Material removal behaviors of FCC metals in nanoscale and microscale scratching: Theoretical model and experiments

The material removal behaviors of FCC metal materials at the microscale and nanoscale have not been uniformly understood. In this paper, we propose a theoretical model that unifies the microscale and nanoscale scratching mechanisms based on the plastic deformation behavior of FCC metals. A typical FCC metal surface was subjected to microscale and nanoscale scratching experiments to validate the model. The model could not only explain the transformation mechanism among the chip, burrs, and plowing during the scratching process but could also quantitatively calculate the surface morphology distribution when turning the FCC metal end face. The experimental results indicate that regardless of the machining scale, the coupled effect of the workpiece surface crystal orientation and direction primarily determines the machining results. This model is the first to provide a new manufacturing perspective that can unify the FCC metal material removal behaviors in microscale and nanoscale scratching.