Abstract
Surface texture is an important function in enhancing aesthetic and tactile qualities and mechanical properties of products. The roughness textured on product surface is generally made by etching or sand-blasting, and the amplitude of roughness is about several hundred μm. However, these manufacturing techniques have problems related to repeatability of manufacturing and environment pollution. To resolve these problems, an expert system to generate surface texture by machining has been developed. The system can design surface texture, perform milling at the minimum cutting depth of 3μm, and equip two measurement instruments for assessment of surface texture. The technique applied in this system also allows generation of precision surface texture better than usual generation processes such as etching or sand-blasting.
