Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322

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Mechanism and Machine Theory

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mechmachtheory

Research paper

A novel design method for 3D elliptical vibration-assisted

cutting mechanism
Chen Zhang∗, Yun Song
College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China, 210016

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The elliptical vibration-assisted cutting (EVC) mechanism is an important unit in the EVC
Received 22 April 2018 process. However, most of structural designs of EVC mechanism are customized, and these
Revised 11 November 2018
design cannot be applied in other EVC mechanism. This can be contributed to that no
Accepted 4 January 2019
general design principle is refined from these actual designs and result in low design ef-
ficiency. A novel design method for 3D EVC mechanism is proposed in the paper. First,
Keywords: a simplified motion schematic is designed by considering the layout form of input dis-
Design placement axis, which can be used to generate 3D motion in space. Then the structural
3D elliptical vibration-assisted cutting schematic is constructed by considering the relationship between subchain form and the
mechanism detailed structural form. Based on the designed schematic, the model of EVC mechanism
Structural schematic is established and the kinematic model is theoretically analyzed. Finally, FEM is used to
Flexure hinge
analyze and optimize the established EVC mechanism. In order to verify the feasibility of
Displacement amplification
the proposed method, a design case based on the actual requirements is given. The actual
3D EVC device is fabricated and its 3D elliptical loci is verified. The design case indicates
that the proposed method for the EVC mechanism is satisfactory and can be applied in
other designs.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Structured surface with micro/nano feature can provide advanced function such as self-cleaning action, anti-microbial
effect, rapid integration ability and optimal friction behavior. To achieve the maximum benefit from the structured surface,
application technologies of micro/nano-structured surfaces have been a fascinating research topic in the last few decades
[1]. To obtain the micro/nano-structured surface, the manufacturing technology of micro/nano-feature is prerequisite. For
generating geometrically defined surface textures, micro-machining with diamond tools is a promising approach due to the
merits of high form accuracy and flexibility [2–4]. By adding the ultrasonic elliptical vibration, micro machining provides a
potential process for precision machining of sophisticated micro/nano-structured surfaces. Elliptical vibration-assisted cut-
ting (EVC) has been found to be a very promising technique for achieving outcomes that cannot be met by traditional me-
chanical micromachining methods. In order to extend the application of elliptical vibration-assisted cutting, there are many
efforts related to the development of EVC mechanism with higher output performance and design efficiency. However, it is
still challenging for design of EVC apparatus.
In general, flexure-based compliant mechanism is used in design process of EVC apparatus in order to achieve the higher
output performance and design efficiency. The main components of flexure-based compliant mechanisms are flexure hinge.

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: meeczhang@nuaa.edu.cn (C. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2019.01.007
0094-114X/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322 309

