MODELLING OF TOOL GEOMETRY IN PREDICTION OF CUTTING FORCES DURING MILLING OF HARD MATERIALS

ABSTRACT

The choice of a machine tool power, cutting tools, or optimization of cutting conditions, and also information of some technical data for CAD/CAM systems, could be facilitated by the knowledge of cutting forces during a machining operation. It could also be helpful to control the occurrence of vibrations or to improve tool-life. The objective of this study is to predict the effects of rake and helix angles on the cutting forces variations during milling of hard materials and to integrate it into a cutting relation, so that it could be possible to limit the experimental testing while providing a good idea of the cutting forces level. Tests were made on X38 CrMoV 5 (AISI H11) die and mould steel, with solid carbide milling cutters of various rake and helix angles. Cutting forces were measured for various feed rates. A comparison between modelling and experiment is presented.

Keywords:

• Cutting Forces
• Milling
• Predictive Model
• Rate Angle
• Helix Angle
• Hard Material

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank the PWZ Company (Germany) and the CEA Valduc (France) for supporting this work.