A new approach for controlling of curved cutting edges of toroid-shaped end-milling cutter

Toroidal end mills have great industrial applications and have good prospects for increasing the volume of products produced with them. It complicates the process of measuring the cutting edges by changing the position of the cutting edges along the axis, which does not allow the geometry control at the same focal length. The method proposed in the article is an effective tool for carrying out automated measurements of the shapes of cutting edges. Application of the method is relevant for edge control in automated mode. To assess the accuracy of the proposed method, it was tested on a high precision measuring machine Walter Helicheck Plus. The new method allows for repeatability of measurements down to 1.5 μm, which meets the accuracy requirements for non-profiling areas of end mills. Suggested method is universal and can significantly reduce the laboriousness of measuring multi-flute cutters. The most important advantage of this method is the ability to determine the ranges in which there is a smooth cutting edge in all areas of the cutter's cutting edge.