Cutting Force Simulation in Milling with Multi-edges Cutter

In the aircraft parts, the portion of titanium alloy, one of the light-weight and high mechanical strength materials, has been increased in terms of the fuel efficiency. Therefore, the effective technologies in cutting of titanium alloy should be established to promote the material removal rate with high production quality. Multi-edges milling cutters, on which many inserts are helically aligned, have been commercially available for millings of deep sinking in large axial depth of cuts. The paper presents an analytical prediction model to control the cutting force with alignment and geometry of the insert. In the model, three dimensional chip flow on each insert is interpreted as a piling up of the orthogonal cuttings in the planes containing the cutting velocities and the chip flow velocities, where the chip flow direction is determined to minimize the cutting energy. Then, the cutting force is predicted in the determined chip flow model. The cutting tests were conducted to validate the force model.