The type of joints has a number of advantages including no backlash, zero friction, and negligible hysteresis [3,4]. A typi-
cal compliant mechanism is a monolithic piece of material, which works relying on the deflection of its flexible members
[5]. The structure parameters of a compliant mechanism should ensure that it works in elastic domain and induces no
plastic deformation. Further, the flexure-based compliant mechanisms can be combined with the displacement amplifica-
tion structures to provide the amplification of output displacement. Thus a large output displacement can be achieved. The
flexure-based compliant mechanisms with the amplification structure can be utilized in elliptical vibration-assisted cutting
device to improve machining performance [6–8]. With these flexure-based compliant mechanisms, cubic configuration is the
most predominant to achieve 3-DOF motions [9], and motion decoupling was widely regarded as the most essential factor
to guarantee motion accuracy and feedback control stability [10,11]. With current state-of-the-art decoupled mechanisms,
a large number of compliant linkages are deliberately designed to isolate input motions, which may lead to low response
speed induced by large moving inertia, as well as over-sized dimensions [12–14]. Piezo-actuators are generally used to drive
the flexure-based compliant mechanisms. Based on applied voltage, piezo-actuators can generate continuous expansion and
retraction motions with high stiffness and resolution, large blocking force and rapid response. The widely available piezo-
stacks can provide large output displacements by connecting several piezo-chips serially [15,16] for compliant mechanism
with flexure hinges. The major problem with this approach is that the electrical capacitance of piezo-stacks is very high as
compared to single piezo-chip. Consequently, this leads to extra heat generation particularly at high frequency operations
and unreliable repeatability [17]. To avoid the disadvantages of piezo-stacks, single piezo-chip actuation with displacement
amplification mechanism appears to be preferable for elliptical vibration-assisted cutting device operating at high frequen-
cies. The flexure-based compliant mechanism is a way for the delivery of vibration from piezo-chip actuation and displace-
ment amplification and is widely used in ultra-precision machining, positioning stage, etc. [18,19]. For 3D EVC mechanism, it
is required to keep uniform magnification output in three directions for generating the elliptical vibration locus. 3-DOF out-
put motions are generally required by the moving stage to reach different positions in the 3D workspace and can be used in
3D EVC mechanism to obtain the elliptical locus. In its simplest form, 3-DOF output motions can be realized by serial struc-
tures, which consist of three 1-DOF joints [4]. On the other hand, 3-DOF output motions can also be generated by parallel
structures, which consist of different subchains to provide the connection between a fixed and a moving platform [20,21].
Tian et al. [22] present the mechanical design and dynamics of a 3-DOF flexure-based parallel mechanism for micro/nano
manipulation. A novel flexure-based mechanism, which is capable of performing planar motion with three degrees of free-
dom (3-DOF), is proposed [23]. This mechanism utilizes three piezoelectric actuators to achieve desired displacements in X,
Y and θ , where the lever based amplification is used to enhance the displacement of the mechanism. A novel piezo-actuated
compliant mechanism is developed to obtain tri-axial translational motions with decoupled features for nano-cutting and
open-loop test on the prototype shows that proper strokes with low coupling and high natural frequencies are obtained as
estimated [24]. Lin et al. [25] studied tool path generation method for fabricating optical freeform surface by non-resonant
three-dimensional elliptical vibration cutting, where the flexure-based mechanism is included in 3-DOF EVC apparatus.
In above mentioned design for the EVC mechanism, most of structural designs of EVC mechanism are customized, and
these design process cannot be applied in other EVC mechanism designs. This can be contributed to that no general design
principle is refined from these actual designs and result in low design efficiency. The output performances of the design
results are unpredictable in advance. Thus, it is necessary to understand the design process of elliptical vibration-assisted
cutting mechanism and to solve the quick design problem based on the actual requirements. To simplify the design process
while maintain enough design efficiency, a novel design method for elliptical vibration-assisted cutting mechanism is intro-
duced in the paper. First, a simplified motion schematic of 3D EVC mechanism is designed by considering the layout form of
input displacement axis. Then the structural schematic of 3D EVC mechanism is constructed by establishing the relationship
between subchain form and the detailed structural form. Based on the designed structural schematic, the pseudo-rigid-body
model of 3D EVC mechanism is established. Thus the kinematic model of the pseudo-rigid-body 3D EVC mechanism is
theoretically established to verify the correctness of structure design.
The paper is organized as follows. First, design method of EVC mechanism is proposed in Section 2. Section 2.1 gives the
basic idea of the proposed design method. Section 2.2 describes the process of the proposed design method. Section 3 in-
troduces the kinematic modelling of the pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism based on the proposed design
method. A design case by using the proposed design method for 3D EVC mechanism is investigated in Section 4. Conclu-
sions are given in Section 5.

2. Design method of elliptical vibration assisted mechanism

2.1. The basic idea of the proposed design method

The elliptical vibration-assisted cutting (EVC) is a method of machining that adds a small amplitude, high frequency el-
liptical tool motion and creates intermittent contact between the tool and workpieces [26]. With an elliptical path, the tool
moves cyclically out of the workpiece to change the chip/tool motion. In EVC process, the design of the EVC mechanism
for generating the elliptical vibration locus is a key. In order to obtain elliptical vibration locus, it should include two input
displacement axes to generate the elliptical motion of tool. Thus the layout of these input displacement axes should be
firstly determined. In general, there are at least three layouts for input displacement axes: (1) parallel layout of input dis-
placement axes; (2) perpendicular layout of input displacement axes; (3) layout with arbitrary angle besides parallel layout
310 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322

Fig. 1. Layout schematic of input displacement axis.

Fig. 2. Design flowchart of EVC mechanism.

and perpendicular layout. The first layout and the second layout are easy to realize compared to the third layout. Fig. 1(a)
and (b) show the first layout of input displacement axes and second layout of input displacement axes. Whichever layout of
input displacement axes are all used to generate the 3D motion in space and are based on the actual requirements. When
selecting the layout form of input displacement axes for elliptical vibration locus generation, the basic idea of the proposed
design method can be described as follows.
Based on the actual design requirements and the output elliptical locus, the layouts of input displacement axes are
determined and the simplest motion schematic of EVC mechanism is firstly constructed by considering the connection of
the input displacement axes. In order to obtain big output displacement of EVC mechanism, displacement amplification
structure is designed and added on the simplest motion schematic of EVC mechanism. Thus the structure schematic of
EVC mechanism is accordingly constructed by considering displacement amplification structure. Then the connection points
in the structure schematic of EVC mechanism are replaced by the flexure hinge structure to establish the pseudo-rigid-
body model of EVC mechanism. The kinematic model of the pseudo-rigid-body model of EVC mechanism is theoretically
established to verify the correctness of structure design of EVC mechanism. Finally, based on the above design results, the
geometric model of EVC mechanism is established in CAD software and is analyzed and optimized in FEM software in order
to achieve the best output performance of EVC mechanism. The design flowchart of the proposed design method is shown
in Fig. 2.

