Abstract
Plunge milling is the fastest way to mill away large volumes of metal in the axial direction. The residual volume (inaccessible volume by the plungers) is minimized when selecting a specific direction of filling. This direction is known as the optimal inclination angle for filling of the plunged area. This paper proposes a new algorithm to calculate the optimal inclination angle of filling and to fill the plunged area with multi-plungers sizes. The proposed algorithm uses the geometry of the 2D area of the shape that being cutting to estimate the optimal inclination angle of filling. It is found that, the optimal inclination angle for filling of the plunged area is the same direction as the longer width of the equivalent convex polygon of the boundary contour. The results of the tested examples show that, the residual volume is minimized when comparing the proposed algorithm with the previous method.