Modelling methods for end mill grooves based on different wheel geometries

AbstractHelical groove of end mill has great influence on its cutting performance. It is normally ground by disk wheels and the groove geometry varies with different wheel geometries. To improve the machining accuracy and reduce the cost of the groove machining process, establishing the groove model with the known wheel geometry and the wheel movement locus before the actual grinding is necessary. In this paper, according to the characteristics of wheel geometry, two different methods are introduced to build the groove model. One is based on the enveloping theory, taking into account the fact that the groove is generated by the enveloping movement of the wheel. Contact lines between the wheel and the groove are firstly deduced. Then, the expressions of the groove and the groove section lines are obtained. This method works well for wheels with straight generatrices. However, if the generatrix consists of quadric curves, a complex transcendental equation needs to be solved to satisfy the enveloping conditi...