Experimental study of the effect of tool orientation in five-axis micro-milling of brass using ball-end mills

The effect of tool orientation on the final surface geometry and quality in five-axis micro-milling of brass using ball-end mills is investigated. Straight grooves with a semicircular cross section are cut with different tool inclination and tilt angles, and the resulting surfaces are characterized using an optical profilometer and microscope. Micro-milling cutting forces are recorded synchronously with spindle electric current and cutting motions in order to investigate the correlation between the tool orientation and the achieved surface quality. Results of various cutting experiments and analysis of the final surface geometry show that varying the tool orientation reduces rubbing of the material at the bottom of the grooves, which often occurs in ball-end milling of brass, and improves the final surface quality. The experimental analysis for surface roughness shows that applying a tool inclination angle of 15° can considerably improve the surface roughness at the bottom of the grooves. Analysis of static and averaged peak-to-valley (P-to-V) values of the cutting forces show that the static cutting force values are reduced by half when the tool inclination was increased from 0 to 15°. P-to-V cutting force values in along-the-feed direction were also decreased in the inclined machining.