Mesoplasticity Approach to Studies of the Cutting Mechanism in Ultra-precision Machining

There have been various theoretical attempts by researchers worldwide to link up different scales of plasticity studies from the nano-, micro- and macro-scale of observation, based on molecular dynamics, crystal plasticity and continuum mechanics. Very few attempts, however, have been reported in ultra-precision machining studies. A mesoplasticity approach advocated by Lee and Yang is adopted by the authors and is successfully applied to studies of the micro-cutting mechanisms in ultra-precision machining. Traditionally, the shear angle in metal cutting, as well as the cutting force variation, can only be determined from cutting tests. In the pioneering work of the authors, the use of mesoplasticity theory enables prediction of the fluctuation of the shear angle and micro-cutting force, shear band formation, chip morphology in diamond turning and size effect in nano-indentation. These findings are verified by experiments. The mesoplasticity formulation opens up a new direction of studies to enable how the plastic behaviour of materials and their constitutive representations in deformation processing, such as machining can be predicted, assessed and deduced from the basic properties of the materials measurable at the microscale.

Study of material removal behavior on R-plane of sapphire during ultra-precision machining based on modified slip-fracture model

In this paper, the modified slip/fracture activation model has been used in order to understand the mechanism of ductile-brittle transition on the R-plane of sapphire during ultra-precision machining by reflecting direction of resultant force. Anisotropic characteristics of crack morphology and ductility of machining depending on cutting direction were explained in detail with modified fracture cleavage and plastic deformation parameters. Through the analysis, it was concluded that crack morphologies were mainly determined by the interaction of multiple fracture systems activated while, critical depth of cut was determined by the dominant plastic deformation parameter. In addition to this, by using proportionality relationship between magnitude of resultant force and depth of cut in the ductile region, an empirical model for critical depth of cut was developed.

345 GHz Band-Pass Filter Using Ultra-Precision Machining Technology

This paper presents a terahertz（THz）band-pass filter using ultra-precision machining technology based on Chebyshev filter prototype.This iris inductive window coupled waveguide filter was designed by using 8 resonant cavities with a center frequency of 345 GHz and a 7% bandwidth.The final design fulfills the desired specifications and presents the minimum insertion loss of 1.55 d B and the return loss of less than 15 d B at 345 GHz.The stop-band rejection is50 d B off the center frequency about 30 GHz,which means it has a good performance of high stop-band suppression.Compared with the recent development of THz filters,this filter possesses the characteristic of simple structure and is easy to machining.

Systematic analysis of error sources during ultra-precision machining

During ultra-precision machining, machining accuracy is determined by many factors and interaction of these factors. Error sources are systematically analyzed for ultra-precision machine tools, and the influencing degree of each factor is presented to provide orientation for error reduction and error compensation.

SOFTWARE-CONTROLLED SYSTEM OF ULTRA-PRECISION MACHINING AXISYMMETRIC ASPHERIC MIRROR

In order to improve machining accuracy and efficiency, a software-controlled system of ultra-precision machining for axisymmetric aspheric mirror, using techniques of error compensation, remote transmission and modularization, is designed based on industrial PC, Windows 2000 work platform and Visual Basic 6.0. By experiments, this system realizes functions of ultra-precision machining, machining error compensation, remote data transmission and automatic data transformation among first machining, compensation machining and accuracy measurement. The actual application shows that error compensation improves machining accuracy, remote transmission improves machining efficiency while modularization avoids repeated work and improves design efficiency. Therefore, the system has met ultra-precision machining need for aspheric mirror.

Prediction of cutting force in ultra-precision machining of nonferrous metals based on strain energy

The effects of the nonuniform cutting force and elastic recovery of processed materials in ultra-precision machining are too complex to be treated using traditional cutting theories,and it is necessary to take account of factors such as size effects,the undeformed cutting thickness,the tool blunt radius,and the tool rake angle.Therefore,this paper proposes a new theoretical calculation model for accurately predicting the cutting force in ultra-precision machining,taking account of such factors.The model is first used to analyze the material deformation of the workpiece and the cutting force distribution along the cutting edge of a diamond tool.The size of the strain zone in different cutting deformation zones is then determined by using the distribution of strain work per unit volume and considering the characteristics of the stress distribution in these different deformation zones.Finally,the cutting force during ultra-precision machining is predicted precisely by calculating the material strain energy in different zones.A finite element analysis and experimental data on ultra-precision cutting of copper and aluminum are used to verify the predictions of the theoretical model.The results show that the error in the cutting force between the calculation results and predictions of the model is less than 14%.The effects of the rake face stress distribution of the diamond tool,the close contact zone,and material elastic recovery can be fully taken into account by the theoretical model.Thus,the proposed theoretical calculation method can effectively predict the cutting force in ultra-precision machining.