2.2. The description of the proposed design method

Based on the above basic idea, design method of EVC mechanism is proposed by analyzing the existing design process
of the elliptical vibration assisted mechanism. The detailed descriptions of the proposed design method are as follows:
Step 1: Design of the simplest motion schematic.
Based on the space dimension of the output elliptical locus, the layouts of input displacement axes are determined.
Because the output is 3D elliptical vibration locus the design should include three input displacement axes. The 3D elliptical
vibration locus can be expressed as:

x = Ax cos(2π f t + ϕx )
y = Ay cos(2π f t + ϕy ) (1)
z = Az cos(2π f t + ϕz )
Where Ax , Ay and Az denote the amplitude of elliptical vibration in X, Y and Z directions; ϕ x , ϕ y and ϕ z are the phase of
elliptical vibration in X, Y and Z directions; x, y and z are the output displacement in X, Y and Z directions; f is frequency
and t is machining time.
In order to realize the 3D elliptical vibration locus output, three input displacement motion link is required to combine
the three input displacements as the output of the cutter. Thus three input displacement motion link and one output dis-
placement link should be included in the motion schematic. The motion schematic of 3D EVC mechanism is designed as
shown in Fig. 3.
In Fig. 3, link A0 O0 , link B0 O0 and link C0 O0 are the input displacement motion axes and link P0 O0 is output displacement
link. The cutter is installed in link P0 O0 and P0 is tool tip. Link A0 O0 , link B0 O0 ,link C0 O0 and link P0 O0 form moving platform
of cutter. In Fig. 3, θ 1 is the angle between link A0 O0 and link B0 O0 , θ 2 is the angle between link B0 O0 and link C0 O0 , θ 3 is
the angle between link C0 O0 and link A0 O0 . The angles θ 1 , θ 2 and θ 3 can be adjusted according to the actual requirements.
 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322 311

Fig. 3. The motion schematic of 3D EVC mechanism.

Fig. 4. The structure schematic of 3D elliptical vibration assisted mechanism.

Fig. 5. The schematic of 3D elliptical vibration assisted mechanism without output displacement in Z axis direction.

Step 2: Design of input displacement direction.

With having the simplest motion schematic, the following task is to setup the input displacement direction exerting
on link A0 O0 , link B0 O0 and link C0 O0 in order to obtain 3D elliptical vibration locus. The exerting input displacement
direction is shown in Fig. 4. Supposed that the direction of input displacement is shown as the blue arrow in Fig. 4 and the
angles between the direction of input displacement and link are α 1 , α 2 and α 3 . The variant ranges of the three angles are
0 ≤ α 1 < 180o , 0 ≤ α 2 < 180o , 0 ≤ α 3 < 180o . When the three angles α 1 , α 2 , α 3 are 180°, there is not any displacement in the
Z axis direction shown in Fig. 5. That shows there will not generate 3D elliptical vibration locus for the designed mechanism
in this condition. Beside that the 3D elliptical vibration locus can be obtained using the designed mechanism.
Step 3: Amplification structure design of input displacement.
When the output displacement meet the requirements of output performance, amplification structure in 3D elliptical
vibration assisted mechanism does not need to be considered. In general, displacement needs to be amplified by designing
amplification structure. In accordance with the motions of linkage mechanisms, the principles of mechanical displacement
amplification can be categorized into several types such as lever amplification, triangular amplification, the bridge-type am-
plification, the Scott-Russell-type amplification, the double-rocker-type amplification, etc. In these types, lever amplification
and triangular amplification are two basic amplification structure, which can be easily to connect with the designed original
structures. The mechanical structures corresponding to these two principles of displacement amplification are depicted in
Fig. 6.
312 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322

Fig. 6. The principles of mechanical displacement amplification.

Fig. 7. Structure schematic of 3D EVC mechanism with lever amplification.

