Abstract: To control surface roughness of meso-scale mandrels for the fabrication of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets, a circumrotation design method is presented to plan cutting experiments. And a second-order model, based on the four main cutting parameters including feed, depth of cut, spindle speed and tool included angle, for surface roughness prediction of meso-scale mandrels is developed by means of nonlinear regression analysis. Analysis results demonstrate that the fitted values of this model approximate well the experimental values of surface roughness of mandrels turned, and have better precision than that of the computed values using theory model. Effects of feed and tool included angle are more significant than that of depth of cut and spindle speed on surface roughness of mandrels. Utilizing optimized cutting conditions and ultra-fine crystalline grain carbide tools with linear cutting edges, surface roughness Ra16.53 nm of the mandrel of 0.6 mm diameter is successfully obtained.

Key words: Circumrotation design, Meso-scale, Optimization, Prediction model, Surface roughness