A Study of Ultrasonically Assisted Fly Cutting for High Precision Machining Hard Brittle Materials

This paper describes ultrasonically assisted fly cutting for finishing advanced ceramics for hot-press dies used to fabricate glass lenses. Fly cutting can perform shallow machining, which realizes ductile-mode cutting of hard, brittle materials. Ultrasonically assisted machining can increase the critical cutting depth (i.e., the maximum cutting depth for ductile-mode machining of a surface). The technique proposed in this paper combines both techniques and enables precise finishing of advanced ceramics at a high machining efficiency. Ultrasonic assisted fly cutting was found to reduce tool fracture and improve the finished surface quality compared with conventional fly cutting.