Impact of the cutting dynamics of small radial immersion milling operations on machined surface roughness

Abstract

This paper deals with a numerical and experimental study of the dynamics of flank milling operations at low cutting rates. It focuses on both properties of the cutting vibratory phenomena and their impacts on the roughness of the machined surface. The study is based on a one degree of freedom model of the mechanical machining system. The system is of the rigid cutter–flexible workpiece type. The cutting force model is based on the regenerative mechanism. The roughness of the surface machined at high speed revolutions has been studied for both forced vibrations occurring during stable cutting and self-excited vibrations occurring during unstable cutting. It is shown that forced vibrations have only a very slight impact (roughness remains quite similar to that obtained with a fully rigid mechanical system), while unstable cutting mainly impacts roughness. The stable milling zones can be shown on a roughness map. The study of the roughness shows that the boundary between stable and unstable cutting conditions, in the case of interrupted cutting, is a wide zone characterised by a doubling of the tooth passing period. In this zone, only one tooth over two is removing material due to the vibratory motion. A discussion explains the phenomenon.