Ultra-precision machining of cerium-lanthanum alloy with atmosphere control in an auxiliary device

Cerium–lanthanum alloys are the main component of nickel–metal hydride batteries,and they are thus an important material in the greenenergy industry.However,these alloys have very strong chemical activity,and their surfaces are easily oxidized,leading to great difficulties in their application.To improve the corrosion resistance of cerium–lanthanum alloys,it is necessary to obtain a nanoscale surface with low roughness.However,these alloys can easily succumb to spontaneous combustion during machining.Currently,to inhibit the occurrence of fire,machining of this alloy in ambient air needs to be conducted at very low cutting speeds while spraying the workpiece with a large amount of cutting fluid.However,this is inefficient,and only a very limited range of parameters can be optimized at low cutting speeds;this restricts the optimization of other cutting parameters.To achieve ultraprecision machining of cerium–lanthanum alloys,in this work,an auxiliary machining device was developed,and its effectiveness was verified.The results show that the developed device can improve the cutting speed and obtain a machined surface with low roughness.The device can also improve the machining efficiency and completely prevent the occurrence of spontaneous combustion.It was found that the formation of a build-up of swarf on the cutting tool is eliminated with high-speed cutting,and the surface roughness(Sa)can reach 5.64 nm within the selected parameters.Finally,the oxidation processes of the cerium–lanthanum alloy and its swarf were studied,and the process of the generation of oxidative products in the swarf was elucidated.The results revealed that most of the intermediate oxidative products in the swarf were Ce^(3+),there were major oxygen vacancies in the swarf,and the final oxidative product was Ce^(4+).

A hybrid physics-data-driven surface roughness prediction model for ultra-precision machining

The surface finish quality is critical to the service performance of a machined part,and single-point diamond ultra-precision machining can achieve excellent surface quality for many engineering materials.This study studied the problem of predicting the surface roughness for titanium alloy workpieces in ultra-precision machining.Process data and surface roughness measurement results were obtained during end-face machining experiments.A deep learning neural network model was built based on the ResNet-50 architecture to predict surface roughness.We propose increasing prediction accuracy by using the energy ratio difference(ERD)as a stability feature that can be extracted using fast iterative variational mode decomposition(FI-VMD).The roughness value obtained with an analytic model was also used as an input feature of the prediction model.The prediction accuracy of the proposed approach was depicted to be improved by 8.7%with the two newly introduced roughness predictors.The influence of the tool parameters on the prediction accuracy was investigated,and the proposed hybrid-driven model exhibited higher robustness to errors of the tool parameters than the analytic roughness model.

Advances in molecular dynamics simulation of ultra-precision machining of hard and brittle materials

Hard and brittle materials, such as silicon, SiC, and optical glasses, are widely used in aerospace, military, integrated circuit, and other fields because of their excellent physical and chemical properties. However, these materials display poor machinability because of their hard and brittle properties. Damages such as surface micro-crack and subsurface damage often occur during machining of hard and brittle materials. Ultra-precision machining is widely used in processing hard and brittle materials to obtain nanoscale machining quality. However, the theoretical mechanism underlying this method remains unclear. This paper provides a review of present research on the molecular dynamics simulation of ultra-precision machining of hard and brittle materials. The future trends in this field are also discussed.

Effect of grain refinement on cutting force of difficult-to-cut metals in ultra-precision machining

The nickel-based superalloy Inconel 718 is treated with Coupled Ultrasonic and Electric Pulse Treatment(CUEPT),and the surface grain is refined from the average size of 9550.0 nm to287.9,216.3,150.5,126.3,25.8 nm by different effective treatment currents,respectively.The ultraprecision turning experiments are carried out on the processed workpiece after CUEPT.The experimental results show that the average cutting force increases with the decrease of surface grain size.Moreover,a mathematical model that can describe the relationship between grain size and cutting force is established,and the calculated results match the experimental results well.The calculated results also indicate that the variation of cutting force caused by the same variation of grain size decreases as the degree of grain refinement increases.Finally,the influence mechanism of grain refinement on cutting force is analyzed.The improvement of stability of grain boundaries and the increase of number of grain boundaries cause the increase of cutting force after grain refinement.

On-machine measurement of tool nose radius and wear during precision/ultra-precision machining

The tool state exerts a strong influence on surface quality and profile accuracy during precision/ultraprecision machining.However,current on-machine measurement methods cannot precisely obtain the tool nose radius and wear.This study therefore investigated the onmachine measurement of tool nose radius on the order of hundreds of microns and wear on the order of a few microns to tens of microns during precision/ultra-precision machining using the edge reversal method.To provide the necessary replication,pure aluminum and pure copper soft metal substrates were evaluated,with pure copper exhibiting superior performance.The feasibility of the measurement method was then demonstrated by evaluating the replication accuracy using a 3D surface topography instrument;the measurement error was only 0.1%.The wear of the cutting tool was measured using the proposed method to obtain the maximum values for tool arc wear,flank wear,and wear depth of 3.4 lm,73.5 lm and 3.7 lm,respectively.

