Investigation on the influence of aerostatic pressure upon surface generation in flycutting

Single-point diamond flycutting is an important technology for cutting flat KH2PO4 (potassium dihydrogen phosphate) crystals of large size. However, there always exist some undesirable waviness errors on the machined surface, which can directly reduce the optical performance of the potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals. This article presents a kind of low-frequency waviness errors with wavelength about 26 mm along the feeding direction in single-point diamond flycutting, which has not been described yet. In order to find the main source of the mentioned waviness errors, the relationship between the displacement of the cutting tool and the aerostatic pressure was quantitatively studied for the first time. And then, surface simulation considering the aerostatic pressure fluctuations was carried out based on the relationship. Besides, a novel method that can achieve online submicron feeding along axial direction in single-point diamond flycutting without complex structure was proposed considering the spindle motion errors, the spindle dynamic characteristics and the aerostatic pressure. The experimental results validate that the mentioned waviness errors are mainly generated by the bolt stretched phenomenon and deformation of the big disk flycutting head due to the aerostatic pressure fluctuations. And the proposed method can achieve a cutting depth of about 120 nm when the aerostatic pressure increases from 0.52 to 0.56 MPa, which can reduce the cutting force and is beneficial for the performance of single-point diamond flycutting.