Micro-fabrication technologies have recently developed dramatically and micro-fabrication methods have become much-needed for devices on the order of micrometer. In particular, the methods are in huge demand that can fabricate MEMS and microscopic optical devices, typified by photonic crystals. In this study, we propose a novel stereolithography method using evanescent light instead of propagating light in order to achieve 100-nanometer vertical resolution. In this report, in order to improve curing controllability of single layered resin exposed by evanescent light, compositions of photocurable resin are experimentally examined. These experiments suggest that standing evanescent wave is useful for evaluating the curing controllability of employed resin, and molecular weight to one functional group in photocurable resin is an important key perameter.

The authors propose a novel surface processing method by using low fluence beam with photo excitation. A low power double pulse beam is controlled to generate the photo excited surface and to achieve the damageless processing on the surface. The pulse interval keep the duration within the time for deexcitation of the career in conduction band. In this paper, the fundamental experiments are performed to investigate the processing property for the photo excited surface as compared to femtosecond single pulse.

In this study, laser ablation using picosecond pulses was proposed as a new surface processing method for mold steels. Using ultrashort pulse laser can minimize heat-affected zones (HAZ) and process complicated shapes. A typical mold steel, STAVAX, was irradiated by a picosecond pulsed laser with changeable pulse width under various conditions, and the characteristics of surface generation was investigated using a scanning electron microscope. The critical conditions for laser ablation with high surface integrity were experimentally found.

In order to discuss the influence of component of solution on generation of the treated layer by laser-induced wet treatment, the test pieces of SUS316L were soaked in several solutions, which had acidity or alkalinity, were irradiated by laser. The active solution; Al(NO₃)₃ and AlCl₃ solution generated the treated layer of Fe²⁺Al₂O₄. The treated layer generated in Al(NO₃)₃ solution was thinker than that in AlCl₃ solution. On the other hand, the treated layer generated in NaAlO₂ solution, which was alkali, was composed of Fe²⁺Fe₂O₄. This implies that pH of the solution influenced on the generation of the treated layer.

It is expected that the removal operation of the calcified heart valve will be simpler if we use lasers in substitution for drills. In this study, surface temperature of bone scaffold including hydroxyapatite during pulsed Er:YAG laser irradiation was measured using infrared radiation pyrometer as fundamental experiment. As a result, the surface temperature during laser irradiation became more than 60°C that is a glass transition point of the polylactic acid. Then, polylactic acid softened. The temperature is associated with the removal volume. Additionally, we can suppress the heat storage to the sample by regulation the pulse interval of the laser.

Microlens arrays of single-crystal silicon are required increasingly in advanced IR optics. In this study, we attempted to fabricate concave microlens arrays on a single-crystal silicon wafer by slow-tool-servo diamond turning. The form error, surface topography, material phase transformation and cutting force characteristics were investigated experimentally. It was found that brittle fracture occurred preferentially at one side (the exit side of tool feed) of the lens dimples when cutting direction is along <110> and tool feed rate is high. Amorphous silicon phase was generated significantly at the exit side of tool feed of the dimples as tool feed rate increased. The peak values of cutting forces changed with tool feed rate and crystal orientation. Spherical microlens arrays with a form error of ~300 nmPV and surface roughness of ~6 nmSa were successfully fabricated.

The authors propose a hypothesis that adsorption films generated on newly-formed ferrous surfaces protect diamond tools from diffusion wear in ultrasonic vibration cutting of ferrous materials. In order to verify this hypothesis, an experimental system which enables to carry out ultrasonic vibration cutting in a vacuum chamber was developed, then the machining experiments have been carried out in the chamber. The previous experimental results showed that the diamond tool edge is rapidly worn out in ultrasonic vibration cutting at high vacuum about 0.01Pa, which supports the proposed hypothesis. In this paper, the machining experiments were carried out by changing degree of vacuum, and effects of the degree of vacuum on the tool wear, chip formation and roughness of machined surfaces were investigated.

