The Experiment Investigation of the Tool Wear in Diamond Ultra-Precision Cutting of Aluminum Alloy Mirror

Abstract

Due to its relatively low mass density, low cost, high strength, the aluminum alloy is an ideal optical material to fabricate the large metal mirror of infrared band optical systems. The diamond ultra-precision cutting can produce ultra smooth machined surfaces without other finishing processes. Consequently, it can be used as a effective method to fabricate the large metal mirror. However, the tool wear is severe during the ultra-precision processes, which will ruduces the surface error of the large metal mirror. In this work, the ultra-precision cutting tests were performed to investigate the tool wear. The tool wear was examined by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the chip was examined by using x-ray energy dispersive spectrdmeter (EDS). The tool wear mechanism and the influence of the chutting parameters on the tool wear were investigated. The results show that the daimond tool occurred abrasive wear and diffusing wear in the diamond ultra-precision cutting of aluminum alloy. The average clearance wear width increases with an increase of the cutting speed and the feed rate. There is a slight rise in the average clearance wear width as the depth of the cut increases in the range of 5μm-15μm. The average clearance wear width obviously increases when the depth of the cut reaches to 20μm.