AcademicArticleSCO_85042304463

abstract

• Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.Ball nose micro end milling can be used for the precise manufacturing of micro cavities for biomedical applications. These cavities are usually machined on hardened steels, which cause rapid cutting tool deterioration and a poor surface quality. The literature presents few works that aid to understand the process behaviour of ball nose micro end milling, in comparison with flat micro end milling. The scarcity in the literature is a consequence of the difficulty of measuring cutting tool deterioration for modelling purposes. In order to contribute to a deeper understanding of the process, this paper presents a strategy for calibrating ball nose micro end milling, featuring additional tool characteristics to gauge deterioration, measured with the aid of focus variation, scanning electron and confocal microscopy. Results show that appropriate evaluation of the process can be made, in terms of finding adequate ranges of feed rates for avoiding undesirable effects as tool wear, ploughing and poor surface quality.