Title: Optimising milled titanium alloy concave surface quality with micro-textured ball-end milling cutters

Authors: Xin Tong; Xianli Liu; Shucai Yang; Lihui Wang; Chunsheng He

Addresses: Harbin University of Science and Technology, No. 52 Xuefu Road, Nangang District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China ' Harbin University of Science and Technology, No. 52 Xuefu Road, Nangang District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China ' Harbin University of Science and Technology, No. 52 Xuefu Road, Nangang District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China ' KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 100044 Stockholm, Sweden ' Harbin University of Science and Technology, No. 52 Xuefu Road, Nangang District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China

Abstract: The cutting speed at the lowest point of a ball-end milling cutter is zero, which results in poor workpiece surface quality and serious cutter wear. To alleviate this problem, a micro-texture can be processed on the rake face of a ball-end milling cutter to provide an anti-friction and anti-wear mechanism. The objective of the work reported here is to reduce cutter wear and optimise workpiece surface quality. By using a mathematical model of row spacing to analyse the differential geometric relationship between cutters and surfaces at their contact point, we have been able to obtain optimal cutter orientation. This was verified by simulating concave surface machining. Experiments were then conducted to verify the approach and the results showed that when the cutter orientation is adjusted to its optimum, the surface quality of the workpiece processed by a micro-textured ball-end milling cutter is at its best. [Submitted 10 May 2018; Accepted 28 July 2019]

Keywords: titanium alloys; cutting temperature field models; blunt cutter edge radius; temperature distribution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2021.115555

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2021 Vol.16 No.2, pp.122 - 134

Accepted: 28 Jul 2019
Published online: 09 Jun 2021 *

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