Effect of helical angle on path scallop calculation of flat-end cutter in multi axis milling

Abstract

This paper presents an analytical method to calculate path scallop height of flat-end cutter during free-form surface machining. In this study the effect of helical angle of cutting edge was taken into consideration in the calculation. The scallop height was determined from the coordinate of the path intersection point. Path intersection point is an intersection between the cutting tool of the current tooth path and the previous tooth path. One model part with free-form surface was tested to verify the applicability of the proposed method. The scallop height obtained using the tool with helical angle and the one without helical angle were compared. The result showed that the helical angle tend to decrease the scallop height. The verification test to check the accuracy of the proposed method was performed. The result proved that the method was accurate.