Evaluation of Surface Roughness in Five-Axis Ball-End Milling

Abstract

Unlike three-axis machining, five-axis machining allows the end tool or workpiece to be oriented at any angle relative to the machine axis OZ. It can be achieved by changing the values of the tool tilt angle and lead angle relative to the surface normal in the contact zone of the tool surface and the workpiece, taking into account the direction of the table feed. The article presents experimental results of analyzing the influences of tool orientation on transverse roughness during ball end milling using 2-flute and 4-flute 8 mm diameter mills. The analysis the arithmetic mean deviation of the assessed profile at various values of tool tilt angle and lead angle showed that the position of the tool point with a zero cutting speed significantly affects the surface quality. The results of the evaluation of the tool orientation influence on the surface roughness enable the selection of optimal tool orientation angles when developing control programs for end milling of free-form surfaces on five-axis CNC milling machines.