A new method for choosing between ball-end cutter and toroidal cutter when machining free-form surfaces

End-milling of free-form surfaces on multi-axis CNC machines are complex and expensive operations involved in the production of many high-value parts, molds and stamping dies. For such operations, the choice of the cutter type to use is very important given the considerable impact of this choice on the quality of the machined surface and the duration of the operation. In this paper, a new method for choosing between ball-end cutter and toroidal cutter is provided. This procedure gives a good hint on the best tool to employ with no need to carry out any machining simulation.