Tool Wear Analysis on Five-Axis Flank Milling for Curved Shape Part – Full Flute and Ground Shank End Mill

¹ Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia
² Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: syahrul.azwan@utem.edu.my

Abstract

This paper is a study on full flute (extra-long tool) and ground shank end mill wear analysis by utilizing five-axis CNC to implement flank milling strategy on curved shape part. Five-axis machining eases the user to implement variations of strategy such as flank milling. Flank milling is different from point milling. Point milling cuts materials by using the tip of the tool whereas the flank milling uses the cutting tool body to cut material. The type of cutting tool used was end mill 10 mm diameter with High Speed Steel (HSS) material. One factor at a time was utilized to analyze the overall data. Feed rate and spindle speed were the two main factors that been set up equally for both full flute and ground shank end mill. At the end of this research, the qualitative analysis based on tool wear between full flute and ground shank end mill is observed. Generally, both types of cutting tools showed almost the same failure indication such as broken edge or chipped off edge, formation of pinned hole on the surface and serration formation or built-up edge (BUE) on the primary flute. However, the results obtained from the enlarged images which were captured by Optical Microscope indicated that, the ground shank end mill is better than the full flute end mill.