very few commercial uses. Radioactive thulium can be utihzed as a power source for portable x-ray machines and is produced by irradiating the element in a nuclear reactor. Thulium may also be utihzed to make magnetic ceramic materials found in microwave equipment, see also Cleve, Per Theodore. 

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