Uniformity, periodicity and symmetry characteristics of forces fluctuation in helical-edge milling cutter

Abstract

Under most processing conditions, the milling force is expected to be stable and not to fluctuate, in order to improve the processing quality. This study focuses on analyzing the force fluctuation characteristics under conditions of different processing and cutter parameters. An original model is proposed to predict the force fluctuation during the milling process of a helical-edge cutter. At the same time, three force fluctuation characteristics related to the axial cutting depth and cutter parameters are determined: uniformity, periodicity and symmetry. The corresponding mathematical derivation and proof method are given for the first time through a force transformation of pro-jecting the superposition chip thickness on a virtual cutting edge. On this basis, a fast estimation method and an accurate simulation method for force fluctuation prediction are established to quan-tify the intensity of force fluctuations under different parameters. Both two prediction methods and the experimental cutting tests validate the proposed theory effectively. The result shows a high potential of the proposed theory for studying the force behavior under different milling parameters or cutter parameters and at least 75% of the test workload can be reduced.