A technologically oriented approach for the economic tool selection and tool balancing of milled components

A technologically oriented tool selection and tool balancing system for milled components is presented. The system is capable of selecting the most economical tool set and where necessary, adjusting the cutting conditions for all the features of a batch of components. Several key parts of the system such as the method for estimating the remaining tool life of a cutter used for selected different cuts, the cost equation used and the method of searching for the most economical tool set are discussed. The system has been used to analyse the tools required for the machining of a typical milled component. This analysis considered the influence of batch size, the number of repeat batches, the number of sister tools, inventory cost and of varying the cutting velocity within a given feature.