The influence of an ambient energetic field on precision cutting

Ultrasonic-assisted machining processes with diamond tools are regarded as a key technology for reducing the catastrophic tool wear occurring while machining steel workpieces with surface roughness in optical quality. Economical machining of various steel materials with significantly reduced wear of the diamond tool further improved since elliptical vibration cutting with a superimposed ultrasonic tool motion was introduced. How far the result of the machining process is influenced by the changing process kinematics of the ultrasonic motion alone or by the energy introduced into the material by the energy of an ambient ultrasonic field has not been investigated yet. The presented work is dedicated to superimposing an ultrasonic field into the workpiece during machining using an ultrasonic bath. Machining experiments with cutting grooves and particular surfaces with monocrystalline diamond tools are carried out on brass, copper and aluminum. The process forces show a decrease with the increase of the ultrasonic energy of up to 50 percent, while the surface roughness remains uninfluenced by the ultrasonic energy. The results indicate that the ultrasonic induced softening has an influence on the cutting process, which could improve the machining of brittle hard materials in future investigations.