Systematic simulation procedure of peripheral milling process of thin-walled workpiece

A systematic procedure is developed to simulate the peripheral milling process of thin-walled workpiece. The procedure integrates the cutting force module consisting of calculating the instantaneous uncut chip thickness (IUCT), calibrating the instantaneous cutting force coefficients (ICFC) and the cutting process module consisting of calculating the cutting configuration and static form errors. It can be used to check the process reasonability and to optimize the process parameters for high precision milling. Key issues such as the theoretical calculation of the IUCT, efficient calibration scheme of ICFC, iterative correction of IUCT the radial depth of cut and material removal are studied in detail. Meanwhile, the regeneration mechanism in flexible static end milling is investigated both theoretically and numerically. Comparisons of the cutting forces and form errors obtained numerically and experimentally confirm the validity of the proposed simulation procedure. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.