Machinability Evaluation of Inclined Planetary Motion Milling System for Difficult-to-Cut Materials

Abstract

CFRP and Titanium alloy, which are known as difficult-to-cut materials have been widely used as structural material in aviation industries. The orbital drilling is one of an effective drilling technique for the industries. However this technique has some disadvantages such as increase of cutting force due to cutting with tool center point, inertial vibration generated by revolution and high installation cost. In order to improve the disadvantages, we have invented a new drilling technique which is called inclined planetary motion milling. The inclined planetary motion milling and the planetary mechanism drilling has two axes of cutting tool rotation axis and revolution axis. Cutting tool rotation axis of the orbital drilling is moved parallel to the revolution axis in eccentric. On the other hand, in the case of the inclined planetary motion milling, eccentric of the cutting tool rotation axis is realized by inclination of a few degrees from the revolution axis. Therefore, the movement of eccentric mechanism can be reduced by comparison with the orbital drilling because inclined angle is smaller than eccentricity of the cutting tool tip. As a result, eccentric mechanism can be downsized and inertial vibration is reduced. In the study, a geometrical cutting model of inclined planetary motion milling was set up. The theoretical surface roughness of the inside of drilled holes by use of two types cutting tool geometry were calculated based on the model. And cutting experiments using the new prototype for CFRP were carried out in order to evaluate the effect on machinability with change of cutting point atmosphere. In addition, optimal cutting condition was derived according to cutting experiments for titanium alloys utilizing the orthogonal array.