Investigation of hybrid micro-texture fabrication in elliptical vibration-assisted cutting

Various micro-texturing methods have been used to control surface topography. However, most of the available methods are inherently difficult to adopt for the efficient generation of intricate micro-textures on cylindrical surfaces. In this paper, a novel ultrasonic elliptical vibration-assisted cutting technique based on a micro-texturing model is proposed to fabricate hybrid micro-textures with different geometric characteristics. In the proposed elliptical vibration-assisted hybrid micro-texturing method an intricately shaped primary micro-texture is generated by elliptical vibration-assisted cutting, while the desired secondary textures are simultaneously constructed through a controlled intersection with neighboring elliptical vibration-assisted cutting loci. The cutting loci for the fabrication of the hybrid micro-textures is mathematically calculated according to a geometric model of hybrid micro-texturing. The topography of the hybrid dimples is analyzed to verify the correctness of the cutting locus generation method. Locus compensation methods, considering the elliptical vibration locus and the tool nose radius are proposed to reduce fabrication errors during the hybrid dimple generation process. Micro-scale hybrid dimples, which are in close compliance with the results of the mathematical calculations, were successfully fabricated on machined cylindrical surfaces. The comparison of the results shows that the proposed method is satisfactory and can be used to predict and generate hybrid micro-textures on cylindrical surfaces.