This article summarizes laser assisted single point diamond turning (SPDT) of select brittle and hard materials, using the μ-LAM process. These materials all have significant industrial importance in the modern day. It is shown that the μ-LAM process can produce smooth surfaces, with roughness values range from 40 nm RMS down to subnanometer RMS.
Mass production of Ge lenses is a very common operation in the infrared (IR) optics manufacturing industry. The process of choice for production of such optics is single point diamond turning (SPDT). Ge is a very suitable material for SPDT and this gives the ability to produce complex elements with excellent surface finishes (<5 nm RMS). In this paper the application of the Micro-LAM (referred to μ-LAM hereafter) process in SPDT of single crystal Ge is reported. The main idea is to investigate the maximum in-feed rates for a spindle speed of 5000 RPM as function of the tool nose radius and rake angle. Typical industry practice is to machine Ge with a spindle speed of 5000 RPM to 12000 RPM, and finishing in-feed rates between 0.5 μm/rev and 1 μm/rev. It is shown that an increase in the tool nose radius leads to an increase in the maximum in-feed achievable without the appearance of brittle fracture zones on the surface. It is also shown that using larger negative rake angles can also enable higher tool in-feeds without trade-off’s to the surface quality.
In this paper, experimental results on single point diamond turning (SPDT) of fused silica glass, using the µ- LAM process is reported. It is shown that with a certain combination of tooling geometry, coolant, and laser beam power, surfaces with roughness values of 20 nm - 30 nm RMS can be achieved. Such surfaces are obtained with spindle speeds of 1000 RPM. All the experiments are done on planar samples. For tool machining track lengths greater than 3 km, a tool wear-land of 10 µm on the flank face of the tool was observed.
Optical devices are extremely important since they play a critical role in optical recording and display. Single point diamond turning is one of the most common methods to create plastic optics. Diamond turning of plastics is influenced by a wide variety of factors such as the glass transition temperature of the polymer, other material properties and operator controlled cutting conditions. Since diamond is one of the hardest materials in nature and polymers are relatively soft, little tool wear is expected. But the optics industry claims that tool wear is a major problem. Most of the optical industry uses Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and Polycarbonate (PC) for creating optics. The objective of this research is to optimize machining parameters (such as feed, depth of cut, cutting speed and rake angle) to produce optical surface quality (RMS Surface finish < 10 nm) while minimizing tool wear for the two materials. A wide range of experiments were performed on the two materials by varying machining parameters and measuring worn tools using the Electron Beam Induced Deposition (EBID) technique in the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). In the experimental conditions used, PMMA was found to have better surface finish than PC when machined with a zero-rake angle diamond tool. Polycarbonate was found to wear the tool more than PMMA under similar cutting conditions. It was also found that Polycarbonate is more sensitive to chip management and chip geometry than PMMA. Detailed effects of all machining parameters for the two materials were studied.
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