Roughness and texture generation on end milled surfaces

Plane surface generation mechanism in flat end milling is studied in this research. The bottom of a flat end mill has an end cutting edge angle that plays an important role in surface texture. Surface texture is produced by superposition of conical surfaces generated by the end cutting edge rotation. The machined surface is cut once again by the trailing cutting edge. This back cutting phenomenon is frequently observed on surfaces after finishing. Tool run-out and tool setting error including tool tilting and eccentricity between tool center and spindle rotation center are considered together with tool deflection caused by cutting forces. Tool deflection affects magnitude of back cutting and the surface form accuracy. As a result, the finished surface possesses peaks and valleys with form waviness. Surface topography parameters such as RMS deviation, skewness and kurtosis are used for evaluating the generated surface texture characteristics. Through a set of cutting tests, it is confirmed that the presented model predicts the surface texture and roughness parameters precisely including back cutting effect. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.