Ultra-precision nano-structure fabrication by amplitude control sculpturing method in elliptical vibration cutting

•This paper studies the nano-structure fabrication on hardened steel.•We utilized elliptical vibration cutting equipped with the ultra-precision amplitude control sculpturing method.•A series of analytical and experimental investigations were conducted to clarify the machinable part geometry.

This paper studies the nano-structure fabrication on hardened steel by means of elliptical vibration cutting equipped with the ultra-precision amplitude control sculpturing method. Machining performance of the amplitude control sculpturing method is investigated, and the limitation in nano-scale machining is explored. In this proposed method, machinable part geometry is essentially restricted by vibration conditions and tool geometry. In addition, a considerable error between the amplitude command and the envelope of the tool trajectory is generated when the slope of the machining part geometry becomes steep. To overcome this error, a compensation method for the amplitude control command is proposed. In order to clarify the machining performance of the proposed technology, a series of analytical and experimental investigations are conducted. Furthermore, by applying the proposed command compensation method, nano-structures with a large ratio of structure height to wave length are machined accurately. The proposed sculpturing method is subsequently applied to the machining of nano-textured grooves and a three-dimensional grid surface, which verifies the feasibility of the proposed amplitude control sculpturing method.