Electrochemical-discharge-assisted grinding of rotating quartz glass surfaces regulated by a thin electrolyte film

Jia-Long Chen; Hao Tong; Yong Li; Yu-Jie Liu

doi:10.1007/s40436-026-00628-6

Advances in Manufacturing ›› :1 -15. DOI: 10.1007/s40436-026-00628-6

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research-article

Electrochemical-discharge-assisted grinding of rotating quartz glass surfaces regulated by a thin electrolyte film

Jia-Long Chen ¹^,²
, Hao Tong ¹^,²^,^a
, Yong Li ¹^,²
, Yu-Jie Liu ¹^,³

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¹State Key Laboratory of Tribology in Advanced Equipment, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

²Beijing Key Laboratory of Transformative High-end Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

³Zhejiang Development & Planning Institute, 310030, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China

^a tony807436@163.com

Jia-Long Chen

Jia-Long Chen is a Ph.D. student in Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University. His research focuses on electrochemical-discharge-assisted grinding of quartz glass.

Hao Tong

Hao Tong is an associate professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University. He received his M.S. from Yanshan University in 2004 and Ph.D. from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2008. His research interests include multi-energy-field hybrid machining, microelectrical discharge machining, and electrochemical discharge machining.

Yong Li

Yong Li is a professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in 1982, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Precision Engineering from Niigata University, Japan, in 1987 and 1991, respectively. His research interests include microelectrical discharge machining, micro electrochemical machining, ultraprecision machining, and multi-energy-field hybrid machining.

Yu-Jie Liu

Yu-Jie Liu is a postdoctoral fellow in a joint position between Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University and Zhejiang Development & Planning Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2024. His research interests include the diamond tool turning process and the residual droplet surface finishing process of quartz glass.

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Abstract

Quartz glass is widely used in semiconductors, optics, and inertial navigation owing to its superior properties. However, conventional grinding of quartz glass causes surface and subsurface damage (SSD) owing to brittle fracture removal. The hybrid process of electrochemical-discharge-assisted grinding (ECDAG) employs high temperatures from discharges and chemical reactions to soften quartz glass, enabling a plastic removal mode for improved quality and efficiency. Formation of a thin electrolyte film on the workpiece surface is essential for ECDAG. However, the existing methods for film formation are not directly applicable to ECDAG on rotary surfaces. Furthermore, the effect of film thickness on the coupling of the discharge-grinding energy is unclear in ECDAG. In this study, a novel method for forming a thin film by immersing and rotating a quartz workpiece in an electrolyte was proposed to achieve simultaneous electrochemical discharge and grinding. The influence of the workpiece rotation speed and immersion depth on the film thickness was investigated through theoretical analysis and experiments. The matching of the discharge-grinding energy was analyzed by considering the key factor of workpiece rotation speed. Comparative experiments showed that the plastic removal of the material could be achieved by ECDAG under an electrolyte film thickness of 6−15 μm, resulting in a reduction of surface roughness by 86.2% to 0.214 μm, a greater machined groove depth, and decreased subsurface damage compared with that achieved by conventional grinding.

Keywords

Electrochemical-discharge-assisted grinding (ECDAG) / Thin electrolyte films / Quartz glass / Plastic domain grinding

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Jia-Long Chen, Hao Tong, Yong Li, Yu-Jie Liu. Electrochemical-discharge-assisted grinding of rotating quartz glass surfaces regulated by a thin electrolyte film. Advances in Manufacturing 1-15 DOI:10.1007/s40436-026-00628-6

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