Path Interval and Its Relevance to Cutting Force in Ball and Filleted End Milling

Computerized milling process is widely used in product manufacturing. Although manufacturing has gradually become highly-automated, the selection of machining conditions still remains an ever-present challenge in the process. To provide some findings contributable for the process planning, this study focuses on ball and filleted end milling. After brief explanations were given to the path interval determinations in both milling processes, the experiments were conducted to verify and characterize each procedure. The results of computational procedures showed good agreement with the experimental ones. Then, material removal rate and cutting force were analytically proposed for effective selection of machining conditions. The following findings were obtained from the demonstrations with discussion. Ball end milling required relatively large cutting force in the first tool path even though the material removal rate was comparatively small. On the contrary, filleted end mill enabled us to maintain a moderate cutting force in the first tool path even if the material removal rate expanded with increasing tool radius.