THE PREDICTION OF CUTTING FORCES IN THE BALL-END MILLING PROCESS .2. CUT GEOMETRY ANALYSIS AND MODEL VERIFICATION

In Part 1 of this work, a model for the prediction of cutting forces in the ball-end milling process has been presented. The model has the capability of estimating the cutting forces at any cutting conditions. In Part 2, 3-axis ball-end milling cut geometry is analyzed and combined with the force model so as to predict the cutting forces in the machining of a 3-D sculptured surface. A set of steady state model verification experiments has been performed to experimentally validate the predictive power of the model by comparing the predicted results of various cutting conditions frequently encountered in practice with force measurements. It is shown that, because of the inevitable deflections of the cutting system, the measured force signal is generally close to the prediction without runout and falls in the envelope created by the predictions with and without runout.