Preliminary Investigations for the Effect of Cutting Tool Edge Geometry in High-Feed Face Milling

The increasing of the cutting speed and/or the feed rate is often chosen to increase the efficiency of the material removal. Of course, there are limits to the selection of specific values in both cases, such as the rigidity of the machining system or the loadability and lifetime of the cutting edges. When increasing the feed rate in face milling, the conditions of chip removal are changing considerably, because at low feed values, the material forming effect of the side edge (i.e. the edge on the lateral surface of the tool) is the most critical and the chip deforms perpendicular to it, while increasing the feed gradually moves the primary part of the chip removal to the edge lying perpendicular to the tool axis. Therefore, both two edges have a distinct role in chip removal due to their position and geometry. As the two edges are located on one cutting insert, their geometry needs to be examined individually and collectively, and searching for the most suitable combination for effective chip removal is needed. Therefore, preliminary investigations were performed to aid in the constructional design of the tool as well as the proper design of the seat of the inserts. The simulations were carried out by the AdvantEdge Finite Element Method (FEM) software. The article shows the results of this analysis, which can be utilized to increase the efficiency of face milling, which is often used in the machining of automotive parts.