Abstract
This study determines the selection of an appropriate jig material for the blade edge of the medical sapphire knife. The physical properties of the jig material affects the edge shape and chipping phenomenon in machining of the medical sapphire knife. If a grinding wheel is used, brittle workpieces such as sapphire are easily damaged by the propagation of cracks because the grinding force significantly increases. It is important to constantly maintain the grinding force in the grinding process of the brittle materials. The grinding force can be kept constantly by inducing the elastic deformation of the Jig material because the elastic deformation of brittle work-piece is negligibly low. The chipping phenomenon may be reduced by selecting the proper Jig material. Aluminum, copper, stainless steels and carbon steel were used as Jig materials. The experiment was conducted using a cast iron grinding wheel, which was installed on a conventional grinding machine with the ELID grinding system. The thickness and width of the chipping area were measured using an optical microscope and FE-SEM to analyze the shape of the blade edge. According to the experiment result, the chipping phenomenon decreased, and the sharp edge was formed when the jig materials with low elastic modulus were used.
