Digital Cutting Force Modeling for Milling Operations

Process improvement in milling through improved understanding of machining dynamics is an on-going research endeavor. The objective of this project is to advance digital modeling of the milling process by incorporating tool-specific geometry in the machining analysis. Structured light scanning will be used to perform tool geometry measurements and produce a 3D model. The 3D model data will include the spatial location of the cutting edges, as well as the rake and relief profiles from the tool cross section. The rake and relief profiles will be imported, together with the work material flow stress model, into a finite element analysis of orthogonal (2D) cutting. The predicted forces will be used to calculate the coefficients for a mechanistic cutting force model. These cutting force coefficients and the location of the cutting edges, as well as the tool-holder-spindle-machine structural dynamics, will be incorporated in a time domain simulation that will be used to predict the milling forces and vibrations. Cutting tests will be performed to validate the performance predictions for this digital modeling approach.