On the mechanics of material removal in ultrasonic machining

An analysis of material removal in ultrasonic machining considering direct impact of abrasive grains on the workpiece is presented. Non-uniformity of abrasive grains is considered by using a probability distribution for the diameter of the abrasive particles as suggested by Rozenberg. The analysis is applied to calculate material removal rate for the case of glass using 400 mesh Norbide abrasive and mild steel tool for various values of static force and amplitude of tool oscillation.     

Modeling of ductile-mode material removal in rotary ultrasonic machining

In rotary ultrasonic machining of ceramic materials there exist two modes of material removal: brittle fracture mode and ductile mode. Two models were developed based on the assumption that the brittle fracture is the dominating mode of material removal, and were published previously. This paper presents the follow-up work on modeling of the ductile-mode material removal in rotary ultrasonic machining. After a brief review of the ductile phenomena in ceramic machining, an approach to modeling the ductile-mode removal in rotary ultrasonic machining is proposed. Then, magnesia stabilized zirconia is used to demonstrate the model's capability of predicting the material removal rate from the process parameters and the material property of the workpiece. Finally, the results of the pilot experiments to verify the model are discussed.     

Modeling of material removal in mechanical type advanced machining processes: a state-of-art review

Performance of any machining process is evaluated in terms of machining rate and surface finish produced. Higher machining rate and better surface finish are desirable for better performance of any machining process. Comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analysis of the material removal mechanism and subsequently the development of analytical model(s) of material removal (MR) are necessary for a better understanding and to achieve the optimum process performance. Analytical MR models are also necessary for simulation, optimization and planning (i.e. operation and process planning) of the process, prediction of process performance indicators, verification and improvements of experimental results, selection of appropriate models for specific type of work material and machining conditions, etc. Since the inception of different unconventional machining processes, various investigators have proposed different analytical models of material removal as functions of controllable process variables. A continual need for a comprehensive and exhaustive review of various analytical material removal models for different advanced machining processes is being felt. This paper is intended to fulfil this need in the area of advanced machining. Various analytical and some semi-empirical/empirical material removal models (approximately 40) for different mechanical type advanced machining processes have been comprehensively and exhaustively reviewed, and have been presented in a format suitable for quick reference.     

Effect of valency on material removal rate in electrochemical machining of aluminium

Material removal rate (MRR) of aluminium work piece has been obtained by electrochemical machining using NaCl electrolyte at different current densities and compared with the theoretical values. It has been observed that resistance of the electrolyte solution decrease sharply with increasing current densities. The over-voltage of the system initially increases and then attains a saturation value with increasing current densities. The material removal rate, determined experimentally, almost corresponds to theoretical value with Al³⁺ state. On the other hand, taking into account over-voltage, MRR comes out be 72%. It appears that removal of a fraction of aluminium occurs in Al⁺ which subsequently gets converted into Al³⁺ through a series chemical reactions. A mechanism of such chemical reactions is proposed.     

旋转超声波加工中延性去除模式的实验研究

介绍了工程陶瓷旋转超声波加工中延性去除模式的存在条件及材料去除机理，通过实验分析了各种加工参数对材料去除率的影响。实验结果表明，适当增加转速、降低静压力、相应地减小磨料粒度，有利于实现工程陶瓷材料去除机理由脆性去除向延性去除转变。在延性去除模式下，磨料粒度、静压力、转速和振幅的增加均导致材料去除率的增加。     

Investigation of the spark cycle on material removal rate in wire electrical discharge machining of advanced materials

The development of new, advanced engineering materials and the need for precise and flexible prototypes and low-volume production have made the wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) an important manufacturing process to meet such demands. This research investigates the effect of spark on-time duration and spark on-time ratio, two important EDM process parameters, on the material removal rate (MRR) and surface integrity of four types of advanced material: porous metal foams, metal bond diamond grinding wheels, sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets, and carbon–carbon bipolar plates. An experimental procedure was developed. During the wire EDM, five types of constraints on the MRR due to short circuit, wire breakage, machine slide speed limit, and spark on-time upper and lower limits are identified. An envelope of feasible EDM process parameters is generated for each work-material. Applications of such a process envelope to select process parameters for maximum MRR and for machining of micro features are discussed. Results of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis of surface integrity are presented.     

