Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Ultraprecision Machining of Brittle Materials with Ultrasonic Vibration

Abstract

Ductile machining of brittle materials, even at a high critical depth-of-cut, has been realised by applying ultrasonic vibration to a diamond tool tip. A surface roughness Ra of 100 nm at a 2 μm depth-of-cut was achieved. A discussion on fundamental principles of ultrasonic machining, the material removal mechanism and the calculation of critical factors are presented in this paper.