As manufacturing technology is advancing towards the directions of high accuracy, high speed, low material/energy consumption and low waste emission, the size scale of material removal, deformation and addition in manufacturing is becoming smaller and smaller. Nowadays, various manufacturing technologies have enabled the generation of ultraprecise surfaces and ultrafine structures at the micrometer and nanometer scales, and even the atomic scale. These surfaces/structures have added excellent functionalities to workpiece materials and enabled to develop innovative products with high added value.
However, we still face challenges in clarifying the mechanisms and optimizing the control of the micro/nanoscale manufacturing processes due to the highly complicated nature of the material behaviors and difficulties in direct observation and measurement of the process parameters in such small size scales. This has become a major drawback for the further development of the micro/nanoscale manufacturing technologies.
This special issue focuses on the multidisciplinary science involved in the state-of-the-art micro/nanoscale manufacturing technologies for creating functional surfaces/structures with high precision and low subsurface damage. From an overwhelming number of submissions, only a couple of papers were finally accepted for inclusion in this special issue. The topics of these papers include mechanical, thermal, electrical, optical and chemical responses of workpiece materials, and fundamental mechanisms of tool/workpiece interaction as well as surface formation in various manufacturing processes, such as cutting, plasma etching, electron beam shrinking, and electrochemical deposition.
The paper submission for this special issue was opened in March and closed in June 2020, thus the whole editing process was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Guest Editor, I would like to thank all the authors and the reviewers for their prompt response in paper revision and review. It was their dedication that guaranteed the on-time publication of this special issue during the tough period. I would also like to extend my thanks to Prof. Dragos Axinte, the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, for inviting me to organize the special issue, and for providing generous helps in every aspect of the editorial work.
I hope this compact special issue can deliver a timely integration of the latest achievements and advances in this area, which will lead to more and more interests and breakthroughs in the future research and development of micro/nanoscale manufacturing technologies.