Estimation of in-process cutting constants in ball-end milling

Abstract

Two methods are presented for the estimation of tangential, radial and axial cutting coefficients for the shearing and ploughing mechanisms from a single set of cutting forces in ball-end milling. These estimation methods are based upon the invertibility of the analytical milling force model, which considers both the shearing and the ploughing mechanisms by incorporating their respective cutting constants in the local force model. The periodic milling forces are established as the convolution integral of the differential local cutting forces and their Fourier coefficients are derived and expressed in a matrix expression as a linear function of the unknown cutting constants in terms of cutting conditions and cutter geometry. This linear expression thus leads to a systematic formulation of the estimation methods allowing the six unknown cutting constants to be determined from the measured milling forces. The first method uses the first harmonic forces as the source signal while the second method extracts the six cutting constants from the average force as well as the first harmonics. Limitations of both estimation methods are discussed. The consistency and accuracy of the estimated cutting constants are confirmed by the experimental results.