Disturbance of material removal in laser-chemical machining by emerging gas

Using laser-chemical machining allows a localized and precise processing of metallic work pieces. The temperature distribution on the surface is the primary factor of this selective and gentle machining method. Investigations regarding temperature and material removal related surface effects like locally induced gas bubbles and reduced material removal are shown. It is shown that the processing feed rates only have a negligible impact on the resulting temperature field and thus the width of the cavity, while laser intensity appears to be the dominant parameter. Furthermore, it is shown that emerging gas bubbles caused reduced material removal resulting in irregular cavities.     

A material removal analysis of electrochemical machining using flat-end cathode

Electrochemical machining (ECM) has been increasingly recognized for the potential for machining, while the precision of the machined profile is a concern of its application. A process to erode a hole of hundreds of micrometers on the metal surface is analyzed in the current paper. A theoretical and computational model is presented to illustrate how the machined profile evolves as the time elapses. The analysis is based on the fundamental law of electrolysis and the integral of a finite-width tool. The paper also discusses the influence of experimental variables including time of electrolysis, voltage, molar concentration of electrolyte and electrode gap upon the amount of material removal and diameter of machined hole. The results of experiment show the material removal increases with increasing electrical voltage, molar concentration of electrolyte, time of electrolysis and reduced initial gap. The time of electrolysis is the most influential factor on the produced diameter of hole.     

Finite element prediction of material removal rate due to electro-chemical spark machining

Electro-chemical spark machining (ECSM) is an innovative hybrid machining process, which combines the features of the electro-chemical machining (ECM) and electrodischarge machining (EDM). Unlike ECM and EDM, ECSM is capable of machining electrically non-conducting materials. This paper attempts to develop a thermal model for the calculation of material removal rate (MRR) during ECSM. First, temperature distribution within zone of influence of single spark is obtained with the application of finite element method (FEM). The nodal temperatures are further post processed for estimating MRR. The developed FEM based thermal model is found to be in the range of accuracy with the experimental results. Further the parametric studies are carried out for different parameters like electrolyte concentration, duty factor and energy partition. The increase in MRR is found to increase with increase in electrolyte concentration due to ECSM of soda lime glass workpiece material. Also, the change in the value of MRR for soda lime glass with concentration is found to be more than that of alumina. MRR is found to increase with increase in duty factor and energy partition for both soda lime glass and alumina workpiece material.     

On the mechanics and material removal mechanisms of vibration-assisted cutting of unidirectional fibre-reinforced polymer composites

This paper aims to reveal the material removal mechanisms and the mechanics behind the vibration-assisted cutting (VAC) of unidirectional fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. Through a comprehensive analysis by integrating the core factors of the VAC, including fibre orientation and deformation, fibre–matrix interface, tool–fibre contact and tool–workpiece contact, a reliable mechanics model was successfully developed for predicting the cutting forces of the process. Relevant experiments conducted showed that the model has captured the mechanics and the major deformation mechanisms in cutting FRP composites, and that the application of ultrasonic vibration in either the cutting or normal direction can significantly decrease cutting forces, minimise fibre deformation, facilitate favourable fibre fracture at the cutting interface, and largely improve the quality of a machined surface. When the vibrations are applied to both the cutting and normal directions, the elliptic vibration trajectory of the tool tip can bring about an optimal cutting process. There exists a critical depth of cut, beyond which the fibre–matrix debonding depth is no longer influenced by the vibration applied on the tool tip.     

