The quality of the machined surface of low-rigidity elastomers by cutting under room temperature is generally considerably poor due to a large-scale viscoelastic deformation occurring around the cutting edge. In order to improve the cutting performance, this study examined the possibility of the indirect suppression of the large-scale deformation by controlling the friction properties for the rake and the flank faces by the parallel micro-grooves. The workpiece was an ester urethane rubber with a Shore A hardness number of 50. This study experimentally investigated the influences of the orientation of the grooves and the interval of a groove on the cutting performance under the cutting speeds ranging from 5 m/s to 10 m/s. The following findings were obtained; the grooves on the rake face reduce the cutting force significantly. For the flank face, the groove orientation affects remarkably on the contact state between the flank face and the machined surface. The grooves fabricated perpendicular to the cutting edge on the flank face is able to improve the shape of the machined surface. Parallel micro-grooves on both the rake face and the flank face improve significantly cutting performance of low-rigidity elastomers performed under a cutting condition with a cutting speed of less than 10 m/s and with a temperature of room temperature.
