Geometry simulation and evaluation of the surface topography in five-axis ball-end milling

Limited by the factors such as dynamic vibrations, cutting heat, and the use of coolant, it is difficult to measure or evaluate the surface quality in real time. Geometry simulation of the surface topography became the main method used in engineering to estimate and control the quality of the surface machining. This paper proposed a new method for geometry simulation and evaluation of a milled surface. Allowing for the coherency in geometric variations management process, the proposed method is developed based on the skin model of a workpiece. To make the simulated surface topography more realistic, the effects of locating errors, spindle errors, geometrical errors of the machine tool, and cutting tool deflections are included. And a new method is adopted to evaluate the milled surface, in which the roughness of the surface is characterized by the modal coefficients, instead of the R _a , R _z , and R _q values. At the end of this paper, measurements and cutting tests are carried out to validate the proposed method.     

Implementation of analytical boundary simulation method for cutting force prediction model in five-axis milling

A simulation system was developed that deals with cut geometry and machining forces when a toroidal cutter is used during semifinishing in five-axis milling. The cut geometry was calculated using an analytical method called analytical boundary simulation (ABS). ABS was implemented to calculate the cut geometry when the machining used an inclination angle and a screw angle. The effect of tool orientation on the cut geometry was analyzed. The accuracy of the proposed method was verified by comparing the cut lengths calculated using ABS with cuts obtained experimentally. The result indicated that the method was accurate. ABS was subsequently applied to support a cutting force prediction model. A validation test showed that there was a good agreement with the cutting force generated experimentally.     

Determination of the feasible setup parameters of a workpiece to maximize the utilization of a five-axis milling machine

Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering - The machining industry must maximize the machine tool utilization for its efficient and effective usage. Determining a feasible workpiece location is one of...     

Influence of tool inclination on chip formation process and roughness response in ball-end milling of freeform surfaces on Ti-6Al-4V alloy

An experimental test part, which was made up of flat, concave, and convex surfaces of variable curvatures, was designed to be fabricated in a four-axis machining center. Aluminum alloy 7075 and titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V were used for the fabrication. Within the finishing process, smeared/adhered material was found in some areas of the concave and convex surfaces of the titanium alloy. On the other hand, smeared/adhered material was not found in the aluminum alloy. To characterize the type of defects, the 3D roughness parameters of the surfaces were measured by confocal microscopy, and surface morphology was observed using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The kinematics of the ball-end milling process was modeled and it was found that the lead and tilt angles between the tool axis and surface normal vector vary continuously, producing transitions between oblique-plunge-push-up milling and oblique-reverse-push-up milling. This causes variation in the thickness behavior during the chip formation process. It was found that the lead angle has a moderate influence, while the tilt angle has a strong effect on the quality of the surfaces of the titanium alloy, with negative tilt angles producing the worst surfaces when there was the oblique-plunge-push-up milling process.     

Improved dynamic cutting force model in ball-end milling. Part I: theoretical modelling and experimental calibration

An accurate cutting force model of ball-end milling is essential for precision prediction and compensation of tool deflection that dominantly determines the dimensional accuracy of the machined surface. This paper presents an improved theoretical dynamic cutting force model for ball-end milling. The three-dimensional instantaneous cutting forces acting on a single flute of a helical ball-end mill are integrated from the differential cutting force components on sliced elements of the flute along the cutter-axis direction. The size effect of undeformed chip thickness and the influence of the effective rake angle are considered in the formulation of the differential cutting forces based on the theory of oblique cutting. A set of half immersion slot milling tests is performed with a one-tooth solid carbide helical ball-end mill for the calibration of the cutting force coefficients. The recorded dynamic cutting forces are averaged to fit the theoretical model and yield the cutting force coefficients. The measured and simulated dynamic cutting forces are compared using the experimental calibrated cutting force coefficients, and there is a reasonable agreement. A further experimental verification of the dynamic cutting force model will be presented in a follow-up paper.     

