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Abstract This paper presents an experimental study on a novel mechanical surface treatment process, namely piezo vibration striking treatment (PVST), which is realized by a piezo stack vibration device installed on a computer numerical control (CNC) machine. Unlike other striking-based surface treatments, PVST employs non-resonant mode piezo vibration to induce controllable tool strikes on the workpiece surface. In this study, an experimental setup of PVST is implemented. Four types of experiments, i.e., tool-surface approaching, single-spot striking, one-dimensional (1D) scan striking, and 2D scan striking, are conducted to investigate the relationships among the striking force, tool vibration displacement, and surface deformation in PVST. The study shows that PVST can induce strikes with consistent intensity in each cycle of tool vibration. Both the striking intensity and striking location can be well controlled. Such process capability is particularly demonstrated by the resulting texture and roughness of the treated surfaces. Moreover, two linear force relationships have been found in PVST. The first linear relationship is between the striking force and the reduction in vibration amplitude during striking. The second one is between the striking force and the permanent indentation depth created by the strike. These linear force relationships offer the opportunity to realize real-time monitoring and force-based feedback control of PVST. This study is the first step toward developing PVST as a more efficient deformation-based surface modification process.