End milling for manufacturing microstructures, tools including microstructures, and Microstructures

摘要

The present disclosure relates to an end milling method for producing a microstructure, and an article including the microstructure. The end milling method includes rotating the end mill (1410r) around the rotation axis (1409) and making the end mill (1410r) inclined with respect to the processing plane (1409) or a reference plane along which the processing plane (1407) extends. Translating the rotating end mill (1410r) within the working surface (1407) to move along the 1411) to form a first recess (1420). The method forms flat surfaces (1441a, 1441b) that merge along a rounded edge (1451), the edge (1451) being inclined with respect to a reference plane. Both truncated cube corner elements (see, for example, FIGS. 47 and 48) and full cube corner elements (see, for example, FIG. 56A) cut a substrate (4705, 4805, 5605) with a rotating end mill (1410r). By forming at least a part of the optical surface of the cube corner element (4780, 4880, 5680), it can be made in the substrate (4705, 4805, 5605).