Comparative study of interference caused by different position settings of a conical milling cutter on a ruled surface

Abstract

This article covers the side milling of ruled surfaces using a conical milling cutter. This problem, encountered in real-life industrial situations, concerns parts such as turbine blades that entail problems of accessibility. To deal with this, industrialists use conical milling cutters that can mill the base of the blades while the larger main body of the milling cutter can be applied to the end of the blade. In the present article, five types of positioning on ruled surfaces are introduced, including two developed within the Toulouse Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. These position settings, studied for cylindrical milling cutters, were able to be adapted to the conical milling cutter. A comparative study was then made of these five position settings from the point of view of interference between the milling cutter and the theoretical surface. Working from two ruled surfaces (one hyperbolic paraboloid and one ruled surface of any nature), different tests were performed, with variation in the milling cutter geometry (end of milling cutter radius and half-angle at the apex). The results obtained made it possible to validate improved positioning, and this led to an industrial contract with the SAPEX-PROFOR Company. A final example based on a turbine blade is given.