In this paper, a lever amplification structure is designed to increase the output displacement of 3D EVC mechanism
shown in Fig. 7. In Fig. 7, the mechanisms D0 G0 H0 I0 , E0 J0 K0 L0 and F0 M0 N0 Q0 are lever amplification structure. The links
D0 A0 , E0 B0 and F0 C0 are designed to connect the displacement amplification structures D0 G0 H0 I0 , E0 J0 K0 L0 and F0 M0 N0 Q0
with the motion 3D EVC mechanism.
Step 4: The establishment of the pseudo-rigid-body model of EVC mechanism.
In above structure schematic of 3D EVC mechanism, the connection of links is rigid, which will result in stress concentra-
tion in actual vibration process. In order to avoid these problems, flexure hinges are designed to replace the rigid connection
among links in 3D EVC mechanism shown in Fig. 8. The specific type of flexure hinges in each connection of links can be
selected by FEM verification based on the single-axis and multi-axis flexure hinges. Thus the pseudo-rigid-body model of
3D EVC mechanism can be obtained.
Step 5: The kinematic model of the pseudo-rigid-body model of EVC mechanism.
The output locus verification of the designed pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism is important to understand
the proposed design method of 3D EVC mechanism. In this process, the relationship between input displacement and out-
put displacement is firstly established and then the output locus of tool can be obtained. The detailed process about the
establishment of kinematic model is given in Section 3.
Step 6: Construction of mechanism model.
The geometric model of the designed mechanism is established based on pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism
by considering the actual design requirements. The detailed steps are as follows:

(1) Design the total dimension of 3D EVC mechanism according to the design requirements.
 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322 313

Fig. 8. Schematic of the pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism.

(2) Replace the links in schematic of pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism with the actual solid link model under
certain shape.
(3) Select the type of flexure hinge and design the connection form of flexure hinges among links in schematic of pseudo-
rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism for displacement delivery.
(4) Design and select other accessories.
Step 7: Model analysis and optimization.
Based on the established geometric model of 3D EVC mechanism, the FEM is used to make modal analysis. The key to
generate elliptical trajectories at tool tip is tuning the resonance frequency of three vibration modes of the designed mech-
anism to be same. The tuning method is mainly FEM simulation for the designed mechanism by scanning the frequency to
obtain the resonance frequency. The structural parameters of the designed mechanism are adjusted to make the resonance
frequency close to each other and the optimal parameters of the designed mechanism are identified. Thus, the suitable ge-
ometric model to meet the actual requirements is obtained and the actual mechanism is manufactured to test the actual
output performance. The design parameters on the accuracy of the introduced simplified design method has certain influ-
ence and the proposed design method include optimization process. Thus the best design parameters can be obtained from
the optimization process. The influence of design parameters on the accuracy of the introduced simplified design method
can be almost avoided.
In the above steps, it is important to understand the kinematic modelling process of the pseudo-rigid-body model of
EVC mechanism and the generation of 3-DOF motion in space for the designed 3D EVC mechanism is verified from the
established kinematic model. Section 3 is the detailed description about the kinematic model of 3D EVC mechanism.

3. Kinematic modelling of the pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism

From the kinematics point of view, the selected rectangular circular flexure hinge can generate rotation about one axis,
and is modelled as an ideal revolute joint in 3D EVC mechanism. This indicates that the offset of revolute center during the
motion of the relative links is not taken into consideration. During the kinematic analysis, the stiffness of the flexure hinges
is also neglected.
In Fig. 8, the tool tip of pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism is P0 ; A0 , B0 and C0 are respectively displacement
output from the links D0 A0 , E0 B0 and F0 C0 . A moving coordinate frame O-XYZ is established with the origin located at the
tool tip P0 and the X axis parallel to link A0 O0 and the Z axis parallel to link O0 P0 . The direction of y axis is determined by
the right hand ruler. Considering that the links A0 D0 , B0 E0 and C0 F0 are passive to deliver the displacement from the lever
amplification structure and the lever amplification structure is just to amplify displacement, the model of locus output of
3D EVC mechanism can be simplified as the Fig. 9 by neglecting the influence of passive links A0 D0 , B0 E0 and C0 F0 , and the
lever amplification structure.
Based on the Fig. 10, kinematic model of the pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism can be established as
follows:
Step 1: Setup of input displacement of 3D EVC mechanism.
Supposed that the input displacements of passive link at point A0 , B0 , C0 are y1 , y2 , y3 and the three input displacements
meets the relationship y1 ≤ y2 ≤ y3 . If the three input displacements y1 , y2 , y3 do not meet the above relationship, then
the sequence and position of three input displacements y1 , y2 , y3 can be interchanged for obtaining the same relationship
shown in Fig. 9(a). In Fig. 9(b), the locus of tool tip moves from point P0 to point P3 and supposed the initial coordinate of
point P0 is (0,0,0) and the coordinate of point P3 is (x, y, z) . The mainly aim of kinematic modelling of 3D EVC mechanism
314 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322

Fig. 9. The motion locus schematic of tool tip for 3D EVC mechanism.

