Investigation on layered elliptical vibration-assisted cutting of micro groove

Elliptical vibration-assisted cutting (EVC) is a method for rapidly creating ultra-precision free-form surfaces with micro groove features, which have a wide array of industrial applications such as drag reduction, self-cleaning action, optical tuning behavior, etc. The complicated fabrication process and limited shape and deep control of micro groove features by using EVC limit the applications of current EVC process in the fabrication of micro groove. To overcome these limitations and improve overall performance, a layered elliptical vibration-assisted cutting (LEVC) process is presented to fabricate deep micro groove with different shape. First, a detailed layered elliptical vibration-assisted cutting method is described, and a key step, the layered elliptical vibration-assisted tool path planning, is analyzed and established. Then, the machining stress under the proposed LEVC method and layered conventional cutting (LCC) process were simulated and compared through finite element analysis. The simulation results show that the LEVC process can generate the lower residual stress compared to the LCC process. To validate the machining performance of the proposed LEVC process, the machining experiments for two groups of micro grooves under the proposed LEVC process and LCC process are performed. The performance tests and comparison results between the generated micro grooves under the proposed LEVC method and LCC process indicate that the proposed LEVC method is effective for generating micro groove with the controllable shape and depth. The actual experiments show that the machining capability of the developed LEVC method for micro groove is satisfactory.