Research on full-aperture ductile cutting of KDP crystals using spiral turning technique

Single point diamond face flycutting technique is widely applied to fabricate potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals because of their characteristics of softness, brittleness, deliquescence and anisotropy. This paper studies the feasibility of machining KDP crystals through spiral turning method based on the ductile cutting mechanism of brittle materials. The spiral scratch method is employed to analyze various conditions of achieving brittle-ductile transition in different cutting directions where the critical depth of cut is obtained. The cutting forces and surface formation processes within different cutting parameters are discussed and the parameters ensuring full-aperture ductile turning are acquired. White light interferometer and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) are used to evaluate the coherence of machined surface qualities in different cutting directions. The results indicate that the critical depth of cut varies from cutting directions significantly and fluctuates from about 200 nm to 1000 nm under the experimental condition. Cutting forces display periodical variation with the change of cutting direction and the periodical trend blurs, even ultimately disappears, with the decrease of the cutting parameters. Root-Mean-Square (RMS) value of the fabricated surface roughness fluctuates from 1.3 nm to 1.7 nm on the whole surface with no distinct anisotropic distribution of the surface morphology according to the results observed by AFM. Compared with face flycutting method, spiral turning method has capability to generate complex surface profiles such as aspheric or freeform surfaces and can also be used to compensate the deformation error of KDP crystals caused by vacuum suction during fabrication.