On dry machining of AZ31B magnesium alloy using textured cutting tool inserts

Magnesium alloys have many advantages as lightweight materials for engineering applications,especially in the fields of automotive and aerospace.They undergo extensive cutting or machining while making products out of them.Dry cutting,a sustainable machining method,causes more friction and adhesion at the tool-chip interface.One of the promising solutions to this problem is cutting tool surface texturing,which can reduce tool wear and friction in dry cutting and improve machining performance.This paper aims to investigate the impact of dimple textures(made on the flank face of cutting inserts)on tool wear and chip morphology in the dry machining of AZ31B magnesium alloy.The results show that the cutting speed was the most significant factor affecting tool flank wear,followed by feed rate and cutting depth.The tool wear mechanism was examined using scanning electron microscope(SEM)images and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDS)analysis reports,which showed that at low cutting speed,the main wear mechanism was abrasion,while at high speed,it was adhesion.The chips are discontinuous at low cutting speeds,while continuous at high cutting speeds.The dimple textured flank face cutting tools facilitate the dry machining of AZ31B magnesium alloy and contribute to ecological benefits.

Stress-assisted corrosion mechanism of 3Ni steel by using gradient boosting decision tree machining learning method

Traditional 3Ni weathering steel cannot completely meet the requirements for offshore engineering development,resulting in the design of novel 3Ni steel with the addition of microalloy elements such as Mn or Nb for strength enhancement becoming a trend.The stress-assisted corrosion behavior of a novel designed high-strength 3Ni steel was investigated in the current study using the corrosion big data method.The information on the corrosion process was recorded using the galvanic corrosion current monitoring method.The gradi-ent boosting decision tree(GBDT)machine learning method was used to mine the corrosion mechanism,and the importance of the struc-ture factor was investigated.Field exposure tests were conducted to verify the calculated results using the GBDT method.Results indic-ated that the GBDT method can be effectively used to study the influence of structural factors on the corrosion process of 3Ni steel.Dif-ferent mechanisms for the addition of Mn and Cu to the stress-assisted corrosion of 3Ni steel suggested that Mn and Cu have no obvious effect on the corrosion rate of non-stressed 3Ni steel during the early stage of corrosion.When the corrosion reached a stable state,the in-crease in Mn element content increased the corrosion rate of 3Ni steel,while Cu reduced this rate.In the presence of stress,the increase in Mn element content and Cu addition can inhibit the corrosion process.The corrosion law of outdoor-exposed 3Ni steel is consistent with the law based on corrosion big data technology,verifying the reliability of the big data evaluation method and data prediction model selection.

Review on the progress of ultra-precision machining technologies

Ultra-precision machining technologies are the essential methods, to obtain the highest form accuracy and surface quality. As more research findings are published, such technologies now involve complicated systems engineering and been widely used in the production of components in various aerospace, national defense, optics, mechanics, electronics, and other high-tech applications. The conception, applications and history of ultra-precision machining are introduced in this article, and the develop- ments of ultra-precision machining technologies, espe- cially ultra-precision grinding, ultra-precision cutting and polishing are also reviewed. The current state and problems of this field in China are analyzed. Finally, the development trends of this field and the coping strategies employed in China to keep up with the trends are discussed.

INFLUENCE OF WHEEL STRUCTURAL PARAMETERS ON MACHINING ACCURACY OF ULTRA-PRECISION PLANE HONING

A new idea for designing wheel patterns is presented so as to solve theproblems about machining accuracy of workpiece and wear of honing wheel in ultra-precision planehoning. The influence factors on motion principle and pattern structures are analyzed andoptimization machining parameters are obtained. By calculating effective cutting length on thesurface of workpiece cut by wheel's abrasive and the orbit of one point on the surface of workpiececontacting with wheel, the wear coefficient of different kinds of wheels and accuracy coefficient ofworkpiece machined by corresponding wheels are obtained. Furthermore, the simulation results showthat the optimal pattern structure of wheel turns out to have lower wheel wear and higher machiningaccuracy.

Research of Digital Manufacturing Technology Application on Ultra-precision Optical Workpiece Machining

Digital manufacturing technology can be used in optical field to solve many problems caused by traditional machining. According to the characters of digital manufacturing and the practical applications of ultra-precision machining,the process of digital ultra-precision machining and its technical contents were presented in this paper. In the conclusions,it was stated that the digitalization of ultra-precision machining will be an economical and efficient way for the production of new sorts of optical workpieces.