Diamond cutting tool shows severe wear in turning of steels. In previous papers, we have showed carbides on ferrite phase precipitated by carburization suppressed the wear. In this paper, we studied on distribution of carbides by EDS analyses. Results indicate characteristics of each carbide : area, occupancy and degree of circularity, influence suppression effect of tool wear.

This paper proposes an alignment method for assembling a segmented neutron focusing mirror. Each of the segments of the mirror is mounted on a Kelvin clamp, which is a kinematic clamp composed of three constraints: a point, a line, and a plane constraint. Each of these components is jointly fastened with an aluminum spacer. Thicknesses of the spacers are precisely adjusted by diamond turning, to reduce the relative position/angle errors between segments. The paper also includes results of an actual alignment.

The rhombohedral lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT) single crystal is one of the promising ferroelectric materials having higher ferroelectricity, piezoelectricity and electromechanical coupling coefficient. The single crystals are cut and polished for making various elements, though the polishing characteristic is not well known. PMN-PT relaxor-based ferroelectric single-crystal {001} surfaces in different polarization states were polished on a polyurethane foam polisher with SiO₂ powder comprising particles of 7 nm diameter for obtaining the removal rate and surface roughness. The removal rates depend on the polarity on the surface and applied load. The polished surface roughness depends on the polarity, not on the applied load and the dielectric constant. The polished sample in positively-polarized shows the highest removal rate and lowest surface roughness of 0.324nm Sa. The other hand, that in negatively-polarized shows the lowest removal rate. The polished surface in depolarized has a micro pattern with the appearance of fingerprints owing to the domain structure.

Using electric-field-assisted solid-state ion exchange, metal ions were doped into borosilicate glass surface. When a silver foil was used as a dopant, a buried silver layer was formed in glass substrate by additional voltage application with opposite direction to the case of doping (referred to as reverse voltage). Because the formed layer was electrically conductive, we tried to create a buried silver electric circuit in glass substrate. Especially for the multi-layer formation, silver and sodium were alternatively doped to glass surface. As a result, the three-layered structure consisted of sodium- or silver-rich layers was successfully formed in a glass substrate. By the reverse voltage application, a silver precipitation layer connecting between silver-rich layers in double- and three-layered structures was formed.

In previous study, we aim to develop innovative stirring technology (electric field stirring technology (EST)) applied abrasive control technique with AC electric field. This technology allows for stirring without contact by applying AC electric field to droplets. We examined observation of fundamental behavior and inside behavior for droplet by AC electric field and investigated the feature of EST as parameter frequency and voltage, quantitatively. As a result, the motion speed of particles in droplet was accelerated by this stirring technology. This EST was developed to the medical field and medical equipment was developed. In this study, we investigated about the temperature dependency under EST. Further, the efficiency of stirring was investigated to optimize the electrode shape and stirring conditions so as to speed up further. As a result, by the efficiency of stirring by the electrode obtained by concentrating electric field, higher quality results were obtained.

Au thin-film is transferred from stamps to micro-grooved SU-8 substrates to fabricate a micro-mechanical element. This present paper describes effects of stamp modulus on the shape of transferred Au thin-film. Lower modulus of PDMS stamp causes undesired deformations with some burrs at the side edges in the Au transferred thin-film, while higher modulus of h-PDMS stamp enable to fabricate flat micro-beam of transferred Au thin-film with little burrs. We also demonstrate to fabricate a micro-tactile sensor by transfer-print of Au thin-film.

This study introduces a method for making hydrophilic surface for oil-repellent function by the combination of chemical modification and surface texturing. Si-PEG monolayer was self-assembled on a silicon substrate ideally fixed with siloxane bonding. Conditions for Si-PEG modification and the effect of micro-pillar pitch on contact angle of oil in water were made clear. It was found that the high-contact angle of oil droplet in water on a structured and chemically modified surface lasted long time.

