Geometry simulation and evaluation of the surface topography in five-axis ball-end milling

Limited by the factors such as dynamic vibrations, cutting heat, and the use of coolant, it is difficult to measure or evaluate the surface quality in real time. Geometry simulation of the surface topography became the main method used in engineering to estimate and control the quality of the surface machining. This paper proposed a new method for geometry simulation and evaluation of a milled surface. Allowing for the coherency in geometric variations management process, the proposed method is developed based on the skin model of a workpiece. To make the simulated surface topography more realistic, the effects of locating errors, spindle errors, geometrical errors of the machine tool, and cutting tool deflections are included. And a new method is adopted to evaluate the milled surface, in which the roughness of the surface is characterized by the modal coefficients, instead of the Ra, Rz, and Rq values. At the end of this paper, measurements and cutting tests are carried out to validate the proposed method.