The material removal mechanism in mechanical lapping of diamond cutting tools

In order to reveal the surface layer removal nature and explain the anisotropy of material removal rate in mechanical lapping single crystal diamond cutting tools, a brittle-ductile transition lapping mechanism is proposed. And then, the dynamic critical depths of cut for brittle-ductile transition in different directions on different planes can be calculated. The lapped surface layer of diamond cutting tool will be removed in plastic mode as long as the embedding depth of diamond grit into the lapped surface is less than the corresponding critical depth of cut. Lapping experiments on the named (110) plane and (100) plane are carried out and the lapped surfaces are measured with atomic force microscope (AFM). The results show that all the lapped surfaces of diamond cutting tools consist of plastic grooves in nanometric scale and the maximal groove depths have prominent anisotropy in different orientations and on different planes, which are consistent with the critical depths of cut well. Therefore, the material removal rate anisotropy of lapped surface layer can be analyzed by comparing the critical depths of cut on different crystallographic planes and in different orientations of the identical plane quantitatively.     

Machineability in NURBS interpolator considering constant material removal rate

Increasing demands on precision machining of three-dimensional free-form surfaces have necessitated that the tool move smoothly and at varying feedrates. To achieve this, parametric interpolators, such as the Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) interpolator, have been introduced in CNC machining systems. Such interpolators reduce the data burden in the Numerical Control (NC) code, increase data transfer rate into the NC controller, and finally give smooth motion while machining. In this research, a new concept to control cutting load in a NURBS interpolator based on the degree of curvature was tried. This protects the cutting tool and improves machineability. To prove the system, cutting force and surface topography were evaluated. From the experimental results, the interpolator is adequate for machining a free-form surface.     

Material removal mechanisms in precision machining of new materials

Modern-day products are characterised by high-precision components. A wide range of materials, including metals and their alloys, ceramics, glasses and semiconductors, are finished to a given geometry, finish, accuracy and surface integrity to meet the service requirements. For advanced technology systems, demands for higher fabrication precision are complicated by the use of brittle materials. For efficient and economical machining of these materials, an understanding of the material removal mechanism is essential. This paper focuses on the different material removal mechanisms involved in machining of brittle materials.     

Modeling and analysis of the material removal profile for free abrasive polishing with sub-aperture pad

This paper addresses the problem of material removal in free abrasive polishing (FAP) with the sub-aperture pad both theoretically and experimentally. The effects of some polishing conditions upon the material removal are analyzed, including not only the process parameters, which refer to the normal force, angular spindle velocity and angular feed rate, but also the abrasive grain size, polishing slurry properties, topographical parameters of the sub-aperture pad, as well as tool path curvature. Based on the analysis, a model of material removal profile is proposed to facilitate more accurate polishing. First, by analyzing the contact among polishing pad, abrasive grain and workpiece surface in the micro level, the removal depth per unit length of the polishing path is derived, which is defined as the material removal index. Then, the distribution of this removal index can be obtained via modeling the pressure and relative sliding velocity in the contact region of polishing pad and workpiece. After that, the material removal profile can be calculated by integrating the material removal index along the tool path in the tool-workpiece contact region. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed model, a series of polishing experiments have been conducted. Experimental results well demonstrate that our model can accurately predict the material removal depth during the FAP.     

NURBS interpolator for constant material removal rate in open NC machine tools

Conventionally used linear or circular interpolators are undesirable for the precision machining of 3D free-form surfaces for the following reasons: the transmission errors due to the huge number of point data, discontinuity of curve segmentation, and unsmooth motion speed. In this regard, modern CNC machine tools are designed with a function for machining arbitrary parametric curves. However, these systems do not consider controlling feedrate adaptively, which dominates the quality of the machining process. This paper proposes a NURBS interpolator based on the adaptive feedrate control for the constant material removal rate. This is accomplished by varying feedrate using the curvature of a surface. The curvature-compensated feedrate system has important potential applications in ensuring part accuracy and protecting the cutting tool. The simulated and experimental results show it is applicable to real machining.     