In manufacturing processes of Long-Fiber-Thermoplastic Direct (LFT-D) for Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (CFRP), thermoplastic resin is required to adhere to carbon fiber favorably during mixing process which mixes carbon fiber and thermoplastic resin. On the other hand, less adhesion of thermoplastic resin is required during eject process in stamping. Previous researches show that direct current electric field on metal reduces adhesion between melted acrylic resin and metal surface. On the other hand, it is not clarified if adhesion decreases to no bias level after electrical field imposing stops. If adhesion decreases after stopping electrical field imposing, new manufacturing method which increases adhesion during mixing process with electrical field and decreases adhesion during ejection may be developed. The purpose of this research is to clarify the effect of stopping electrical bias imposing on adhesion between metal surface and melted acrylic resin. In the result, adhesion decreases to 0.51 MPa which is same level of no bias condition, from 0.73 MPa which adhesion strength in DC -300V condition is.

This paper describes that the influence of filler condition on dynamic behavior of rasin. Mica is used as filler to the epoxy resin. The influence of the perticlue size and concentration of mica is investigated. As the results, the natural frequency and damping ratio of the structural vibration mode is affected by the filler condition. And the influence of filler is different in each vibration mode. Especially, the higher mode influenced by filler condition. Additionally, there is the optimal filler condition which can add both high damping and stiffness. Thus for achiving high stiffness and damping, the filler conditon is the key factor.

Graphite is one of carbon materials and it has excellent characteristics such as lightweight, electrically conductive and heat resistance. Therefore, graphite is used for many productions (an electrode for electrical discharge machining and a melting pot). However many air bubbles are existed during fabrication by sintering a powder of carbon. Air bubbles obstruct to manufacture graphite mirror surface. This paper indicates to the method making mirror surface on graphite by burnishing for removing air bubbles.

The effectiveness of a diamond tip burnishing process with rotary tool, which is proposed by the authors, is investigated. A proposed hybrid-type parallel mechanism with spherical 5-degree-of-freedom range and force control was used as a burnishing machine. A diamond tipped tool, which is rotated by high-speed-motor spindle, was used as a burnishing tool. The fundamental characteristics of the proposed method were evaluated by the surface roughness, glossiness and residual stress of the burnished surface. The advantages of the proposed method were clarified by comparing with the conventional method, which is without the tool rotation.

Burnishing process is a finishing process caused plastic deformation by pressing the high hardness ball to metal material. This process can improve the surface roughness. In addition it can give the work hardened layer and compressive residual stress layer on the surface of materials. In this research, a load-cell built-in burnishing tool is used to process the SUS420J2 steel. A variety of processing conditions is tested, and the surface roughness, hardness and residual stress of the processed material were examined.

Aiming to enhance corrosion resistance of steel cup, the formability of pure titanium clad sheet by multistage deep drawing was investigated. The blank was constituted by interposing steel between two sheets of pure titanium sheets. In the experiment, the materials were pure titanium sheets TP270, ultralow-carbon steel SPCC, and stainless steel SUS316L. A total plate thickness of the blank was 1.0 mm. In the deep drawing process, the blank was employed and a flat sheet blank was formed into a circle by a punch. For the prevention, pure titanium blank was treated by oxide coating. By this method, titanium blank is not in direct contact with the die during the forming due to the existence of the oxide layer. By oxide coating, the titanium sheet has sufficient ability in preventing the seizure in multistage deep drawing. It was found that the titanium clad cups were successfully drawn.

Pure titanium sheet are commonly used in manufacturing today. In press forming, however, the seizure tends to occur during the deep drawing due to high reactivity with die materials. In the current study, by using the resin composite die, the titanium cups were formed by deep drawing for preventing seizing. In the experiment, the material was pure titanium sheet TP340. The initial thickness of the sheet was 0.5 mm in thickness. The sheets were employed and a flat sheet blank is formed into a cylindrical by a punch. The effect of the die shape on the deep drawability was examined. The cups were successfully drawn by the resin composite die. Even if the number of drawn cups increased, the thickness strain hardly changed. The seizure did not cause in the case of 100 times of processing number of times. It was found that the resin composite die has sufficient ability in preventing the seizure in deep drawing processes.

