Sculptured Surface Machining of Die Steel by Applying Elliptical Vibration Cutting (2nd Report)

Abstract

A new ultrasonic elliptical vibration tool is developed in the present research to realize sculptured surface machining of die steel by applying “elliptical vibration cutting”. The new vibration tool is designed to have three degree-of-freedom (3 DOF), so that it is suitable to machine the three-dimensional sculptured surfaces. The 3 DOF ultrasonic elliptical vibration tool generates an arbitrary ultrasonic elliptical vibration in the three-dimensional space by combining two directional bending vibrations and a longitudinal vibration. It is excited by piezoelectric actuators at 34.4 kHz, which is an average resonant frequency of the three vibrations. The developed vibration tool is attached to the 4 axis precision machine tool developed in the previous report, and mirror surfaces of hardened steel are obtained successfully by the proposed method.