Effects of diamond cutting tool's rake angle and edge radius on the diamond turned surface quality

For the purpose of realizing the brittle material's turning in ductile mode on the basis of optimizing the diamond cutting tool's geometrical parameters, the Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics and Finite Element Method are applied to stimulate the stress distribution and micro-cracks' propagation in the cutting region generated under different rake angles and edge radius. The cutting experiments on single crystal silicon surface are then conducted to verify the stimulation results, which show that the propagation of micro-cracks can be restrained from atomic-size cracks when utilizing the diamond cutting tools with -15 degree to -25 degree rake angles. As a result of increasing the critical depth of cut value of brittle-ductile transition, the goal of ductile-mode turning can be achieved. In addition, with a smaller cutting edge radius, the turning of brittle material in ductile-mode can be easily realized, resulting in good diamond turned surface quality.