Advanced engineering ceramics have been highlighted mainly owing to their superior hardness, corrosion/wear resistance, and thermal insulation performances. However, they are usually very difficult-to-cut because of their high brittleness. In light of this, ultra-precision machining has been studied to perform ductile-regime cutting in the machining of ceramics. Ductile-regime cutting can feature a smoother surface, and lower subsurface damage as the dominant material response during cutting showed ductile behavior. Researchers have investigated promoting ductileregime cutting to improve the machinability of ceramics. In this study, various coating materials were applied to the workpiece surface, and their effects on machinability improvements were explored. A total of 6 surface coatings and lubricants were applied to soda-lime glass. The critical depth of cut (CDC), the depth where the ductile-brittle transition (DBT) occurred, was increased in all coatings and lubricants, with an improved ductile cutting regime. Experimental results showed that solid coatings were more effective than liquid lubricants in enhancing the ductile cutting regime. It was thought that solid coatings induced an additional downward force by resisting material deformation and chip evacuation, thus contributing to suppression of crack opening. It is expected that this research can contribute to the machinability improvements of brittle materials.

Structural color refers to a phenomenon, in which white light is influenced by the structure and the color is expressed. It can express various colors depending on the structures and has an advantage in terms of durability compared to the conventional dyeing processes. However, the structural color from a single layer easily varies depending on the light irradiation angle or measurement angle. Hence, numerous studies have been conducted to improve the angle-independency of structural color by fabricating multi-layers with complex nano-patterns. But, they usually require highly controlled processing environments and are not suitable for large-area manufacturing. Therefore, this study aims to develop a fabrication process by utilizing ultra-precision machining and silicon molding. Here, angle-independent structural colors were implemented with multi-layer micro-patterned films. Through the experiments, angle-independency was evaluated by varying the number of silicon films and measurement angles. RGB and HSV values were extracted from the images and applied for quantitative analysis. The suggested fabrication process successfully exhibited the angle-independent structural color with given patterns and film thickness. It is expected that this study can contribute to improving the multi-layer fabrication processes concerning machinability and large-area production.