Soft-brittle crystal materials are widely used in many fields, especially optics and microelectronics. However, these materials are difficult to machine through traditional machining methods because of their brittle, soft, and anisotropic nature. In this article, the characteristics and machining difficulties of soft-brittle and crystals are presented. Moreover, the latest research progress of novel machining technologies and their applications for softbrittle crystals are introduced by using some representative materials (e.g., potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP), cadmium zinc telluride (CZT)) as examples. This article reviews the research progress of soft-brittle crystals processing.

Reasonable cutting edge preparation can eliminate microscopic defects and improve the performance of a cutting tool. The flexible fiber-assisted shear thickening polishing method was used for the preparation of cemented carbide insert cutting edge. The influences of the polishing angle and polishing speed on the cutting edge preparation process were investigated, and the cutting edge radius and K-factor were employed as evaluation indexes to evaluate the edge shape. A prediction model of the cutting edge radius was also established using the mathematical regression method. The results show that the polishing angle has a more significant effect on the cutting edge radius. The cutting edge preparation efficiency is the highest under the polishing angle of 10°, and the cutting edge radius increased from the 15 ± 2 μm to 110 ± 5 μm in 5 min. The cutting edge shape can be controlled by adjusting the polishing angle, and the K-factor varies from 0.14 ± 0.03 to 0.56 ± 0.05 under the polishing angle (from −20° to 20°). The polishing speed has a less effect on the cutting edge radius and shape, but increasing the polishing speed within a certain range can improve the efficiency of cutting edge preparation. The flank face roughness decreased from the initial Ra 163.1 ± 10 nm to Ra 5.2 ± 2 nm at the polishing angle of −20°, which is the best polishing angle for the flank face surface roughness. The ANOVA method was employed to evaluate the effective weight of the polishing angle and polishing speed on preparation efficiency. The polishing angle (86.79%) has the more significant influence than polishing speed (13.21%) on the cutting edge preparation efficiency. The mathematical regression method was used to establish the model of the prediction of the cutting edge radius with polishing angle and speed, and the models were proved rationally. The results indicate that the FF-STP is an effective method for the high consistency preparation of cemented carbide insert cutting edge.