Surface Quality Improvement for Ultrasonic-Assisted Inner Diameter Sawing with Six-Axis Force Sensors

Ultrasonic-assisted inner diameter machining is a slicing method for hard and brittle materials. During this process, the sawing force is the main factor affecting the workpiece surface quality and tool life. Therefore, based on indentation fracture mechanics, a theoretical model of the cutting force of an ultrasound-assisted inner diameter saw is established in this paper for surface quality improvement. The cutting experiment was carried out with alumina ceramics (99%) as an exemplar of hard and brittle material. A six-axis force sensor was used to measure the sawing force in the experiment. The correctness of the theoretical model was verified by comparing the theoretical modeling with the actual cutting force, and the influence of machining parameters on the normal sawing force was evaluated. The experimental results showed that the ultrasonic-assisted cutting force model based on the six-axis force sensor proposed in this paper was more accurate. Compared with the regular tetrahedral abrasive model, the mean value and variance of the proposed model’s force prediction error were reduced by 5.08% and 2.56%. Furthermore, by using the proposed model, the sawing processing parameters could be updated to improve the slice surface quality from a roughness Sa value of 1.534 µm to 1.129 µm. The proposed model provides guidance for the selection of process parameters and can improve processing efficiency and quality in subsequent real-world production.