Selecting a milling strategy with regard to the machine tool capabilities: application to plunge milling

The last generation of machining equipment has made innovative milling strategies, such as plunge milling tool-paths, to spread in the industry. However, it is still difficult to evaluate whether the implementation of plunge milling will be beneficial for a specific combination of machine tool and part to machine. The optimal parameterization is difficult to be found. Hence, this paper gives a new approach to enhance the implementation of plunge milling tool-paths by computing the achievable material removal rate according to the tool-path parameterization, the machine tool dynamics, and the machined feature properties. Machine tool key properties identification is enabled as well. A simulation tool was developed accordingly. The chosen modeling and the main functions are introduced in the first section. The main use cases are then discussed in the next sections of the paper: implementing a plunging tool-path for a given machine tool, selecting the most suitable equipment among a group to meet the requirements, and defining the functional specifications for a new machine tool.