Analysis of cutting forces in the ultrasonic elliptical vibration-assisted micro-groove turning process

Micro-grooving, as a form of surface texturing, has a wide array of industrial applications. However, conventional methods of micro-grooving are plagued by numerous problems including large burrs, big cutting forces, and poor machining quality. In this paper, ultrasonic elliptical vibration cutting is used to assist micro-groove turning on cylindrical surfaces. The elliptical locus during the cutting process is generated by a newly designed 2D resonant ultrasonic vibrator. The objective of this paper is to predict turning behavior such as the cutting forces in the ultrasonic elliptical vibration-assisted micro-groove turning process. A simplified cutting force analysis model which considers the geometry of the micro-groove features is established by analyzing the cross-sectional area of the cut and the elliptical vibration locus in the ultrasonic elliptical vibration-assisted micro-groove turning process. The removed chip volumes per vibration cycle are calculated by integrating the cross-sectional area of the cut in the elliptical vibration locus direction. In this process, the volume of the material ahead of the tool is proposed as an indicator to analyze and model the cutting forces. The cutting forces are determined by combining the chip geometry with the tool, and the removed chip volumes per vibration cycle are used to predict the behavior of cutting force in different machining conditions. The influence of vibration conditions and machining conditions on the removed chip volumes per vibration cycle are analyzed, and a series of micro-groove cutting experiments under different machining conditions are performed to verify the effect by comparing with the variation trend of measured cutting forces in the ultrasonic elliptical vibration-assisted micro-groove turning process. Results show the effectiveness of the indicator of the removed chip volumes per vibration cycle for cutting force in elliptical vibration-assisted micro-groove turning process.