Evaluation of surface topography parameters for friction prediction in stamping

The continued globalisation of the automotive industry, leading to increasing demands for competitiveness and escalating legislative requirements, is the main driving force of research activities of steel sheet surfaces. Recent studies on the stamping process have been carried out among others within AUTOsurf, a project funded by the European Community, and by Wihlborg and Crafoord. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the viability of the proposed parameters for friction prediction. Seventeen different surface topographies were investigated. The sheet materials were either, hot-dip galvanised, electrogalvanised or galvannealed, and electron beam or electric discharged textures. The frictional response was measured in a bending under tension (BUT) test under mixed lubricated conditions. This BUT test simulates the conditions of the die radius in a stamping tool. The laboratory test differs from the experimental work performed in AUTOsurf which simulated the conditions of the holding-down plate. In spite of the differences in test equipments in AUTOsurf, e.g. the rotational friction tester (RTF), on a comparison the correlation of frictional response was significant. But neither of the proposed parameters could predict the frictional response with sufficient accuracy in this study. In addition, the friction model in AUTOsurf describes peak lubrication as a dragging phenomenon on sliding surfaces. The movement eased friction in inverse proportion to the average peak area. However, the trend in this study showed the opposite, movement eased friction proportionally to the average peak area. The result indicates a switch of dominant friction mechanism when the sliding velocity is increased, i.e. from a dragging phenomenon at low velocities to micro-hydrodynamic wedge effects at high velocities.     

Position-varying surface roughness prediction method considering compensated acceleration in milling of thin-walled workpiece

Machined surface roughness will affect parts’ service performance. Thus, predicting it in the machining is important to avoid rejects. Surface roughness will be affected by system position dependent vibration even under constant parameter with certain toolpath processing in the finishing. Aiming at surface roughness prediction in the machining process, this paper proposes a position-varying surface roughness prediction method based on compensated acceleration by using regression analysis. To reduce the stochastic error of measuring the machined surface profile height, the surface area is repeatedly measured three times, and Pauta criterion is adopted to eliminate abnormal points. The actual vibration state at any processing position is obtained through the single-point monitoring acceleration compensation model. Seven acceleration features are extracted, and valley, which has the highest R-square proving the effectiveness of the filtering features, is selected as the input of the prediction model by mutual information coefficients. Finally, by comparing the measured and predicted surface roughness curves, they have the same trends, with the average error of 16.28% and the minimum error of 0.16%. Moreover, the prediction curve matches and agrees well with the actual surface state, which verifies the accuracy and reliability of the model.     

球头铣刀曲面加工的刀具切触区域解析建模

针对球头铣刀三维曲面加工,提出一种刀具切触区域仿真的通用解析模型。采用微分方法,将曲面加工过程离散为一系列连续的微小斜平面稳态加工。以每一小斜面切削过程为研究对象,建立描述刀具进给方向变化的数学模型,针对不同的进给方向并基于空间坐标系旋转变换,提出一组确定刀具切触边界曲线及各边界交点的解析公式,以精确界定刀具切触区域的封闭几何。通过与Z-Map模型的切触区域仿真对比,验证了本文模型的有效性及其精确高效的特点。     

Modeling and prediction for 3D surface topography in finish turning with conventional and wiper inserts

Wiper insert have the characteristics of achieving an excellent surface finish and improving the productivity in turning processes. Wiper insert can provide twice feed rate while maintaining the comparable surface roughness compared to that provided by the conventional insert. In the present study, surface topographies in finish turning with conventional and wiper inserts are investigated. The key element of this work is that the cutting edge path equation in the cutting tool coordinate system is transformed into the machine tool and workpiece coordinate system by the use of spatial coordinate transformation. Following that a surface topography simulation algorithm based on the cutting edge path equation and cutting parameters is put forward. The output of this work is that both the simulated surface topography and surface roughness profile are good agreement with the experimental results. Both the simulated and the actual machined surface results show that better surface topography is obtained in finish turning with the wiper insert than that with conventional insert. Burnishing effect of the wiper insert leads to half decrease of the Ra and Rz. The actual surface profiles are no longer regular wave shapes due to ploughing effect and side flow existing in the cutting zone. In addition, a surface roughness map has also been developed to optimize the selection of wiper radius and feed rate to satisfy the requirement of surface finishing with higher productivity. From the viewpoint of cutting tool design, the wiper radius with five times larger than tool nose radius can fully come into its role. This provides a novel insight into the design of wiper insert over conventional techniques. Above all, the proposed model gives a better prediction of surface roughness in finish turning process compared to the previous empirical and regression roughness models. The prediction of surface roughness in finish turning with wiper insert is also realized.     

