Investigation on End-mill Cutter Location Based on Constant Feed-speed Vector at Cutting Point with a Five-axis Machining Center

Abstract

This study describes the programming of cutter location based on a constant feed-speed vector at the cutting point with a ball nose end-mill tool by a Five-axis Machining Center. In the present paper, we proposed a new programming method to maintain both feed-speed amplitude and direction at the cutting point using rotational and linear axes controlling. First of all, we focused on generating a hemispherical surface with a ball nose end-mill, and investigated its surface roughness and its profile error. As a result, it can be seen that this method is effective to obtain a fine machined surface roughness and to avoid the influence of linear motion errors on the machined profile at the normal direction to the feed-speed vector.