<p>It is of vital importance to minimize the energy consumption involved in the micro-cutting of high-precision components as part of the efforts to achieve sustainability in the power-intensive manufacturing sector. This paper aims to establish an improved energy consumption model based on ductile fracture mechanics to account for main contributors to energy consumption including creation of the lamellar chip. Fracture displacement as a critical model parameter is proposed to distinguish the type of chips generated by micro-cutting, which is determined by assessing the cutting force signal. The influence of tool rake angles on the shear yield strength and fracture energy of the machined material is also evaluated. The proposed energy consumption model is verified through a series of micro-cutting experiments with varying cutting depths and tool rake angles. The experimental results show the developed energy consumption model for the lamellar chip with an error of less than 10% for all cutting parameters, which demonstrates its feasibility to be adopted for energy monitoring during the manufacturing production process. Preferred cutting parameters are also suggested to reduce energy consumption and improve micro-cutting efficiency based on the analytically derived specific cutting energy. Besides, the amorphous electroless NiP plating after the orthogonal micro-cutting has no crystallization phenomenon based on TEM observation, which indicates that the machined electroless NiP plating still maintains its own excellent mechanical properties.</p>