Lapping Characteristics of Forsterite with Diamond Abrasives

As a part of precision finishing of ceramics for circuit components, forsterite is lapped with 6-12μ diamond abrasives using a rotary disc type lapping tester concerning lapping quantity, lapping force and surface roughness with discussions on lapping mechanism from abrasive numbers acting simultaneously and scratching force. The results obtained are as follows : (1) The influence of lapping speed is greater on lapping quantity and surface roughness than that of lapping pressure, leading to the smaller effect of depth of cut in abrasive grains. (2) Numbers of abrasives acting simultaneously are calculated as about 1/500-1/1000 of those of ideally distributed ones. (3) Lapping force is derived from the sum of scratching and ploughing forces as 73-280g, which is considerably approximate to the empirical one.