Optimization of material removal strategy in milling of thin-walled parts

The optimal material removal strategy can improve a geometric accuracy and surface quality of thin-walled parts such as turbine blades and blisks in high-speed ball end milling. The dominant conception in the material removal represents the persistence of the workpiece cutting stiffness in operation to advance the machining accuracy and machining efficiency. On the basis of theoretical models of cutting stiffness and deformation, finite element method (FEM) is applied to calculate the virtual displacements of the thin-walled part under given virtual loads at the nodes of the discrete surface. With the reference of deformation distribution of the thin-walled part, the milling material removal strategy is optimized to make the best of bracing ability of still uncut material. This material removal method is summarized as the lower stiffness region removed firstly and the higher stiffness region removed next. Analytical and experimental results show the availability, which has been verified by the blade machining test in this work, for thin-walled parts to reduce cutting deformation and meliorate machining quality.