One of the versatile microstructures with numerous applications is represented by V-grooves. Their range of the applicability is broad and covers many types of components from mechanical to optical. Their fabrication process is accompanied by challenges related to their tight form accuracy, shape complexity and surface quality requirements. The vast majority of previously-reported axial cutting strategies rely on constant cutting depth approaches characterized by finish passes. The main objective of the current study was to investigate a newer constant cutting area (CCA) approach to be contrasted with a more conventional implementation involving a constant cutting thickness (CCT). However, unlike the previous axial cutting variants, both methods presented in this work lack finish passes that tend to increase the overall V-groove cutting time. The in-depth comparisons of the cutting force and V-groove facet surface quality seem to suggest even if CCA could generate slightly lower areal roughness for certain chip thickness values, its superior productivity might recommend it as the preferred V-groove axial cutting variant. Nonetheless, both CCT and CCA implementations detailed in this study were capable of generating V-groove surfaces characterized by optical surface quality (S_a < 10 nm).

V形槽代表了一种用途广泛的多功能微结构。它们的适用范围很广，涵盖了从机械到光学的许多类型的组件。它们的制造过程伴随着与其紧密的形状精度，形状复杂性和表面质量要求有关的挑战。先前报告的绝大多数轴向切削策略都依赖于以精加工为特征的恒定切削深度方法。当前研究的主要目的是研究一种较新的恒定切削面积（CCA）方法，并将其与更常规的涉及恒定切削厚度（CCT）的实现方法进行对比。但是，与以前的轴向切削方法不同，本工作中介绍的两种方法都缺乏精加工道次，因为精加工道次会增加整个V形槽的切削时间。切削力和V槽刻面表面质量的深入比较似乎表明，即使对于某些切屑厚度值，CCA可以产生略低的面粗糙度，其卓越的生产率也可能将其推荐为首选的V槽轴向切削方案。尽管如此，本研究中详述的CCT和CCA实施都能够生成以光学表面质量为特征的V形沟槽表面（S _a  <10 nm）。