Influence of milling strategy on the surface roughness in ball end milling of the aluminum alloy Al7075-T6

Surface roughness has an important role in the performance of finished components. End ball milling is used for achieving high surface quality, especially in complex geometries. Depending on the cutting conditions selected for ball end milling, different milling strategies can be applied. The produced surface quality is greatly affected from the selected milling strategy. The present paper examines the influence of the milling strategy selection on the surface roughness of an Al7075-T6 alloy. A number of cutting parameters are tested (axial and radial depth of cut, feed rate, inclination angles phi and omega) in order to perform 96 experiments and their results are processed using regression analysis and analysis of variance. All possible milling strategies are considered (vertical, push, pull, oblique, oblique push and oblique pull) and for each one of them, a mathematical model of the surface roughness is established, considering both the down and up milling. All models are statistically validated and experimentally verified, and can be used within the limits of the investigating cutting conditions. The polynomials produced are of the third order and the statistically most significant parameters are presented. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.