GEOMETRICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF MICRO END MILLING TOOLS

Francesca Borsetto, Paolo Bariani

    Research output: Book/ReportReportResearch

    Abstract

    The milling process is one of the most common metal removal operation used in industry. This machining process is well known since the beginning of last century and has experienced, along the years, many improvements of the basic technology, as concerns tools, machine tools, coolants/lubricants, milling strategies and controls. Moreover the accuracy of tool geometry directly affects the performance of the milling process influencing the dimensional tolerances of the machined part, the surface topography, the chip formation, the cutting forces and the tool-life. The dimensions of certain geometrical details, as for instance the cutting edge radius, are determined by characteristics of the manufacturing process, tool material, coating etc. While for conventional size end mills the basic tool manufacturing process is well established, the reduction of the size of the tools required for the manufacturing of miniature parts by micro milling puts further challenges on to the manufacturing process. The whole geometry of the tools cannot be directly downscaled with the tool diameter. Besides the physical limit in the reduction of the cutting edge radius constituted by the grain size of sintered carbides the error motion during the grinding wheels do not allow using identical paths for tools having differences in diameter of more than one order of magnitude. Thus grinding paths for micro and mills are simplified in comparison to those for larger tools of similar shape. [1] The aim of the present report is to develop procedures for the geometrical characterization of micro end milling tools in order to define a method suitable for the quality assurance in the micro cutting field.
    Original languageEnglish
    PublisherInstitut for Produktion og Ledelse, DTU
    Number of pages36
    Publication statusPublished - 2004

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