Study on 5-axis end milling of free-form surfaces

Focusing on the 5-axis milling of free-form surfaces with the flat-end cutter, the mathematical model of the effective cutting shape corresponding to the cutter dimension and attitude was created. Based on this model, the influence of inclination angle and tilt angle on the machining efficiency was analyzed. A new method for determining the machining strip width of the flat end cutter was presented, which depends on the intersection points between the effective cutting shape and the offset curve of the normal transversal along the path interval direction on the machined surface. Meanwhile, the factors which affect the machining strip width were discussed herein. Under the precondition of non-gouging, smaller inclination angle and tilt angle will help to enlarge the machining strip width. Finally, with consideration of the sufficient and necessary non-gouging condition for end millings new approach to automatically calculate the inclination angle was proposed. In this approach, the inclination angle was determined by the normal curvature of the surface to be machined along the path interval direction. Examples show that the method is feasible and the result is with high accuracy and efficiency.