Chip load prediction in ball-end milling

In the modem manufacturing of sophisticated parts with 3D sculptured surfac es such ns dies and molds, ball-end milling is one of the most widely used machining processes to remove unwanted material. However. the machining pro cesses no accompanied by cutting forces that cause tool chattering and dime nsional errors. in this paper. a calculation algorithm for the chip load al ong the cutting edge is proposed, so that it is can he used for predicting cutting forces and the region with excessive dimensional error in the ball- end milling process. Far this purpose, an exact chip engagement surface (EC ES) from cutting edge geometry is suggested to be a mathematical model with the feed rate effect of cutter instead of a semi-spherical surface. With t he calculated chip load distribution, a simplified method for calculating c utting force at a cutter location is also proposed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.