A novel deep groove machining method utilizing variable-pitch end mill with feed-directional thin support

A novel method for deep groove machining is developed which utilizes a long-shank variable-pitch end mill with a feed-directional thin support in this research. Recently, thin and tall ribs are required for many parts to reduce their weight and material consumption without sacrificing their stiffness and strength. It leads to necessity of deep and narrow grooves in dies and molds for their mass production. However, such deep groove machining is difficult, since long flexible end mills cause severe chatter vibrations induced by regeneration and mode-coupling. There have been many studies on the regenerative chatter vibration, while there have been few studies on the mode-coupling chatter vibration. Both chatter vibrations need to be suppressed in the deep groove machining. In this study, the regenerative chatter vibration is suppressed by employing one of the conventional methods, i.e. a variable-pitch end mill. On the other hand, there is not a good method to suppress the mode-coupling chatter vibration in the deep groove machining. Therefore, a new suppression method is proposed in which the long-shank variable-pitch end mill is supported with a thin plate in the feed direction. The support device and the long-shank variable-pitch end mill are developed and applied to machining of hardened die steel. Validity of the proposed method is verified both analytically and experimentally in this study.