Development of ultrasonic elliptical vibration cutting and its application

With the rapid development of aerospace and defense industries, the shape of products is becoming more and more complex, and the requirements for product processing accuracy and surface quality as well as tool life are getting higher and higher. Ultrasonic elliptical vibration cutting (UEVC) can overcome the limitations of traditional cutting methods in difficult-to-machine materials, high surface integrity and high performance and have been widely used, especially in the processing quality and performance assurance of hard and brittle materials such as ceramics, glass, composite materials and cemented carbide. At the same time, in the expansion from the field of manufacturing and processing to the fields of biomedicine and micro–nano-manufacturing, the requirements for precision are almost strict, which poses higher challenges to UEVC technology and its devices. With this trend, many new UEVC devices and applications have been put forward, however, few people have studied them from a comprehensive perspective. In order to fill this gap in literature and understand the development trend of UEVC, this study gives an important overview of UEVC, including its cutting characteristics, device development and application in difficult-to-machine materials. Firstly, the advantages brought by the cutting characteristics of UEVC are analyzed. Next, the development status and shortcomings of UEVC devices with different excitation modes in structural design and optimization are discussed, and their advantages and disadvantages are compared and analyzed. Then, the application of UEVC in difficult-to-machine materials in recent years is expounded, and the influence of various cutting parameters on tool wear and surface quality is analyzed. Finally, a summary of the full text is made, and several prospects for the future development of UEVC are proposed, which points out the direction for future research.