The formability of the corrugated cup was investigated by the deep drawing process. The die having rotating shoulder was used to enhance the functionality of the drawn cup. The blank is formed into a cylindrical cup by means of a punch that presses the blank into the die cavity. To form the corrugated surface, the bearing balls were set on the shoulder of a die. The balls rotate freely during forming. The deep drawing process was performed using an oil hydraulic press at a forming speed of about 10 mm/min. The blanks were commercially extra-low carbon steel SPCC, stainless steel SUS304, pure cooper C1100, and pure titanium TP340. The initial diameter and thickness of the blank are 70 to 100 mm and 0.5 mm. The lubricant used was the solid powders of molybdenum disulfide. The metal sheets were successfully drawn without the cracks. It was found that the corrugated cups were successfully formed by using the roller die.

The objective of this research is to estimate machining error factors by using on-machine shape measurement. In the most conventional machining researches, it has been considered a cutting tool deflection as a dominant factor of the machining error. Only few researches mentions the influence of workholding. This research experimentally investigates the influence of workholding by comparing measured surfaces that are fixed by different workholding methods: mechanical vise and clump system. Furthermore, measured accuracies of machined parts are assessed based on the deformation trend of each fixturing method.

To reduce the environmental load of waste treatment of water-soluble coolants, we have been developing a recycling system for waste water-soluble coolant. In the system, a water extracted from waste coolant is reutilized of a diluent for a new coolant. We developed some chemical and biochemical water recycling method. It was found that a surfactant and powdered activated carbon water recycling process was suitable for a commercially available amine-free cutting coolant. The processing time and quality of the extracted water were better those that of an amine-containing coolant. In this report, we focused on multiple recycling process to the coolant. We repeatedly applied the water recycling process to the recycled coolant. The recyclability of the amine-free coolant was not affected by multiple recycling; however, process residues increased with the number of recycles.

Organo-chlorine compounds have widely been used as an effective extreme pressure (EP) additive in cutting fluids because of their excellent performance in various metal working operations. However, for environmental and safety reasons, there has been the trend toward replacing chlorinated EP additives by alternatives and the most successful replacement would be organo-sulfur compounds combined with calcium sulfonates. In general, calcium sulfonates are categorized into a detergent as an additive, and calcium salicylates are also the representative compounds which act as a detergent. Thus, this study investigates the combined effect of an organo-sulfur compound and a calcium salicylate and demonstrates that this combination provides the higher cutting performance than that of the organo-sulfur compound combined with calcium sulfonates.

This paper describes effect of combination of MQL and water mist supply on cutting load in stainless steel cutting when adding polysulfide to MQL lubricant. Generally, it is considered that the largest effect of combination use of water-mist on cutting performance is a chilling effect. However, addition of polysulfide to MQL lubricant as additive exhibited excellent lubricity in stainless steel heavy drilling if applying combination use of water-mist. From the friction tests under some lubricating conditions, it is suggested that existence of water in heated cutting zone can alter the oxidation state of stainless steel surface and then enhance forming reaction layers of polysulfide on the surface.

Because of effective machining operations with a very small amount of cutting fluids, near-dry machining attracts increasing attentions for environmental and economical benefits. MQL machining has so far been recognized as the most representative near-dry method and it is highly successful in machining of most ordinary steels. Recent concern for environmentally friendly manufacturing further encourages the attempts at applying near-dry operations to machining of difficult-to-cut materials. Since titanium alloys are typical difficult-to-cut materials, this paper investigates the cutting performance of various near-dry methods in turning of a titanium alloy from the view point of elongating the tool life. The regular MQL operation provided longer tool life than that of dry machining. Further, the hybrid mist operations showed considerably long tool life compared with that of MQL machining.

Thermal deformation of the structure leads to a decrease in the machining accuracy of the machine tools. The relative position between the tool and the table is changed by the change in temperature of machine tool. The final purpose of this study is to compensate the thermal displacement on a machining center in real time. For this final purpose, we have proposed a thermal displacement compensation system to predict the amount of displacement by regression analysis of the temperature and the displacement until now. In this paper, the temperature measurement position where there is a strong correlation with the thermal displacement at the spindle head was investigated in order to further improve the accuracy of this compensation system. In addition, relationship between the position accuracy and the tilt of the spindle caused by the heat generated with the spindle drive was investigated. Consequently, it was found that the displacement caused by the tilt of the spindle affected the position compensation.