Fig. 10. Locus division of tool tip for 3D EVC mechanism.

is to obtain the locus equation moving from point P0 to point P3 when exerting the input displacement on the 3D EVC
mechanism.
Step 2: Locus division of 3D EVC mechanism.
The locus equation of moving from point P0 to point P3 is difficult to directly solve. Thus, an indirect method is proposed
to solve the locus equation of moving from point P0 to point P3 in the paper. The basic idea is that the locus of moving from
point P0 to point P3 can be divided into three parts: the locus of moving from point P0 to point P1 , the locus of moving from
point P1 to point P2 , the locus of moving from point P2 to point P3 . Fig. 10 shows the above division process. In the division
process, the initial plane is A0 B0 C0 , θ 1 denotes the angle between the plane A1 B1 C1 and plane A1 B2 C2 , θ 2 denotes the angle
between the plane A1 B2 C2 and plane A1 B2 C3 , the plane A0 B0 C0 is parallel to the plane A1 B1 C1 and its distance is y1 and the
lineB1 B2 is parallel to and same as the line C1 C2 , the length of the line B1 B2 is equal toy2 -y1 , the length of the line C2 C3 is
y3 -y2 , the lines A0 O0 , B0 O0 , C0 O0 have the same length l2 , the length of the lineP0 O0 is l1 . The pseudo-rigid-body model of
3D EVC mechanism in Fig. 8 can be described as the Fig. 11 using the above defined symbol.
Step 3: The establishment of locus equation.
−−→ −−→ −−→
Based on the above locus division of 3D EVC mechanism, supposed that P0 P1 = (x1 , y1 , z1 )T , P1 P2 = (x2 , y2 , z2 )T , P2 P3 = (x3 ,
T
−−→ −−→ −−→ −−→ −−→ −→ −→
y3 , z3 ) , then the relationship of the division process can be obtained that P0 P3 = P0 P1 + P1 P2 + P2 P3 , P2 P3 = P2 D + DP3 . Based
 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322 315

Fig. 11. The simplified pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism.

−−→
on the above relationship, the following expression about P0 P3 can be written as:
−−→
P0 P3 = (x1 + x2 + x3 , y1 + y2 + y3 , z1 + z2 + z3 )T (2)
−−→ −−→ −−→
It can be seen from the Fig. 10 that the divided three parts P0 P1 , P1 P2 and P2 P3 for the locus equation of moving from
point P0 to point P3 can be written as:
   
x1 x2 x3 0 l1 sin θ1 l1 sin θ2 cos 30o
−−→ −−→ −−→
θ2 sin 30
o
( P0 P1 P1 P2 P2 P3 ) = y1 y2 y3 = 0 0 l1 sin (3)
z1 z2 z3 y1 l2 sin θ1 1
l sin θ2 + l1 − x1 − y1 2 − l1
2 2
2 2

Substituted the Eq. (3) into the Eq. (2), the locus equation of moving from point P0 to point P3 can be obtained as:
 
l1 sin θ1 + l1 sin θ2 cos 30o
−−→
P0 P3 = l1 sin θ2 sin
30o (4)
y1 + l2 sin θ1 + 12 l2 sin θ2 + l12 − x1 2 − y1 2 − l1
Thus, the motion locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism based on the locus equation of moving from point P0 to point P3
can be established as:

x = l1 sin θ1 + l1 sin θ2 cos 30o
y = l1 sin θ2 sin 30o  (5)
z = y1 + l2 sin θ1 + 12 l2 sin θ2 + l12 − x1 2 − y1 2 − l1
Because the angles θ 1 and θ 2 are very small, the angle θ 1 and θ 2 in Fig. 10 can be approximated as:

θ1 ≈ tan θ1 = y2 −y1
3
2 l2
(6)
θ2 ≈ tan θ2 = y3 −y2
3
2 l2

Substituted the Eq. (6) into the Eq. (5), the motion locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism can be further written as:
⎧ √ √
l1 ( 3y3 +(2− 3 )y2 −2y1 )
⎨x = 3l2
l1 (y3 −y2 )
y= (7)
⎩ 3l2
y3 +y2 +y1

z= 3
+ l12 − x1 2 − y1 2 − l1
Step 4: The locus equation with displacement amplification.
In general, the output displacement of 3D EVC mechanism is not enough for the actual requirement and need to be
amplified for obtaining big output displacement. The lever amplification principle is used in the paper and supposed that
the amplification ratio is k. According to the Fig. 11, the amplification ratio k can be calculated as follows:
l4
k= (8)
l3
316 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322

Table 1
The parameters of locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism with input sinusoidal excitations.

