Title: Calibration of ball nose micro end milling operations for sculptured surfaces machining

Authors: Gerardo Garcia-Garcia; Elisa V. Vázquez; Héctor R. Siller; Leopoldo Ruiz-Huerta; Alberto Caballero-Ruiz

Addresses: Tecnológico de Monterrey, Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur Col. Tecnológico C.P. 64849 Monterrey, Nuevo León, México ' Tecnológico de Monterrey, Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur Col. Tecnológico C.P. 64849 Monterrey, Nuevo León, México ' Tecnológico de Monterrey, Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur Col. Tecnológico C.P. 64849 Monterrey, Nuevo León, México ' Laboratorio Nacional de Manufactura Aditiva Digitalización 3D y Tomografía Computarizada, Centro de Cienc. Aplic. y Desarrollo Tecnol., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior s/n, Coyacán, Universitaria, 04510 Ciudad de México, México ' Laboratorio Nacional de Manufactura Aditiva Digitalización 3D y Tomografía Computarizada, Centro de Cienc. Aplic. y Desarrollo Tecnol., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior s/n, Coyacán, Universitaria, 04510 Ciudad de México, México

Abstract: Ball nose micro end milling can be used for the precise manufacturing of micro cavities for biomedical applications. These cavities are usually machined on hardened steels, which cause rapid cutting tool deterioration and a poor surface quality. The literature presents few works that aid to understand the process behaviour of ball nose micro end milling, in comparison with flat micro end milling. The scarcity in the literature is a consequence of the difficulty of measuring cutting tool deterioration for modelling purposes. In order to contribute to a deeper understanding of the process, this paper presents a strategy for calibrating ball nose micro end milling, featuring additional tool characteristics to gauge deterioration, measured with the aid of focus variation, scanning electron and confocal microscopy. Results show that appropriate evaluation of the process can be made, in terms of finding adequate ranges of feed rates for avoiding undesirable effects as tool wear, ploughing and poor surface quality.

Keywords: sculptured surfaces; ball nose; micro end milling; hardened steels; tool wear.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2017.088898

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2017 Vol.19 No.6, pp.587 - 605

Received: 23 Jul 2016
Accepted: 10 Dec 2016
Published online: 02 Jan 2018 *

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