The optimal design of micro end mill for milling SKD61 tool steel

Micromachining has become a necessary manufacturing method. Developing and applying micro-milling are determined according to the increasingly influential progress of micro tool designs and the evolution of machine tool technologies. This study employed a tungsten carbide micro end mill with a diameter of 200 μm for the design model of the micro-milling SKD61 tool steel by the finite element method. This study first used the effective rake angle on an oblique cutting process to simplify the complicated geometric relationship of the micro end mill into the orthogonal cutting model. Simulation analysis will be conducted by using the four parameters of effective rake angle, relief angle, cutting velocity, and cutting depth designed according to the Taguchi orthogonal array. This study then evaluated the four micro-milling characteristics of cutting force, tool maximum temperature, distance between the tool maximal temperature point and the tool tip point, and tool–chip contact length. The results of ANOVA show that the most influential simulation parameter on micro-milling is effective rake angle, followed by cutting velocity, cutting depth, and relief angle. The empirical results indicate that the proposed method can serve as a design base for developing and applying the micro end mill.