Single crystal diamond micro-cutting tools, which are used for fabrication of precision micro-parts, have very sharp tool
edges with radii in the range of tens of nanometers or even nanometers. Although there are many types of tools, the tools
with a rounded nose are treated in this paper. They can be used for fabrication of very smooth and accurate surface with
3D micro structures such as micro-lens arrays, diffractive optical elements and so on. The machined quality is highly
depending on the tool edges' states and it is desired to manage them. This paper presents a measuring instrument based
on atomic force microscope (AFM), which is designed and constructed for on-machine measurement of the cutting edge
profile. It is a combination of an AFM probe unit for 3D edge profile measurement and an alignment system with an
optical sensor for aligning the probe-tip with the tool's edge top so that the measurement can be carried out in a short
time. Measurement experiments of micro-tools with (nominal) nose radii of 8 μm and 0.2 mm are summarized to show
the performance of the instrument. And the nose radii were evaluated as 7.2 μm and 0.188 mm, respectively.
An atomic force microscope (AFM) system is used for large-area measurement with a spiral scanning strategy, which is
composed of an air slide, an air spindle and a probe unit. The motion error which is brought from the air slide and the air
spindle will increase with the increasing of the measurement area. Then the measurement accuracy will decrease. In
order to achieve a high speed and high accuracy measurement, the probe scans along X-direction with constant height
mode driven by the air slide, and at the same time, based on the change way of the motion error, it moves along Zdirection
conducted by piezoactuator. According to the above method of error compensation, the profile measurement
experiment of a micro-structured surface has been carried out. The experimental result shows that this method is
effective for eliminating motion error, and it can achieve high speed and precision measurement of micro-structured
surface.
Single crystal diamond tools are used for fabrication of precision parts [1-5]. Although there are many types of tools that
are supplied, the tools with round nose are popular for machining very smooth surfaces. Tools with small nose radii,
small wedge angles and included angles are also being utilized for fabrication of micro structured surfaces such as microlens
arrays [6], diffractive optical elements and so on. In ultra precision machining, tools are very important as a part of
the machining equipment. The roughness or profile of machined surface may become out of desired tolerance. It is thus
necessary to know the state of the tool edge accurately. To meet these requirements, an atomic force microscope (AFM)
for measuring the 3D edge profiles of tools having nanometer-scale cutting edge radii with high resolution has been
developed [7-8]. Although the AFM probe unit is combined with an optical sensor for aligning the measurement probe
with the tools edge top to be measured in short time in this system, this time only the AFM probe unit was used. During
the measurement time, that was attached onto the ultra precision turning machine to confirm the possibility of profile
measurement system.
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