Reduction of cutting forces by elliptical vibration in multi-pass ultraprecise single point axial cutting of V-grooves

Abstract

Elliptical vibration cutting (EVC) is an advanced micromachining technology that has a wide range of applications in high-precision micro/nano manufacturing. This technology is primarily used in fabrication of micro/nano-scale functional surfaces, geometrical features, optical and holographic components that are cut in ferrous and difficult-to-cut tooling materials with high form accuracy and surface quality. The main objective of this study was to demonstrate the positive effect of EVC motions on cutting force reduction and stabilization. For this purpose, a series of cutting trials involving the fabrication of micro V-grooves by means of the ultraprecise single point cutting (USPC) were performed. To maintain a constant level of the cutting force, an axial multi-pass cutting strategy with constant cutting area was employed. The influence and advantages brought by EVC over the conventional ‘no-EVC’ USPC scenario were initially assessed by means of the theoretical considerations of the cutting force. Following that, experimental generation of V-grooves has demonstrated that the integration of EVC kinematics with USPC motions has the ability to reduce the ‘no-EVC’ cutting forces by more than 90%, to values around 0.1 N for the main axial component. The addition of EVC motions caused a minimal decrease in surface quality whose areal roughness increased from 14 nm in the ‘no-EVC’ case to 16 nm in the ‘with-EVC’ scenario. These observations are expected to open new opportunities in micromachining of micro/nano products, systems, sensors, functional surfaces, and lighting and holographic optics.