A novel CNC grinding method for the rake face of a taper ball-end mill with a CBN spherical grinding wheel

A novel method using a CBN spherical grinding wheel to grind the rake face of a taper ball-end mill and the configuration of corresponding CNC tool grinder are presented. This method utilizes the self-adaptation characteristics of a sphere to decrease the number of simultaneous cooperative axes of a CNC tool grinder and to smooth the rake face on the transition area between the taper and the ball-end of the mill. In order to obtain an accurate normal rake angle, which is one of the key factors affecting tool cutting performance, a moving coordinate system based on the required normal rake angle and the cutting edge was established. Then, by the proposed moving coordinate system, an algorithm to determine the position and orientation of a spherical grinding wheel, the basis of CNC code generation, is proposed and the relevant formulations are deduced. The 3D simulation of rake face grinding for a taper ball-end mill with constant helical angle indicates that the number of simultaneous cooperative axes of the CNC tool grinder is decreased from five to four and the smooth transition of the rake face is realized by the proposed method herein.