Temperature change surrounding the machine tool causes complex thermal deformation of the structures such as bed and column, consequently causing machining error. We have developed unique and highly precise thermal error estimation method based on FEM. The method can calculate complex thermal deformation of the structures in real-time on CNC. We have applied the world's first real-time thermal error compensation system which features FEM analysis function to CNC on machining center and succeeded to dramatically decrease the machining error caused by temperature change.

It is important to reduce the tool cost in terms of the rationalization of manufacture. On the supposition of 5-axis control machining of metal molds, it is planned to suppress the tool wear by moving the cutting position of ball-end mills. Based on this concept, the experiments are conducted by changing the tool axis inclination direction and the tool swing rate. The tool axis inclination direction is determined at every 45 degrees from the tool feed direction, that is, 8 types. The tool axis inclination angle is selected to be 30 degree from the tool axis in terms of the machined surface roughness with reference to the reported research result. The tool swing rate is appointed by degree per tool feed with the center point of 30 degrees moving from 15 to 45 degrees, taking account of the interference and down-cut operation. As a result, it is confirmed that there exists the appropriate tool axis direction and the tool swing rate, which allow the suppression of tool wear and the realization of good surface roughness.

Authors have been developed a novel lapping method using functional fluids which are dispersed abrasives with silicone oil. This fluid shows active reciprocate motion between electrodes under AC electric field at very low frequency. In this report, we studied the behavior of staying abrasives in the lapping area by using controlled slurry under AC electric field.

Diamond has good material properties such as high hardness, thermal resistance and no anisotropy on mechanical properties. Thus, diamond is utilized as the cutting tool, alternative forms of cemented carbide mold and heat sink. However, diamond substrate is hard to machine because it possess the high-hardness and high chemical inertness. The conventional polishing of diamond is usually carried out on a high-speed rotating disk (called scaife) with a diamond abrasives. So mechanical damage and surface irregularities were remained on the polished diamond surface. In this study, we prepared the ideal polishing plate charged with 35Pm-sized-diamond grains and tried to conduct the mechanical polishing of diamond for fabricating a high quality single crystal diamond (100) surface. As a results, atomically smooth diamond surface could be obtained by a mechanical polishing method using polishing plate charged with 35Pm-sized-diamond grains.

Grinding quality evaluated by RZ is influenced by sub micrometer level spindle vibration. Spindle vibration is influenced by not only elasticity and viscosity of bearing, mass inertia and driving torque of rotating machinery but also the reaction force from the surface of the work via cutting edge. In this study, a hypothetical theory of dramatic invention for excellent grinding quality is proposed and comparative experiments to balancing technology is investigated.

Rotary resistance as reaction force from the surface of the work via cutting edge which is rotated with grinder spindle causes spindle eccentric rotation where rotation center is distant from the rotational moment minimum center. In this study, the dynamics of spindle vibration by impulse reaction force caused by rotary resistance is investigated by a general vibration theory and the mechanism of how impulse force is mitigated by mass inertia force of a free slide weigh in a flange connected to spindle.

In the grinding, a coolant system that supplies grinding fluid from the inner side of the grinding wheel utilizing the spindle through supplying system of the machining center has been proposed, but its application examples are very few. The objective of this paper is to clear the effect of grinding wheel specifications on the grinding wheel surface temperature and the surface roughness which is suitable for the coolant supplying system from inter side of grinding wheel. Then, we focused on the grinding wheel surface temperature and the surface roughness which concern directly with clogging or wear of grinding wheel and surface quality. Grinding wheel surface temperature was measured by a developed grinding wheel system in which a thermocouple is embedded. Surface roughness was measured by a surface roughness measurement device. Also, the effect of coolant supply method was investigated in two methods; namely the internal supply and conventional external supply from external nozzles. As a result, it was found that the grinding wheel surface temperature and surface roughness is lower on the case of the internal coolant supply compared with external coolant supply. Furthermore, it was clarified that the surface roughness is improved when the grain size is small on the case of the internal coolant supply, but the grinding wheel surface temperature rises.

