Study on Machining Accuracy in Micro-Endmilling

Abstract

Micro end mills, for example, smaller than 0.5 mm in diameter have low strength and stiffness. They are rather difficult to be re-sharpened by grinding. Therefore they are usually used until their breakage or are exchanged for a new one when the machining results lose quality. In the previous study [, tool life up to breakage was experimentally investigated under various feed rates and some useful information was obtained to predict tool life considering a sort of bending fatigue. For each experiment, a new tool was used to machine slots till it broke due to fatigue and/or wear. In this study, in order to measure tool life based upon another point of reference, the machining accuracies of the above slots were investigated. The main results obtained are as follows: (1) Slot depth first increased due to thermal deformation of the spindle and then decreased due to tool wear, (2) Slot width decreased as the tool wear increased, (3) Slot bottom corner radius increased as the tool wear increased, (4) Burr size increased as the tool wear increased, (5) Surface roughness of the slot bottom seemed to be influenced by feed rate, tool wear and chatter.