Advanced Techniques of Developing High-Performance Cutters through Integration of Cutter Surface Formulation, Programming for Multi-Axis CNC Grinding, and Cutter Performance Evaluation

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Milling cutters, such as ball/toroid/flat end-mills, reamers, and boring tools, etc., and drilling cutters are crucial to machining efficiency, part accuracy and surface finish, and tooling costs. Although cutting tools have a long history of industrial application, cutting tools even now are designed by engineers in the conventional way - trial-and-error with experiments. With more and more new metal materials adopted in industry, new cutters should be developed, instead of using conventional cutters. Unfortunately, the conventional way heavily depends on the designers' experience, and it is quite costly and long. Despite of the technical barriers, new techniques of developing high-performance cutters are urgent needed in industry. Based on the applicant's expertise on CAD and CNC machining and his previous research on cutter design and manufacturing, he proposes a new and advanced research program including three topics: (1) formulating complex cutter surfaces with the specified parameters and generating wheel paths for multi-axis CNC grinding of these surfaces, (2) end-mill and drill flute design and optimization, and (3) investigation of a mechanistic model of tool wear. Although the current technique of developing cutters is far from desired, this proposed research can significantly advance the technique and benefit the tooling and machining industry.*******This proposed research will significantly contribute to theoretical and technological advancement of developing high-performance cutting tools. It will also contribute to the general knowledge on cutter surface formulation, CAD/CAM and advanced CNC grinding, all of which have broad industrial applications. The techniques developed in this work will be implemented in cutting tool software for the Canadian tooling and manufacturing industry and benefit it through developing high-performance cutters and improving the efficiency of CNC machining; fortunately, this improvement is urgently needed to increase our industrial competitiveness in the on-going globalization. This research is complimentary to the present NSERC-sponsored projects of CNC machining, and its results will be promptly applied to our industrial production through the collaboration with Pratt & Whitney Canada,  Bombardier, and Minicut International (a local cutting tool manufacturer).***