Parameter l1 l2 A4 A5 A6 φ1 φ2 φ3 F
(mm) (mm) (μm) (μm) (μm) (RAD) (RAD) (RAD) (Hz)

Value 15 14 1 1 1 0 π /3 π /6 1

Thus the relationship between the output displacements y1 , y2 and y3 of three passive links and the input displacement
y4 , y5 and y6 of the lever amplification structures can be expressed as:
l4 l4 l4
y1 = y4 , y2 = y5 , y3 = y6 (9)
l3 l3 l3
Substituted the Eq. (9) into the Eq. (7), the motion locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism with displacement amplification
is obtained as:
⎧ √ √
l1 l4 ( 3y6 +(2− 3 )y5 −2y4 )
⎨x = 3l2 l3
l1 l4 (y6 −y5 )
y= (10)
⎩ 3l2 l3
l4 ( y6 +y5 +y4 )

z= 3l3
+ l12 − x1 2 − y12 − l1
When taking the amplification ratio k = 2, the motion locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism with displacement amplifi-
cation can be written as follows:
⎧ √ √
2l1 ( 3y6 +(2− 3 )y5 −2y4 )
⎨x = 3l2
2l1 (y6 −y5 )
y= (11)
⎩ 3l2
2 ( y6 +y5 +y4 )

z= 3
+ l12 − x1 2 − y1 2 − l1
Step 5: The establishment of locus equation with input sinusoidal excitations.
In order to obtain the input displacements y4 , y5 and y6 shown as in Fig. 11, the input sinusoidal excitations with three
directions are exerted in piezo-chip installed in 3D EVC mechanism. The input sinusoidal excitations for generating the input
displacements y4 , y5 and y6 can be expressed as:

y4 (t ) = A4 sin(2π f t + φ1 )
y5 (t ) = A5 sin(2π f t + φ2 ) (12)
y6 (t ) = A6 sin(2π f t + φ3 )
Where t is time, A4 , A5 and A6 are respectively the amplitudes of input displacements y4 , y5 and y6 , f is the frequency of
the input excitations, φ 1 , φ 2 and φ 3 are respectively the initial phase of input displacements y4 , y5 and y6 .
Substituted the Eq. (12) into the Eq. (11), the locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism with the input sinusoidal excitations
is obtained as:
⎧ √ √
2l1 ( 3A6 sin(2π f t+φ3 )+(2− 3 )A5 sin(2π f t+φ2 )−2A4 sin(2π f t+φ1 ))
⎨x = 3l2
2l1 (A6 sin(2π f t+φ3 )−A5 sin(2π f t+φ2 ))
y= (13)
⎩ 3l2
2(A6 sin(2π f t+φ3 )+A5 sin(2π f t+φ2 )+A4 sin(2π f t+φ1 ))

z= 3
+ l12 − x1 2 − y1 − l1
2

Step 6: The verification of locus equation with input sinusoidal excitations.

In order to verify the correctness of locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism with input sinusoidal excitations, a group
of parameters in Table 1 is substituted into the Eq. (13). The obtained locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism with input
sinusoidal excitations is plotted in Matlab software and the plotted curve is shown in Fig. 12. The plotted curve denotes
the output locus of the elliptical vibration for the designed 3D EVC mechanism. It can be seen from the Fig. 12 that the
plotted curve shows an elliptical locus in space. When taking other parameters, the same elliptical locus in space is also
obtained. The above result show that the established locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism with input sinusoidal excitations
is satisfied and can be used to calculate the output locus of the designed 3D EVC mechanism. In the locus generation
process, the established locus equation of 3D EVC mechanism with input sinusoidal excitations is obtained by making some
simplification and the simplification has some influence on the proposed design method. In actual process, the link size,
the joints replacement and assembly error in the physical realization will affect the trajectory of the tool tip and the real
amplification and the displacement output will reduce. The optimization process can select the best design results to reduce
the influence.

4. Design case of 3D EVC mechanism

4.1. Design of parallel 3D EVC mechanism

Based on the proposed design method of 3D EVC mechanism, a model of 3D EVC mechanism with parallel structure
is established by considering the actual requirement of 3D vibration locus modulation. In the process, design is simplified
 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322 317

Fig. 12. The schematic of output locus for the designed 3D EVC mechanism.

Fig. 13. The direction of input displacement and amplification structure of 3D EVC mechanism.