High speed versus conventional grinding in high removal rate machining of alumina and alumina–titania

High removal rate (up to 16.6 mm³/s per mm) grinding of alumina and alumina–titania was investigated with respect to material removal and basic grinding parameters using a resin-bond 160 μm grit diamond wheel at the speeds of 40 and 160 m/s, respectively. The results show that the material removal for the single-phase polycrystalline alumina and the two-phase alumina–titania composite revealed identical mechanisms of microfracture and grain dislodgement under the grinding conditioned selected. There were no distinct differences in surface roughness and morphology for both materials ground at either conventional or high speed. An increase in material removal rate did not necessarily worsen the surface roughness for the two materials at both speeds. Also the grinding forces for the two ceramics demonstrated similar characteristics at any grinding speeds and specific removal rates. Both normal and tangential grinding forces and their force ratios at the high speed were lower than those at the conventional speed, regardless of removal rates. An increase in specific removal rate caused more rapid increases in normal and tangential forces obtained at the conventional grinding speed than those at the high speed. Furthermore, it is found that the high speed grinding at all the removal rates exerted a great amount of coolant-induced normal forces in grinding zone, which were 4–6 times higher than the pure normal grinding forces.     

Investigation of wire electrical discharge machining of thin cross-sections and compliant mechanisms

The wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) of cross-section with minimum thickness and compliant mechanisms is studied. Effects of EDM process parameters, particularly the spark cycle time and spark on-time on thin cross-section cutting of Nd–Fe–B magnetic material, carbon bipolar plate, and titanium are investigated. An envelope of feasible wire EDM process parameters is generated for the commercially pure titanium. The application of such envelope to select suitable EDM process parameters for micro feature generation is demonstrated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of EDM surface, subsurface, and debris are presented. SEM observations lead to a hypothesis based on the thermal and electrostatic stress induced fracture to explain the limiting factor for wire EDM cutting of thin-sections. Applications of the thin cross-section EDM cutting for manufacture of compliant mechanisms are discussed.     

A wafer-scale material removal rate profile model for copper chemical mechanical planarization

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) models based on the Preston equation, which states that the material removal rate (MRR) is proportional to the product of the pressure and relative velocity, have focused on representing the average MRR as a function of the pressure and relative velocity. In this study, we tried to establish a semi-empirical CMP model, which can provide the MRR profile. The model is based on a modified form of the Preston equation and involves the use of a spatial parameter (Ω). The relative velocity distribution, normal contact stress distribution, and chemical reaction rate distribution are considered for obtaining the MRR profile in the copper CMP process. The results of the modeling and experimental analysis performed in this study facilitate process optimization and provide information that can contribute to the development of a wafer-scale CMP simulator.     

High-speed dry electrical discharge machining

A novel high-speed dry electrical discharge machining (EDM) method was proposed in this study. Using this method, the material can be rapidly melted by extremely high discharge energy and flushed out of the discharge gap by high-pressure and high-speed air flow. The material removal rate (MRR) of dry EDM was significantly improved by the proposed method. The MRR of dry EDM is usually in tens mm³/min, whereas the MRR of the proposed method can be as high as 5162 mm³/min, which improves the MRR by 2nd to 3rd order of magnitude. Investigation was conducted systemically. The influences of work piece polarity, discharge current, pulse duration time, gas pressure, and electrode rotation speed on machining performance were studied. The machining mechanism of this method was thoroughly analyzed. Moreover, the re-solidified layer, surface morphology, elementary composition, and phase of AISI 304 stainless steel for high-speed dry EDM were also investigated. Theoretical and technical foundations were laid for the industry application of dry EDM.     

Influences of pulsed power condition on the machining properties in micro EDM

Micro EDM is one of the most powerful technologies which are capable of fabricating micro-structure. However, there are many operating parameters that affect the micro EDM process. Since the EDM is basically a thermal process, the supplying electrical condition can be an important factor. The conditions generally consist of several parameters such as electrical current, voltage, pulse duration, spark gap, and others. Those are decisive in removal rate, wear rate, and machining accuracy, which are characteristics of EDM. In this study, the influences of EDM pulse condition on the micro EDM properties were investigated. Voltage, current, and on/off time of the pulse were selected as experimental parameters based on a simple equation for the material removal rate. The pulse condition is particularly focused on the pulse duration and the ratio of off-time to on-time, and the machining properties are reported on tool wear, material removal rate, and machining accuracy. The experimental results show that the voltage and current of the pulse exert strongly to the machining properties and the shorter EDM pulse is more efficient to make a precision part with a higher material removal rate.