High-efficiency Chemical Mechanical Polishing of Stainless Bearing Steel with the Highly-dispersed Al2O3 Abrasive Slurry

TIAN Yiming; PENG Wumao; WANG Rongpei; LI Xinzhu; LI Xin; SHI Zhikang; ZHANG Shaohua; JIANG Liang; QIAN Linmao

doi:10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2025.16.010

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Surface Technology ›› 2025, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (16) : 121-130. DOI: 10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2025.16.010

High-efficiency Chemical Mechanical Polishing of Stainless Bearing Steel with the Highly-dispersed Al₂O₃ Abrasive Slurry

TIAN Yiming¹, PENG Wumao¹, WANG Rongpei¹, LI Xinzhu¹, LI Xin¹, SHI Zhikang¹, ZHANG Shaohua^2,*, JIANG Liang^1,*, QIAN Linmao¹

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Abstract

High-performance rolling bearings are fundamental mechanical components widely used in high-end equipment across aerospace, rail transportation, and precision manufacturing fields. In aerospace applications, improving the surface quality and reducing the surface roughness of bearings can enhance the bearing lifespan and ensure the high precision, longevity, and reliability of space moving parts. Stainless bearing steel, such as 9Cr18Mo, is commonly used to manufacture bearings in space moving parts. Currently, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) technology is increasingly applied in the ultra-precision processing of the stainless bearing steel. SiO₂ abrasives can achieve good surface quality and the material removal rate (MRR) is relatively low, indicating a need for further improvements in CMP efficiency. To address this, the work aims to introduce high-hardness Al₂O₃ abrasives to enhance mechanical action, along with hydrogen peroxide and oxalic acid to boost corrosion, particularly of chromium, so as to improve the CMP efficiency of 9Cr18Mo stainless bearing steel. Firstly, after extensive screening, sodium polyacrylate was selected as the dispersant for Al₂O₃ abrasives. The prepared Al₂O₃ abrasive suspension was characterized with a turbidity meter, a nanoparticle size and Zeta potential meter, and transmission electron microscopy. Subsequently, CMP experiments were conducted on 9Cr18Mo stainless bearing steel and an optical 3D surface profiler was utilized to measure the surface three-dimensional topography and the surface roughness of the polished samples. Scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to characterize the surface morphology and composition of the polished samples. The viscosity of the CMP slurry was measured with a rheometer. Experimental results indicated that adding 0.06wt.% to 0.1wt.% sodium polyacrylate to the 1wt.% Al₂O₃ abrasive suspension achieved excellent dispersibility, maintaining the turbidity parameter ƞ_Turbidity within ±5% and the Zeta potential between -40 mV and -50 mV. The dispersion mechanism was described as follows: adding an appropriate concentration of sodium polyacrylate enhanced electrostatic repulsion and steric hindrance between Al₂O₃ abrasives, achieving excellent dispersibility. Polishing 9Cr18Mo stainless bearing steel with the slurry containing highly dispersed Al₂O₃ abrasives, hydrogen peroxide of different concentrations, and oxalic acid showed that the MRR initially increased and then decreased with the increasing hydrogen peroxide concentration. With 0.2wt.% hydrogen peroxide, the maximum MRR reached 573 nm/min, which was 4.3 times that of the SiO₂ abrasive slurry. The surface roughness S_a was 6.2 nm, and the surface was relatively smooth with no significant height difference between iron and chromium regions. The Al₂O₃ abrasive slurry could be used for rough polishing of 9Cr18Mo stainless bearing steel, in conjunction with the SiO₂ abrasive slurry for fine polishing, ensuring the overall high efficiency of the entire polishing process. The polished sample surface primarily consisted of divalent iron oxides, trivalent iron oxides, and trivalent chromium oxides. The high-efficiency polishing mechanism of the highly-dispersed Al₂O₃ abrasive slurry was described as follows: on one hand, Al₂O₃ abrasives had sharp cutting edges and high hardness. Under the synergistic effect of hydrogen peroxide and oxalic acid, the sample surface film was relatively fragile, and thus the cutting depth of the Al₂O₃ abrasives was significant, even allowing a small number of cutting edges to penetrate the surface film and cut into the substrate. On the other hand, Al₂O₃ abrasives possessed multiple cutting edges, enabling simultaneous material removal along various cutting paths. The findings of this study can provide a high-efficiency polishing method for the ultra-precision processing of iron-based materials.

Key words

chemical mechanical polishing / Al₂O₃ / highly-dispersed / sodium polyacrylate / stainless bearing steel / high- efficiency

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TIAN Yiming, PENG Wumao, WANG Rongpei, LI Xinzhu, LI Xin, SHI Zhikang, ZHANG Shaohua, JIANG Liang, QIAN Linmao. High-efficiency Chemical Mechanical Polishing of Stainless Bearing Steel with the Highly-dispersed Al₂O₃ Abrasive Slurry[J]. Surface Technology. 2025, 54(16): 121-130 https://doi.org/10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2025.16.010

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Funding

National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFA0711001); National Natural Science Foundation of China (51991373, 52235004); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2682024CG007)