Tool inclination angle designing for low-deformation and high-efficiency machining of thin-wall blade based on edge-workpiece-engagement

The maximum flexibility direction(MFD) is solved for establishing the deformation estimation criterion of the blade during machining process, and the larger the milling force in MFD, the bigger the deformation of the blade during machining process. A new milling force calculation algorithm based on edge-workpiece-engagement(EWE) is proposed by analyzing the contact process between the ball-end milling tool and the chip. The chip thickness of each tool element of each edge curve at any rotation angle is calculated, the milling force of MFD and SLDs under different inclination angles are calculated. The average absolute milling force in MFD reaches the minimum value of 0.65126N when the lead/tilt angle is 30°/-45°, and the maximum machining efficiency is reached when the lead/tilt angle is 45°/-45°.The optimized tool inclination angle, which is 30°/-45° for lead/tilt angle, is obtained by solving the multi-objective optimization problem of machining deformation represented by relative deformation and machining efficiency represented by relative stable machining area. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by comparison of simulation and experiment for blade machining error under two kinds of tool orientations.