Cutting Force and Finish Surface Simulation of End Milling Operation in Consideration of Static Tool Deflection by Using Voxel Model

摘要

In this study, a novel end milling operation cutting simulator that considers the static tool deflection was developed. This simulator is based on an instantaneous rigid force model. In this model, the uncut chip thickness, which is necessary to estimate the cutting force, is calculated based on the static tool deflection, which consists of the deflections of the tool and tool holder caused by the cutting force. The newly developed end milling simulator represents the workpiece using a voxel model and calculates the uncut chip thickness from the removed voxels, which are those penetrated by the tool cutting edges. First, a previously developed method of calculating the uncut chip thickness from the voxels removed at minute tool rotation angle intervals was improved. Through the implementation of this improvement, cutting simulation with a high temporal resolution can be realized. With the proposed method, the cutting force is calculated from the uncut chip thickness at minute time intervals, and the static tool deflection is calculated from the cutting force. The uncut chip thickness is influenced by the static tool deflection. Therefore, the cutting force is calculated by considering the change in the uncut chip thickness due to the static tool deflection at minute time intervals. To confirm the effectiveness of the newly improved cutting simulator, a cutting experiment was conducted. The finished surface profiles estimated using the proposed method showed good agreement with the measured profiles.