by taking the equal angle θ 1 = θ 2 = θ 3 = 120° among the three passive links A0 O0 , B0 O0 and C0 O0 . The directions of input
displacement for three passive links A0 O0 , B0 O0 and C0 O0 is vertical to the plane A0 B0 C0 and the plane A0 B0 C0 is parallel
to the axis plane XOY and the link P0 O0 is vertical to the axis plane XOY. The angles between link A0 O0 , link B0 O0 and
link C0 O0 and the directions of input displacement for three passive links A0 O0 , B0 O0 and C0 O0 are equal to 90°, that is
α 1 = α 2 = α 3 = 90° shown in Fig. 5.
The lever amplification structures are designed to connect passive links A0 O0 , B0 O0 and C0 O0 based on the Fig. 6(a).The
designed results with amplification structures is shown in Fig. 13. In Fig. 13, the mechanisms D0 G0 H0 I0 , E0 J0 K0 L0 and
F0 M0 N0 Q0 are lever amplification structure. The passive links D0 A0 , E0 B0 and F0 C0 are designed to connect the displace-
ment amplification structures D0 G0 H0 I0 , E0 J0 K0 L0 and F0 M0 N0 Q0 with the 3D elliptical vibration assisted mechanism. The
mechanisms A0 D0 G0 H0 I0 , B0 E0 J0 K0 L0 and C0 F0 M0 N0 Q0 are called multi-axis flexure hinge structure, which include amplifica-
tion structure and passive link for amplifying and delivering the input displacement. A pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC
mechanism can be established by replacing the connecting point with flexure hinge show in Fig. 8. Thus a geometric model
of the designed mechanism is established based on pseudo-rigid-body model of 3D EVC mechanism in CAD software shown
in Fig. 14. Fig. 14(a) is 3D EVC mechanism and Fig. 14(b) is schematic of 3D EVC device by combining 3D EVC mechanism.
The 3D EVC device is composed of the 3D EVC mechanism, three piezo-actuators, three preload and adjustable bi-nut
structures, fixed platform and moving frame (cutter setup frame). The 3D EVC mechanism is used to support the moving
frame and pass the 3D elliptical motions to the moving frame. The 3D elliptical motions of moving frame drive the cutter
move along the elliptical locus. In order to maintain the contact condition during the motion of such mechanisms, a suitable
preload is necessary for the piezo-actuator. The bi-nut structures are designed to preload and adjust the distance between
piezo-chip and bi-nut. Thus the uniform and stable expansion and retraction can be generated by the piezo-chip. The mag-
nitude of preload can be set by adjusting the bi-nut structures to avoid the bending and torsional movements acting at the
piezo-actuator.

4.2. Optimization of parallel 3D EVC mechanism

The optimization of 3D EVC mechanism can improve the performance of mechanism. In designed 3D EVC mechanism,
the design of multi-axis flexure hinge structure is a key in the structure of the 3D EVC mechanism. The multi-axis flexure
hinge structure includes flexure hinges and subchains. The parameters, which affect the mechanism performance, are the
318 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322

Fig. 14. Geometric model of designed 3D EVC mechanism and device.

Table 2
The relationship between the length of subchain and the displacement of
tool tip.

No The length of subchain (mm) The output displacement (μm)

1 10 2.16
2 20 2.58
3 30 2.64
4 40 2.50
5 50 2.36
6 60 2.07
7 70 1.85

Fig. 15. The relationship between the length of subchain and the displacement of tool tip.

length of subchain and the ratio between radius and thickness of flexure hinge. A discrete optimization method is proposed
to obtain the optimized parameters of the 3D EVC mechanism by analyzing the influence of these parameters on mechanism
performance.
In order to optimize the performance of 3D EVC mechanism, a discrete optimization method assisted by FEM is used to
obtain the optimized parameters. The detailed process is as follows.

Step 1: FEM mesh generation of 3D EVC mechanism.

Step 2: Exerting input displacement 1 μm at the multi-axis flexure hinge to determine the influence on the displacement
of tool tip when modifying the length of subchain.

Based on the above method, the relationship between the length of subchain and the displacement of tool tip can be
obtained as Table 2. At the same time, the data in Table 2 is also showed in Fig. 15
It can be observed from the Table 2 and Fig. 15 that the change of subchain length will have influence on the output
displacement of tool tip. When the length of subchain is 30 mm, the tool tip will obtain the maximum output displacement
 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322 319

Table 3
The relationship between the ratio R/t and the output dis-
placement of tool tip.

No The ratio of R/t The output displacement (μm)

1 0.5 2.10
2 0.75 2.23
3 1.167 2.57
4 2 2.64
5 4.5 2.92

Fig. 16. The relationship between the value of R/t and the displacement of tool tip.

Table 4
The optimization results of 3D EVC mechanism.

