Analytical modeling of material removal mechanism in dry whirling milling process considering geometry, kinematics and mechanics

Whirling milling is a promising machining process that couples the tools and workpiece motions while both conventional turning and milling are carried out, which is widely used for machining precision screw parts made of hard materials, such as titanium alloy, quenched steel, etc. The challenge is due to the complex kinematics can lead to the varying tool-workpiece engagement and undeformed chip geometries which affect significantly the mechanics, quality and productivity. The existing studies are mainly based on the simplification of process mechanism to study the mechanics and quality however, the material removal mechanism and influences of cutting parameters are still not well understood. This paper presents an analytical approach to investigate the material removal mechanism in whirling milling, thus to predict the undeformed chip geometry, material removal rate (MRR), cutting forces and form errors. The varying tool-workpiece engagement geometry along the cutting trajectory is identified to model the varying undeformed chip geometry including instantaneous chip thickness, cross-section area and tool-workpiece contact length. The form errors including circularity error, scallop height and surface roughness are defined and predicted as a function of tools and workpiece motion, position and dimension parameters. The whirling milling experiments were conducted to validate the analytical modeling approach with the largest error 11.3% and average error 13.0% for force and surface roughness prediction, respectively. The influences of cutting parameters on surface roughness and MRR are finally analyzed to explore the potential of productive cutting conditions for whirling milling.