Modeling of tool wear for ball end milling cutter based on shape mapping

Tool wear is thus of great importance to understand and quantitatively predict tool life. In this paper, a tool wear model for ball end milling cutter is established with considering the joint effect of machining conditions for predicting tool wear. The modelling process of tool wear is given and discussed according to the specific conditions. In order to determine coefficients of the established tool wear model a new tool wear estimation method based on shape mapping is used to measure tool wear which is suitable to prepare tool wear data for the established model. So tool wear for each experiment can be obtained from the tool wear estimation method and be used to fit the proposed tool wear model by using multiple linear regression method. Experimental work and validation are performed on five-axis high speed machining centre for cemented carbide cutting tool milling stainless steel. Experimental results indicate that tool wear can be predicted within 10 % on an average using the established tool wear model and the established tool wear model is suitable to predict tool wear at certain range of cutting conditions for milling operation. © 2012 Springer-Verlag France.