A new tool concept for milling automotive components

Due to the rising number of car variants, the production systems in automobile industry are driven by a strong demand for flexible production processes. In the production of thin-walled workpieces, forming and cutting processes stand in concurrence to each other. In many applications, cutting processes facilitate higher flexibility regarding possible workpiece geometries. However, the required productivity is demanding. In this paper, a multi- sectional milling tool is developed to reach the required cutting performance by minimizing secondary processing times. Tool geometry is optimized with statistical methods to enable a target oriented tool development and reduce iterative development steps in milling tool design processes. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V