Factors Affecting the Cutting Force of Cemented Carbide End Mills

Aluminum alloy is widely used in thin-walled parts of frame and structure in the aerospace field. This kind of part is easy to deform when it is forced in cutting. Therefore, high-speed cutting methods that can significantly reduce the cutting force are more and more widely used in the cutting of aluminum alloys. At the same time, since the aluminum alloy is subjected to high temperature in the cutting process, the material is easy to stick to the cutting edge of the tool, which reduces the cutting performance of the tool, and affects the cutting surface quality of the aluminum alloy material. Therefore, cemented carbide tools with high hardness, high bending strength, low toughness, cold welding resistance, good heat conduction and thermal expansion resistance are widely used in the high-speed cutting of aluminum alloy.

The following is an analysis of what factors affect the cutting force when a cemented carbide end mill is used for high-speed milling of aluminum alloy.

1. The cutting force not only increases significantly with the increase of the cutting depth but also slightly increases with the increase of carbide end mill cutting speed. In addition, the cutting force increases with the increase of the cutting width, and the feed per tooth increases with the increase of the cutting width. The depth of cut and the feed per tooth have a greater influence on the milling force, and should be used as the primary change factor to reduce the milling force. The carbide end mill cutting speed has the least influence on the cutting force. The better surface quality can be obtained with the same material removal rate by properly increasing the cutting speed.

2. With the increase of spindle speed, the main frequency moves to the high-frequency region. In high-speed cutting, the high-frequency component of the main cutting force increases, which is easy to cause resonance effect of cutting force and cause signal distortion. The direction force amplitude of the main cutting force fluctuates the most, while the axial cutting force is continuous with little fluctuation.

3. Each cutting force component has its own main influencing factors. The cutting force experience model can be used to predict the influence of cutting parameters on the cutting force.