Review of micro/nano machining by utilizing elliptical vibration cutting

•As compared with the OC technology, the advantageous of EVC is clarified.•The development of different elliptical vibrators is introduced in detail.•Micro/nano machining technics are expatiated with different elliptical vibrators.•The current development trends of the EVC technology are analyzed.

Textured surfaces with sophisticated micro/nano structures can provide interesting and advanced functions. In order to promote those unique functions into the practical use, high performance manufacturing technologies are required. Nowadays, elliptical vibration cutting (EVC) is attracting more and more attentions due to its excellent machining performances, especially the advantageous in the precision machining of difficult-to-cut materials. The emphasis on this literature review is the micro/nano machining technology by applying EVC. The development of the EVC technology is simply introduced, and then the advantageousness of EVC in the machining process is explored in detail. As following, the development of different EVC devices are introduced, and the applications of the micro/nano structure fabrication is detailedly expatiated by applying the different types of elliptical vibrators. By controlling the motion of the ultra-precision machine tool itself, the micro/nano structure can be accurately fabricated on various workpiece materials with the reduction of cutting forces, burr generation, tool wear, et al. in EVC process. Moreover, a unique amplitude control sculpturing method, where the depth of cut is arbitrary changed by controlling the vibration amplitude in the machining process, is introduced. By applying the amplitude control sculpturing method, ultra-precision micro/nano structures can be efficiently sculptured especially on the difficult-to-cut materials. Finally, the elliptical vibration texturing process is also explored in the fast micro/nano machining of the simple and regular structures. The EVC technology is expected to promote the development of micro/nano machining process in the actual industrial applications.