Design of Ultra-Precision CNC Grinding Machine and Its Application in Machining Large Aspheric Mirrors

Large aspheric mirrors are needed for the remote sensing and ground based telescope optical systems,these mirrors are made of hard and brittle materials which require ultra-precision grinding process to guarantee the high profile accuracy and machining efficiency. The ultra-precision aspheric CNC grinding machine( UAG900) is presented by this paper,as well as its grinding capability. The hydrostatic bearings of high accuracy and stiffness are adopted by the linear and rotary motions to guarantee the mirror accuracy,material removal rate and subsurface damage. Disk type grinding wheel with arc edge is used. The material removal rate can be up to 360 mm3/ min to guarantee the machining efficiency during rough grinding using D180 diamond grinding wheel while the fine grinding is performed using D15 grinding wheel. It indicates that the grinding wheel radius measuring error is proportional to the profile error induced by the grinding path. The grinding step size is better to be 0. 01 mm for the reduction of the grinding movement accelerations and program length. The grinding path is planned and expressed based on the grinding mode according to the mirror shape. One540 mm×450 mm× 100 mm zerodur mirror is ground and re-ground using the measuring data acquired by the Leitz CMM. The final surface accuracy of P-V value is less than 5 μm after compensation grinding.

Ultra-precision Machining of Micro-step Pillar Array Using a Straight-Edge Milling Tool

Ultra-precision machining has been well known as a very precise and effective way to prototype and fabricate different types of components with microstructures.In this paper,an ultra-precision micro-milling method has been presented to produce a micro-step pillar array as an embossing mold for semiconductor application.Theoretical analysis on machining mechanics indicates that work material property,machining strategy,and cutting tool geometry largely afFect machining distortion on the machined microstructure.Experimental investigation has been conducted on micromachining of the micro-step pillar array using different types of cutting tools and work materials.Experimental results demonstrate that the material property,cutting tool edge radius,and cutting force play a significant role in the machined micro-structure accuracy and surface finish,while grain boundary of brass has no significant effect on the micro-milling performance.The best outcome among the tests done is achieved when using brass as work material and cutting with a straight-edge single crystalline diamond tool.The main reasons to achieve this outcome are based on:the brass material having a higher elastic modulus and the diamond tool having a smaller cutting edge radius,which contributes to better machinability of brass.One micro-step pillar array has been successfully obtained with very precise feature and dimensional accuracy using brass work material and single-crystal diamond tool.It is believed that the outcomes of this study would largely benefit the research community and end-users.

Dynamic Accuracy Design Method of Ultra-precision Machine Tool

Ultra-precision machine tool is the most important physical tool to machining the workpiece with the frequency domain error requirement, in the design process of which the dynamic accuracy design(DAD) is indispensable and the related research is rarely available. In light of above reasons, a DAD method of ultra-precision machine tool is proposed in this paper, which is based on the frequency domain error allocation.The basic procedure and enabling knowledge of the DAD method is introduced. The application case of DAD method in the ultra-precision flycutting machine tool for KDP crystal machining is described to show the procedure detailedly. In this case, the KDP workpiece surface has the requirements in four different spatial frequency bands, and the emphasis for this study is put on the middle-frequency band with the PSD specifications. The results of the application case basically show the feasibility of the proposed DAD method. The DAD method of ultra-precision machine tool can effectively minimize the technical risk and improve the machining reliability of the designed machine tool. This paper will play an important role in the design and manufacture of new ultra-precision machine tool.

Laser machining fundamentals:micro,nano,atomic and close-to-atomic scales

With the rapid development in advanced industries,such as microelectronics and optics sectors,the functional feature size of devises/components has been decreasing from micro to nanometric,and even ACS for higher performance,smaller volume and lower energy consumption.By this time,a great many quantum structures are proposed,with not only an extreme scale of several or even single atom,but also a nearly ideal lattice structure with no material defect.It is almost no doubt that such structures play critical role in the next generation products,which shows an urgent demand for the ACSM.Laser machining is one of the most important approaches widely used in engineering and scientific research.It is high-efficient and applicable for most kinds of materials.Moreover,the processing scale covers a huge range from millimeters to nanometers,and has already touched the atomic level.Laser–material interaction mechanism,as the foundation of laser machining,determines the machining accuracy and surface quality.It becomes much more sophisticated and dominant with a decrease in processing scale,which is systematically reviewed in this article.In general,the mechanisms of laser-induced material removal are classified into ablation,CE and atomic desorption,with a decrease in the scale from above microns to angstroms.The effects of processing parameters on both fundamental material response and machined surface quality are discussed,as well as theoretical methods to simulate and understand the underlying mechanisms.Examples at nanometric to atomic scale are provided,which demonstrate the capability of laser machining in achieving the ultimate precision and becoming a promising approach to ACSM.