Experimental Study on Milling Hardened SKD Steel Using Micro CBN Ball-end Mills

摘要

Micro ball-end milling process features the ability of machining complex surfaces, precision machining accuracy, and excellent machined surface roughness. However, because the diameter of a micro milling tool is very small, a rapid progress of tool wear or even tool breakage usually happens when machining a high-strength hardened mold steel using improper machining parameters. As a result, the machining cost would rise due to the quality defect in machined workpiece. In this study, to investigate how the machining parameters affect the cutting behaviors, a series of experiments using micro CBN ball-end mills with a diameter of Φ 0.5 mm were performed to cut the SKD11 mold steel with hardness of HRC 61. The machining parameters are selected as the feeding speed (f) being 840, 960 and 1,080 mm/min, depth of cut (a_p) being 30, 45, 60 μm, and spindle speed (v_s) being fixed as 30,000 rpm. According to the experimental results, the measured three-axis cutting forces, flank wears, and surface roughness of machined workpiece are highly related to the cutting length. It is expected that the measured results can be used to construct a performance function of a micro ball-end tool. With referring to the performance function, the tool life can be well expected, and thus a progress in machining efficiency without tool failure can be achieved.