Parameters L/mm R/mm t/mm

The optimization value 30 3.5 3

with 2.64 μm. When the length of subchain is more than or less than 30 mm, the generated displacement of tool tip will
decrease with the length of subchain. This influence can be contributed to the flexure deformation on the output displace-
ment of tool tip. Based on the above analysis, the length of subchain with the higher output displacement is determined to
be 30 mm.
Step 3: Exerting input displacement with 1 μm at the subchain to determine the influence on the displacement of tool
tip when modifying the value of R/t. The relationship between the ratio R/t and the output displacement of tool tip are
shown in Table 3 and Fig. 16.
It can be seen from Table 3 and Fig. 16 that the output displacement will increase with the increase of the ratio of R/t
which might be caused by that the compliance of the flexure hinge increases and stiffness of the flexure hinge decreases
when the radius of flexure hinge increase. The ratio of R/t = 1.167 is transition point and the increase velocity of output
displacement becomes slowly when the ratio R/t is more than 1.167. By considering the stiffness and fatigue of flexure
hinge, the R/t = 1.167 is considered as the optimization value while the width h of flexure hinge is 10 mm. Thus the value of
R and t can be calculated as the 3.5 mm and 3 mm.
Based on the above optimization process, the optimized parameters of 3D EVC mechanism can be obtained as shown
Table 4.

4.3. Construction of 3D EVC device

Based on the optimized results, all of the revolute joints can be replaced by flexure hinges in the physical realization
as a monolithic form. The flexure hinge is a type of compliant joint which can be designed in the right circular shape to
generate micro rotational output motion. Piezo-actuators can be used in the actuation to provide linear input motions for
the amplification of the outputs. The 3D EVC mechanism can be fabricated by a standard EDM wire cutting machine. Thus
a prototype device, as shown in Fig. 17, is fabricated to validate the feasibility of the proposed design method. Fig. 17 shows
the illustration of 3D EVC device by replacing the revolute joints by right circular flexure hinges of the same dimension in
three directions.
320 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322

Fig. 17. The prototype of the 3D EVC device.

Fig. 18. The elliptical trajectory under phase difference 0°

 C. Zhang and Y. Song / Mechanism and Machine Theory 134 (2019) 308–322 321

4.4. Loci output of 3D EVC device

The actual elliptical loci of the tool tip for phase differences ranging from 0° to 360° in 15° increments were measured
for the fabricated 3D EVC device. For each phase difference, the measured data are used to fit an elliptical locus in space in
Matlab software. Fig. 18 shows the actual measured elliptical loci for a phase difference of 0° in the three directions in 3D
space. The red arrow denotes the vibration direction. It can be seen that the elliptical loci can be generated in 3D space and
that loci with well-defined profiles can be generated.

4.5. Discussion

The proposed design method for elliptical vibration-assisted cutting mechanism is utilized to construct a 3D EVC mech-
anism based on the actual requirements. The output performance of the established 3D EVC mechanism is optimized with
combining FEA and discrete idea and the final optimized results are actually fabricated to verify the feasibility of 3D ellip-
tical loci generation. Thus a 3D EVC mechanism can be quickly established according to the proposed design method and
the obtained actual results can meet the requirements without making further modification. The design case indicates that
the proposed design method for the EVC mechanism is satisfactory and can be used to realize the quick design of EVC
mechanism. At the same time, the proposed design method can be extended to apply in design of other type of elliptical
vibration-assisted cutting mechanism. More verification for the proposed design method will be our further work.

5. Conclusions

The elliptical vibration-assisted cutting (EVC) is a method of rapidly creating ultra-precision, free-form surface with fea-
tures smaller than micro scale structures and the EVC mechanism is an important unit in the elliptical vibration-assisted
cutting. In order to solve the quick design problem based on the actual requirement, a design method for elliptical vibration-
assisted cutting mechanism is proposed in the paper. The following is a summary of findings from the present work:
• A novel design method for elliptical vibration-assisted cutting mechanism is proposed and the basic design flowchart
based on the actual design requirements and the output elliptical locus is given in the paper.
• A simplified motion schematic of EVC mechanism is designed by considering the layout form of input displacement axis
and the structural schematic of EVC mechanism is constructed by establishing the relationship between subchain form
and the detailed structural form.
• The pseudo-rigid-body model of EVC mechanism is established based on the structural schematic and the kinematic
model of the pseudo-rigid-body EVC mechanism is theoretically established to verify the correctness of structure design
based on the structural schematic.
• Based on the proposed design method, a 3D EVC mechanism case based on the actual requirements is given and the
model of the 3D EVC mechanism is established. The output performance of the established 3D EVC mechanism is opti-
mized with combining FEA and discrete idea. The design case indicates that the proposed design method for the 3D EVC
mechanism is satisfactory.
• The actual 3D EVC device is fabricated and the 3D elliptical loci is obtained from the fabricated 3D EVC device to verify
the feasibility of 3D elliptical loci generation. Thus a 3D EVC mechanism can be quickly established according to the
proposed design method and the obtained actual results can meet the requirements without making further modification.

Acknowledgments

This paper was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China under grants no 51675277 and by the High level
Talents Project of “six talents summit” in Jiangsu, no. GDZB-011.

Supplementary materials

Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.
2019.01.007.

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