Process stability of a novel roughing-finishing end mill

In this paper, stability investigations of a novel roughing-finishing end mill are carried out. This tool possesses two sharp finishing teeth and two radially recessed, chamfered roughing teeth. By applying the same tool for roughing and finishing operations, tool changes and process time can be reduced. For the stability investigations, the semi-discretization method for calculating stability charts was extended and made applicable for the novel tool concept by taking into account the radial recession of the chamfered cutting teeth. This is necessary because the radial recession leads to varying time-delays during the tooth engagement. Stability charts were then calculated for roughing-finishing tools with different radial recession as well as for conventional finishing and roughing tools. Furthermore, experimental stability charts were created. The results show a good agreement between calculated and experimental stability charts for the finishing tool. However, the calculated stability limits of the roughing-finishing tool and the roughing tool do not met with the experimental stability limits, which is attributed to inaccuracies in the modelling of process damping. Nevertheless, calculated as well as experimental stability charts indicate a significant increase of the stability limit of the roughing-finishing tool compared to the finishing tool.