A Model for Predicting 3D Wear Morphology of Ball-End Milling Tools: Development and Validation

Tool wear prediction is an important research area in the machining industry, which can maximize the utilization of tools. Titanium aluminum alloy is the most commonly used material in the aerospace field, and it is difficult to process. Therefore, the tool wear in the machining process is serious and non-linear. This results in unpredictable tool wear. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) shape prediction method for milling wear of a ball-end milling cutter is proposed. By accurately predicting the tool wear volume, a customized tool dulling standard based on the tool damage percentage is established. Based on the tool material wear rate model and discrete analysis, the force, cutting temperature, relative contact time, and sliding speed of each element in the cutting process of the ball-end mill are solved. Combining the analysis results with the wear rate model, the original model of tool 3D wear morphology (3DWM) prediction was established. Finally, the experiment of cutting titanium aluminum alloy with a carbide tool is carried out to verify the proposed method. The results show that the approximate degree of the wear shape predicted by the model is up to 83.2%.