A study on critical depth of cuts in micro grooving

Ultra precision diamond cutting is a very efficient manufacturing method for optical parts such as HOE, Fresnel lenses, diffraction lenses, and others. During micro cutting, the rake angle is likely to become negative because the tool edge radius is considerably large compared to the sub-micrometer-order depth of cut. Depending on the ratio of the tool edge radius to the depth of cut, different micro-cutting mechanism modes appear. Therefore, the tool edge sharpness is the most important factor which affects the qualities of machined parts. That is why diamond, especially monocrystal diamond which has the sharpest edge among all other materials, is widely used in micro-cutting. The majar issue is regarding the minimum (critical) depth of cut needed to obtain continuous chips during the cutting process. In this paper, the micro machinability near the critical depth of cut is investigated in micro grooving with a diamond tool. The experimental results show the characteristics of micro-cutting in terms of cutting force ratio (Fx/Fy), chip shape, surface roughness, and surface hardening near the critical depth of cut.