When I came across the post: "DMM questions" in the "Vinyl Mastering, Laquer cutting, Pro's and others" section of this forum a few days ago, I asked myself the following question:
How exactly does it work with ultrasonic support?
With the DMM (cutting in copper), there were numerous modifications to the cutting head, the stylus and the audio control. This was necessary because the copper layer (exact material composition unknown) is much harder than the lacquer layer that was cut and you cannot cut as deep.
Since the depth of cut must remain the same, the raked angle is increased (the farmer drives his plow more brutally into the ground) and thus one can penetrate deeper into the material. To do this, a diamond is used (instead of the sapphire used in lacquer) and the geometry of the diamond is modified. This modification also includes the omission of the phase cut on the cutting edges.
However, this creates a new problem: the side walls of the cutting groove will no longer be "clean" and as smooth as with lacquer cuts.
Exactly the same problem is experienced by all those who cut with diamond in Pet-G or PVC. The "silent-cut" is never as "clean" as with lacquer cuts.
At that time, the problem was solved by additionally using an "overlapping" ultrasonic signal! From now on it was much easier to cut into the "hard" metal and also the walls became clean again.
But how exactly was this done?
I also researched that ultrasound was used (experimentally) for lacquer cuts before the time of the DMM. Frequencies from 25kHz to 40kHz were used.
I looked around a bit on the Internet and found a wide variety of ultrasonic cutters for plastic, paper, wood, rubber, metal and composites. In fact, with the support of ultrasound, you cut into the material much easier than without and the cuts become extremely clean.
e.g.:
https://www.sonotec.com/en/column/cutting_quality.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LjhsWh3ixw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA46h7Db1BY
Now I was thinking, "What if I support my cutting system with ultrasound?"
- Will the cutting stylus then be more protected or wear out faster?
- Will the cut really be better?
- And if I want to use the system, how should an ultrasonic actuator be applied?
- In the X-direction, in the Y-direction or in the Z-direction?
- Or completely differently?
I don't know if anyone has thought about this before, or even has experience with ultrasound assisted cutting?
Since I am currently very busy with my project, I currently have an excess of lack of time. But there is still room in my mind for such fantasies and I would like to test the system. At the same time, I don't want to start from scratch.
So if someone knows something about it, please for information.
Kind regards from Austria
Thomas