Material removal modes and processing mechanism in microultrasonic machining of ball ceramic tool

Microelectrochemical systems (MEMSs) have important applications in electronic information, aerospace, national defense and other fields. The microhemispherical concave die is the manufacturing foundation for the MEMS system. To clarify the forming mechanism of microhemispherical concave dies machined by microultrasonic machining with ceramic whole ball tools, a material removal model was presented. Furthermore, the kinetic energy model of a spherical abrasive under the action of microultrasonic and whole ball ceramic tools was also established. The model of the brittle-plastic transition removal mode is correlated with the kinetic energy of the abrasive model. The surface morphology of miniature molds exhibits significant variations attributed to the altered material removal mode, the removal mechanism was analyzed. The theoretical model is verified by experiments. Experiments were performed with lower and higher viscosity polishing fluids. The surface roughness of the plastic removal area in each group was 96.4 and 60.1 nm. Due to the high viscosity polishing fluid eliminating some of the cavitation phenomena, the overall surface quality is improved; hence, the surface roughness decreases by 37.6% under the same processing conditions. In the low-viscosity experimental group, the surface roughness was 113.61, 302.28 and 367.24 nm, respectively. The experimental verification confirmed that variations in surface morphology occur, even with the same removal mode applied at different locations on the microconcave die. The reasons for the surface roughness variation in different areas of the microconcave die are analyzed and reveal the influence of ultrasonic cavitation on the material removal mode in microultrasonic machining.