A Study on End Milling of Hardened Steel (2nd Report)

Control for Constant Cutting Forces in Corner Profile End Milling Including Transitional Sections of Tool Paths

Abstract

In this paper, the proposed model for cutting forces during end milling of hardened steel is verified for its general usefulness by applying this model to the extended cutting conditions and other applications. The cutting conditions discussed here include concave contour cuttings with a small radius compared to that of the end mill. For this purpose, the operability region by two variables of the arc length of cutting engagement (L) and the maximum undeformed chip thickness(t_m) is divided into a few regions of interest which correspond to the cutting conditions geometrically. The control of cutting forces in profile end milling using quadratic polynomials obtained in each region based on response surface methodology was fairly effective. Furthermore, this prediction model was applied for the case of transitional sections of tool paths where the cutting force changes rapidly with the change of feed rate and geometrical conditions, and it was found that the prediction and control of cutting forces was also possible for this problem.