Abstract
This study presents the micro-/nano-structure machining of hardened steel by means of elliptical vibration cutting equipped with the ultra-precision amplitude control sculpturing method. Machining performance of the amplitude control sculpturing method is investigated, and the limitation in nano-scale machining is explored. In this method, machinable part geometry is essentially restricted by vibration/machining conditions and tool geometry. In addition, a considerable error between the amplitude command and the envelope of the tool trajectory is generated when the slope of the machining part geometry becomes steep. To overcome this error, a compensation method for the amplitude control command is proposed. In order to clarify the machining performance of the proposed technology, experimental investigations are conducted. By applying the proposed method, highly accurate machining of the sinusoidal sweep structure is attained with a machining error of less than 20 nm. The proposed sculpturing method is subsequently applied to the machining of a three-dimensional grid surface, which verifies the feasibility of the proposed amplitude control sculpturing method.