Drilling into carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) with conventional tools often results in defects like delamination, fiber pull-out, etc. In order to achieve high-quality machining of CFRP, this study newly developed a woven metal wire tool with electrodeposited diamond grains. A hole of 20 mm in diameter was drilled using the developed tool with hyper grinding, which supplies a coolant through the grinding wheel at the grinding point. As a result, this method made a good hole without delamination at the entry and exit of the hole. In addition, an excellent surface roughness of 0.64 μm Ra was achieved.

Grinding machines that employ a high-speed reciprocating worktable or wheel head are known as high-speed reciprocation grinding. Grinding heat generated in the high-speed reciprocation grinding process is low. Therefore, it is considered that the high-speed reciprocation grinding is suitable for grinding material of low thermal conductivity. In this study, the high-speed reciprocation grinding is applied to grind nickel-based super alloy “Waspaloy” which is known as difficult-to-cut material. And grinding characteristics of Waspaloy are investigated. As a result, it is found that the effect of grinding heat is smaller than the effect of grain depth of cut in grinding process of Waspaloy.

Since chipping in the cutting edge of the film for the punching die significantly degrades the performance of the punching die, it is required to inspection at the micron level over the entire length of the cutting edge. In this study, we proposed the method for detecting by continuous scanning and the spatial frequency filtering for micro areas, it has been shown to have a detection performance at the micron level. In this paper, to build a measurement system by the simultaneous three-axis control for a punching die having a blade of linear shape and curvature shape, report the results of verifying its validity.

The abrasive grain shape and its distribution in the grinding wheel have an influence on the grinding characteristic of the wheel. Therefore, we aim to develop the on-machine 3D measurement system by binocular stereopsis for abrasive grain shape and its distribution in the grinding wheel. In this paper, the 3D shape measurement is carried out using the omnifocal images. Comparing between the ratios of outlier by use of optical filters, we aim to improve the stereo pair images by decrease the outlier of matching. Thereafter, we analyzed the grinding wheel surface 3D topography and the abrasive behavior by performing tracking observation of the grinding wheel working surface in the grinding process by using this system.

Desktop machine tools are used for trial manufacture of small parts in many cases. In small production such as trial manufacture, the manual operation sometime is more efficient than the automatic operation by the NC program. For operators during manual operation, the information acquired through the sense organs is important. However, NC machine tools don't have active feedback function through a hand wheel, a feed screw, a table and a workpiece. Also, the small diameter tool used for desktop machine tools is easily damaged with reduction the tool diameter. In this report, the manual operation support device that can convey the cutting information with the force sense to the operator is developed for small size machine tools and the effectiveness is confirmed by the drilling experiments using rating scale method.

Three-dimensional nanostructures are applied to optical devices for controlling optical wavefront. A method which is able to fabricate several kinds of structures simultaneously is required for manufacturing various optical devices. For meeting the requirements, we focus on a three-dimensional lithography process using the Talbot effect in combination with other interference phenomenon. In this report, two types of three-dimensional nanostructure are fabricated by using an exposure mask with grating and flat surface. For estimating geometry of the fabricated structure, a light intensity distribution with two different periodicities was calculated by the FDTD method. Experimental results show that the proposed method is able to fabricate both a periodical three-dimensional structure and periodical layers.

A surface plasmon resonance measurement has been applied to meet the strong demand for high resolution in-process measurement on Micro-stereolithography. This multi-layer substrate composed by a PLZT layer embedded between two metal thin films, theoretically, can effectively adjust sensitivity depth of phase-detection based surface plasmon resonance by controlling the applied electric voltage on PLZT. In addition PLZT based substrate has been theoretically evaluated. It has been confirmed that a high-resolution detection at arbitrarily refractive index range can be achieved by not only dynamical adjusting incident angle but also a high controlling the applied voltage on PLZT.

