The utilization of advanced materials like ceramics, composites etc. has
increased these days and simultaneously machining of these hard, brittle and costly
materials is very challenging. Industries are relying on non-conventional machining
processes because conventional machining processes have many limitations to machine
hard and brittle materials. The birth of modern machining processes like Ultrasonic
Machining (USM) has taken place due to these limitations in conventional machining.
In USM, material is removed due to action of abrasive grains and vibrations cutting
tool during machining. Up to some extent, it overcomes the problems of conventional
machining. Besides USM has some drawbacks e.g. low material removal rate, high
wear rate of tool. As it tools continuously strikes on the workpiece, there is oversize in
produced cavities and a limit of depth in drilling operation. Optimization of process
parameters can improve all these problems. The literature survey study has shown, in
drilling and milling operations, a hybrid machining process named Rotary Ultrasonic
Machining (RUM) gives tremendous results as compared to ultrasonic machining
alone. In recent years, it is gaining popularity due to its intelligent machining in
industries. The present paper confers about the technique of parametric optimization of
ultrasonic machining and future aspects of rotary ultrasonic machining processes.
Keywords: Abrasive particles shape and sizes, Ceramics and composites, Hard
and brittle material, Hybrid machining, Machining parameters, Rotary ultrasonic
machining, Ultrasonic machining.
