Abstract
Ball end mills used for high-speed and high-precision machining require longer machining time than flat end mills or face cutters, since the tool diameter is limited and the rigidity is reduced by the characteristics of the tool's cutting edge: at the top end of the tool, the cutting speed approaches zero and hardly removes any material. Because there is little material removal at the top end of the ball end mill, the outer cutting edge performs the majority of the work; this irregular cutting force deforms the tool and shortens its life. In this study, we attached an eddy-current sensor to a tool to measure the deformation from the cutting force and we used a tool dynamometer to measure the cutting force. We found that the change in cutting force is dependent on the change in feed rate during square-shaped processing and, as the feed rate is accelerated, the cutting force also increases. Higher cutting forces increase tool deformation.