Nickel-based superalloys such as Inconel 718, which are widely used especially in the aircraft industry, are known to be among the most difficult-to-cut materials because of their mechanical and chemical properties, and tools used for this purpose have extremely short lifetimes. Recently, cubic boron nitride (CBN), which is the second hardest of all known materials, has received significant attention as a material for cutting tools and has already established itself in many fields of application. However, the performance of CBN tools is still insufficient for practical use, especially in the high-speed machining of Inconel 718. To overcome this problem, we first conducted orthogonal cutting experiments on Inconel 718 and performed cross-sectional observations of the CBN cutting tool in order to identify its wear mechanisms in continuous cutting operations under high-speed machining conditions (300 m/min). Based on the results, a CBN cutting tool with a textured flank face was newly developed to improve the cutting tool life. Experimental results showed that micro grooves generated on the flank face significantly suppressed the cutting edge chipping and remarkably extended the CBN tool life during high-speed machining of Inconel 718.

CFRP is well known as difficult-to-cut materials which has very strong physical and mechanical characteristics. In the application for aviation industries, CFRP are remarkably used for many parts of airplane structures. High-accuracy and high-efficiency drilling techniques of CFRP plate are required. In the study drilling by the helical cutting processes has been performed on the CFRP composite plates with two kinds of cemented carbide ball-nose end mills which have sigmoid curve and straight line of bottom cutting edges, respectively. It is found that the machining accuracy is affected by the tool shape on the bottom cutting edge of ball-nose end mill.

Coated inserts are used for machining of stainless steels because of the resistance against the weldability of the chips with the tool face. This article deals with the adhering of the work material to the tool face during machining with coated inserts. The adhering material was evaluated by the difference between the geometry of the cutting edge and the valleys of the machined surface profile. The adhering material to the cutting edge actually cut the work piece even when the surface profile had the regular feed mark. The adhering material / built up edge was observed at the end of the chips.

The profile of the finished surface of an eccentric bar turned with a cermet tool was measured and discussed. The profile depended on firstly cutting speed, then the cutting length. The cutting mode influenced little on the profile. The profiles had regular feed marks except ones turned at the cutting speed of 10 m/min. The adhesion of the work material to the tool face was stable. The large material adhering to the damaged tool edge resulted in the regular feed marks, while the profile had large peak-to-valley height.

Aerostatic spindle used for processing machine is supported by a pair of thrust bearing and a number of journal bearings. It is said that the rotational accuracy of the aerostatic spindle is affected by the bearing characteristics and the arrangement of aerostatic bearings. However, at present these effects were inspected by experiences or experiments using prototype spindle. Therefore, in this study, we have developed a simulator of the aerostatic spindle which numerically calculate the changes in the locus of the center of gravity and the attitude of the rotating shaft supported by aerostatic bearings. In addition, the effects of bearing arrangement on run-out of aerostatic spindle in end milling processes were numerically investigated.

In machining of complex shaped parts, lead angle of ball end mill is sometimes changed to avoid interference with the machine tool. However, it often causes tool wear and chipping. In general, tool wear and chipping are increased rapidly when chatter vibration occurs. In this study, the relationship between the lead angle and the chatter stability in small-diameter ball end milling is evaluated both analytically and experimentally, and it is confirmed that the lead angle considerably affects the chatter stability.

In the recent years, the demand of lighter-weighted and thinner parts has increased in the automotive and aerospace industries. For the mass production of these parts, dies and molds with deep and narrow grooves are needed. However, in order to manufacture these dies and molds, slender end mills projected out long are needed which causes both mode-coupling and regenerative chatter vibration severely because of its low rigidity. Therefore, cutting is performed at a low efficiency, being the bottleneck of the manufacture of dies and molds. In this research, a novel method is proposed for highly efficient deep groove milling, which utilizes variable pitch/helix end mills for suppression of regenerative chatter and special tool paths, such as trochoidal paths, for suppression of mode-coupling chatter by limitation of the immersion angle. Here, the critical immersion angle is derived theoretically, and experiments are performed to validate this angle and find future possibilities in highly-efficient deep groove milling.