Tool wear effect on micro end milling of biocompatible metals

Abstract

Micro end milling can fabricate functional parts and prototypes. However, the weaknesses of the tool limit the processing efficiency. A small change of tool’s sharpness can significantly affect the accuracy and tolerance of the resulting microparts. For this reason, an understanding of tool wear effects on micro end milling products is important. This study quantitatively examines how the tool wear affects the micro end milling of stainless-steel 316 and Ti 6Al-4V. The materials were evaluated by calculating the volumetric loss of end mill tips with a diameter of 0.3 mm. Both dry and wet conditions were tested to show the moisture effect on the wear, cutting forces, and surface integrity. The results indicate that tool wear heavily affects the parameters. This study proves that the wear trend of micro end millings is similar to that of macro end millings, but a higher wear volume was observed with wet machining under the current operating conditions.