Modeling and evaluating of surface roughness prediction in micro-grinding on soda-lime glass considering tool characterization

The current research of micro-grinding mainly focuses on the optimal processing technology for different materials. However, the material removal mechanism in micro-grinding is the base of achieving high quality processing surface. Therefore, a novel method for predicting surface roughness in micro-grinding of hard brittle materials considering micro-grinding tool grains protrusion topography is proposed in this paper. The differences of material removal mechanism between convention grinding process and micro-grinding process are analyzed. Topography characterization has been done on micro-grinding tools which are fabricated by electroplating. Models of grain density generation and grain interval are built, and new predicting model of micro-grinding surface roughness is developed. In order to verify the precision and application effect of the surface roughness prediction model proposed, a micro-grinding orthogonally experiment on soda-lime glass is designed and conducted. A series of micro-machining surfaces which are 78 nm to 0.98 ~tm roughness of brittle material is achieved. It is found that experimental roughness results and the predicting roughness data have an evident coincidence, and the component variable of describing the size effects in predicting model is calculated to be 1.5x 107 by reverse method based on the experimental results. The proposed model builds a set of distribution to consider grains distribution densities in different protrusion heights. Finally, the characterization of micro-grinding tools which are used in the experiment has been done based on the distribution set. It is concluded that there is a significant coincidence between surface prediction data from the proposed model and measurements from experiment results. Therefore, the effectiveness of the model is demonstrated. This paper proposes a novel method for predicting surface roughness in micro-grinding of hard brittle materials considering micro-grinding tool grains protrusion topography, which would provide significant research theory and experimental reference of material removal mechanism in micro-grinding of soda-lime glass.     

A dynamic surface topography model for the prediction of nano-surface generation in ultra-precision machining

Materials induced vibration has its origin in the variation of micro-cutting forces caused by the changing crystallographic orientation of the material being cut. It is a kind of self-excited vibration which is inherent in a cutting system for crystalline materials. The captioned vibration results in a local variation of surface roughness of a diamond turned surface. In this paper, a dynamic surface topography model is proposed to predict the materials induced vibration and its effect on the surface generation in ultra-precision machining. The model takes into account the effect of machining parameters, the tool geometry, the relative tool–work motion as well as the crystallographic orientation of the materials being cut. A series of cutting experiments was performed to verify the performance of the model and good correlation has been found between the experimental and simulation results.     

Dynamic interaction of friction and surface topography in brake systems

In brake systems the surface topography of the brake pad is characterized by an equilibrium of flow of hard patches, which are built up and destroyed, depending on the load history. Since these patches carry the main friction power, the friction coefficient itself depends on the load history, too. So the friction coefficient has to be described by differential equations instead of algebraic equations, connecting intimately the friction- and wear process. With these dynamic dependencies we are able to build up a new model, using the technique of Cellular Automata, which gives a dynamic and detailed insight into the brake pad's surface topography during the friction process.     

Design and performance assessment of a Kelvin clamp for use in relocation analysis of surface topography

This article describes the design and fabrication of a low-cost relocation device. The device is suitable for relocating small specimens on a stylus roughness measuring instrument to allow observation of the changes in topography of specific surface features arising from processes such as contact, wear, or corrosion. A principal feature of the article is that it describes an indirect method of assessing the accuracy of relocation using positioning tables driven by stepper motors. The method is applied to the author's design.     

AlTiN涂层刀具精铣TC4钛合金工艺参数的影响与优化

采用AlTiN涂层4刃φ10 mm硬质合金立铣刀,在VMC850立式加工中心上对TC4钛合金进行铣削精加工试验.利用高精密数字化检测设备,对加工成形的TC4钛合金试件表面粗糙度、平面度、平行度、表面形貌、残余应力及显微硬度测量.分析AlTiN涂层刀具在设定不同工艺参数条件下TC4钛合金的整体加工质量和表面形貌变化规律....     

Influence of minimum quantity lubrication parameters on tool wear and surface roughness in milling of forged steel

The minimum quantity of lubrication (MQL) technique is becoming increasingly more popular due to the safety of environment.Moreover,MQL technique not only leads to economical benefits by way of saving ...     

Measurement of lubricating film thickness,temperature and pressure in gear contacts with surface topography as a parameter

Thin film transducers, sputtered onto a tooth flank, are used to measure temperature, pressure and oil film thickness profiles in gear contact. The former two are resistance sensors, while the film thickness sensor functions as a capacitive transducer. Experiments were carried out with ground and hobbed gears. The measurements are repeated after the tooth flank has been polished. The differences of the measured values for the ‘rough’ and ‘smooth’ surfaces are used for comparisons between differently machined surfaces. An EHD simulation programme has been developed which calculates film thickness and contact pressure, also taking surface roughness into account.     

