Abstract: With the rapid development of the fields of aerospace, national defense technology and energy, high-strength alloy materials and composite materials with excellent mechanical properties have been widely used. It is of great significance to achieve high-efficiency, high-precision and low-damage machining of these materials. With a lot of active particles, low-temperature plasma can effectively improve material machinability, and is easier to generate, maintain and control; therefore, it has been widely applied in auxiliary machining of difficult-to-cut materials. The basic characteristics and classification of low-temperature plasma, as well as the state-of-the-art low-temperature plasma assisted machining technology at home and abroad, are introduced. Using the parameters of surface roughness, material removal rate, surface damage, and cutting force as evaluation indicators, the mechanisms and effects of plasma spray forming, plasma enhanced machining, cold plasma jet assisted polishing and cold plasma jet assisted cutting are discussed. The development trends of each technology are also discussed.

Key words: aerospace, low-temperature plasma, difficult-to-cut material, spray forming, assisted polishing, assisted cutting