Influence of Tool Path Strategies and Pocket Geometry on Surface Roughness in Pocket Milling

This paper discusses the the effect of tool path strategy and pocket geometry on surface roughness in pocket milling process. The machining processes have been performed on mould steel DF2 using carbide insert end mill as the cutting tool. The experiments were designed using three-level factorial design. The cutting parameters were kept constant while the variables are tool path strategies (one direction path, back and forth path, and spiral cutter path) pocket geometry (3 different pocket shapes). The effectiveness of different tool path strategy and different pocket geometry is evaluated in terms of measured surface roughness. The lowest surface roughness measurement was produced by the parallel spiral strategy and pocket geometry.