Study the effect of anti-vibration edge length on process stability of milling thin-walled Ti-6Al-4V alloy

Abstract

Owing to limited rigidity and wall thickness, the machining of thin-walled components leads to chatter, poor surface quality, and low productivity. It is well-acknowledged that end-mill geometry and cutting conditions have a significant influence on the process stability of thin-walled parts. In order to reduce the milling chatter, an anti-vibration milling tool with an anti-vibration edge (60, 90, 120μm) on the flank face is proposed based on the analysis of the process damping effect. The dynamic modeling, numerical computation, and confirmatory experimental analysis are carried out to investigate the effect of anti-vibration edge length on the milling stability of thin-walled titanium-alloy components. The computation results have shown a stable and gradual increase in stable depth-of-cut with the increase of anti-vibration edge length at constant spindle speed. The ultimate stable axial depth increases with the increase of the anti-vibration edge. Besides, the increase of spindle speed reduced the interference between the flank surface of the milling tool and the workpiece due to the decrease of curvature of the vibration mark on the workpiece surface. At higher cutting speed, the relationship between the stability axial depth and anti-vibration edge length reduced. The comparison of computational and experimental results indicate that the anti-vibration edge improved the process damping effect at low cutting speeds, and 120μm anti-vibration edge is optimum to manufacture the flank face of the tools.