Strategies for error prediction and error control in peripheral milling of thin-walled workpiece

This paper aims at developing efficient strategies for controlling the force-induced surface dimensional errors in peripheral milling of thin-walled structures. Emphasis is put on how to select the feed per tooth and depth of cut simultaneously for tolerance specification and maximization of the feed per tooth simultaneously. Three methods are presented. The first one proceeds by optimally selecting the maximum feed per tooth without tolerance violation. The second one is to find the appropriate cutting parameters by solving a linear programming problem. To show the efficiency of the first two methods, the third one, i.e. the so-called mirror error compensation method taken from references, is also addressed for comparison. Mechanistic model for cutting force estimation, cantilever beam model for cutter deflection estimation and finite element method for workpiece deflection estimation are used in all three methods. Besides, improvements on the calculation scheme of the surface dimensional error have been made and both numerical and experimental results are adopted for verification.