Ductile Mode Cutting of Glass

Abstract

Recently, the industrial application of glass has increased enormously because of its excellent and unique mechanical, physical, chemical and optical properties. However, machining of glass is still a major problem for the manufacturing industry since it is very brittle and high hardness. In this chapter, grooving and cutting tests of soda-lime glass are conducted to evaluate its cutting performance using an ultra-precision lathe with a single crystal diamond tool. The machined workpiece surface topography, chip formation and surface roughness are examined using a SEM, AFM and white light interferometer. Tool wear is measured using OMIS. Experimental results indicate that ductile mode cutting of soda-lime glass is achieved when the undeformed chip thickness being less than a critical value. Ultrasonic vibration assisted cutting is employed to improve ductile mode cutting performance of soda-lime glass. Continuous layer chip and smooth surface are obtained in ultrasonic vibration assisted cutting of soda-lime glass, which largely improve its machinability in ductile mode cutting. But extremely short tool life is the main constrain for realizing the ultrasonic vibration assisted ductile mode cutting of glass in industry.