Analysis of subsurface defects occurrence in abrasion resistant Creusabro steel after WEDM including the study of morphology and surface topography

Abstract

Unconventional wire electrical discharge machining technology is an indispensable part of the production of many industrial devices. Material separation takes place at very high local temperatures, and therefore, some undesirable surface and sub-surface defects are formed. Not only the occurrence of defects but also the quality of the machined surface is very important for the end customer, so it is necessary to monitor it carefully. For this reason, a 33-round planned experiment was carried out for the study of the impact of the machine parameters setup on the topography and morphology of the steel Creusabro 4800. (This material has not yet been the subject of any similar publication.) Metallographic preparations of all samples that allowed the study of subsurface defects using light and electron microscopy were produced. In order to investigate changes in the chemical composition of the surface and subsurface layers of the effects of WEDM machining, a complex chemical composition analysis was performed. A significant effect of the machine parameters setup on the occurrence of subsurface defects was demonstrated and the presence of burned cavities could be completely eliminated with machine parameters setup: gap voltage?=?60?V, pulse on time?=?8?μs, pulse off time?=?40?μs, wire speed?=?12?m?min^?1 and discharge current?=?25?A.     

On the prediction of surface roughness in the hard turning based on cutting parameters and tool vibrations

This research work concerns the elaboration of a surface roughness model in the case of hard turning by exploiting the response surface methodology (RSM). The main input parameters of this model are the cutting parameters such as cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cut and tool vibration in radial and in main cutting force directions. The machined material tested is the 42CrMo4 hardened steel by Al₂O₃/TiC mixed ceramic cutting tool under different conditions. The model is able to predict surface roughness of Ra and Rt using an experimental data when machining steels. The combined effects of cutting parameters and tool vibration on surface roughness were investigated while employing the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The quadratic model of RSM associated with response optimization technique and composite desirability was used to find optimum values of cutting parameters and tool vibration with respect to announced objectives which are the prediction of surface roughness. The adequacy of the model was verified when plotting the residuals values. The results indicate that the feed rate is the dominant factor affecting the surface roughness, whereas vibrations on both pre-cited directions have a low effect on it. Moreover, a good agreement was observed between the predicted and the experimental surface roughness. Optimal cutting condition and tool vibrations leading to the minimum surface roughness were highlighted.     

Prediction of cutting force for ball end mill in sculptured surface based on analytic model of CWE and ICCE

Abstract

The force prediction is the precondition of improving equipment utilization ratio and optimizing process for CNC machining. Cutter-workpiece engagement (CWE) and in-cut cutting edge (ICCE) are the keys. In this article, a new analytic method of CWE and ICCE is proposed for ball end milling of sculptured surface and the prediction model of milling force is established. The sculptured surface is discretized into a series of infinitesimal inclined planes corresponding to cutter location points. The geometry relationships of cutter axis, feed direction and inclined plane are defined parametrically. The boundary curves and the boundary inflection points of the CWE are obtained by intersecting spatial standard curved surfaces with rotation transformation of coordinate system. The effective intersection points of the CWE and the cutter edge curve in X_c-Y_ctwo-dimensional plane are the upper and lower boundary points of ICCE. Based on the instantaneous chip thickness considering arbitrary feed direction, the force prediction model for ball end mill of three-axis surface milling is established. Simulation and experiment show that CWE and ICCE calculated by analytic method are well consistent with those of solid method. The predicted cutting forces match well with the measurements both in magnitude and variation trend.     

Investigation of roughness,topography, microhardness,white layer and surface chemical composition in high speed milling of Ti-6Al-4V using minimum quantity lubrication

Abstract

In this research, the effects of high speed milling on the main surface integrity characteristics, including surface roughness and topography, microhardness, white layer thickness, and surface chemical composition of Ti-6Al-4V were empirically studied. Totally, 18 experiments were carried out using a full factorial design of experiments method in the presence of minimum quantity lubricant. The results showed that by using high speed milling, it is possible to reach the surfaces with a higher quality and surface roughness of approximately 0.2?μm. Also, it was discovered that the microhardness variation with cutting speed has a dual nature. The maximum microhardness was obtained at the cutting speed of 375?m/min and the feed rate of 0.08?mm/tooth, which showed a 57% increase compared with the bulk material. In addition, by using the cutting speed of 450?m/min, the depth of heat-affected layer and work hardening effects declined up to 75% in comparison with the cutting speed of 300?m/min.