See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/275646205

Effects of Lead and Tilt Angles on Cutting Forces, Torque and Cutting Power in
Five-axis Sculptured Surface Milling

Conference Paper · January 2012

CITATIONS READS

0 513

3 authors:

Ehsan Layegh Ismail Lazoglu

MEF University Koc University
23 PUBLICATIONS   125 CITATIONS    171 PUBLICATIONS   2,070 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Huseyin Erdim
The Boeing Company
25 PUBLICATIONS   367 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

5-axis Additive Manufacturing System View project

Development of An Open-Architecture Rapid Prototyping System View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Ehsan Layegh on 30 April 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

Effects of Lead and Tilt Angles on Cutting Forces, Torque and Cutting Power in
Five-axis Sculptured Surface Milling

S. Ehsan Layegh K., slayegh@ku.edu.tr Manufacturing and Automation Research Center,

Koc University, Sariyer 34450, Istanbul, Turkey

Ismail Lazoglu, ilazoglu@metu.edu.tr Manufacturing and Automation Research Center, Koc

University, Sariyer 34450, Istanbul, Turkey

Huseyin Erdim, huseyinerdim@gmail.com, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, MA

02139, Cambridge, USA

ABSTRACT

Lead and Tilt angles are among parameters that critically influence the efficiency of five axis
milling in many respects, e.g., dissipated energy, tool deflection, and, surface quality. Up to
now, Effects of lead and tilt angles on mechanics of the process and dissipated energy have
been studied very little. In this research, the process of five-axis sculptured surface milling is
mechanically modeled, and for the same removed material volume the effects of lead and tilt
angle on the cutting forces, cutting torque and cutting energy are investigated. For the
validation, some experimental tests have been conducted for different lead and tilt angles.

Keywords: Manuscripts, Preparation guide

1. INTODUCTION

Nowadays, Five-axis machining has received much attention in a wide variety of industrial
sectors such as aerospace, automotive and manufacturing of complex molds. In contrast to
traditional three-axis machining, it provides some crucial advantages, e.g., less need for
complicated jig and fixtures, higher production rate, shorter and stiffer tools, and better
surface quality. On the other hand, five-axis milling is a very complicated process that
requires special care from geometrical perspective to mechanical point of view. Although
many investigations have been performed on the geometrical side of the problem, very little
studies have been cried out to clarify the effects of cutting parameters on the mechanics of
process.
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

The orientation of tool in five-axis milling is determined by lead and tilt angles. There are
several limits that restrict the range of the lead and tilt angles such as material removal rate,
gouge-free milling, tool tip contact avoiding, and mechanics and dynamics of the process.
Despite the other cutting parameters like feedrate, spindle speed and depth of cut, the
effects of the lead and tilt angle on the mechanics of the process is not known clearly.

B. Lauwers et al. [1] integrated the tool path generation module, the post processing (axes
transformation) and machine simulation into one system to find the optimum lead and tilt
angles and perform efficient collision avoidance. John C. J. Chiou and Y. S. Lee [2]
presented a swept envelope approach to determining the optimal tool orientation for five-axis
tool-end machining. In their study, the swept profile of the cutter is determined based on the
tool motion. They showed that by analyzing the swept profile against the part geometry, four
types of machining errors (local gouge, side gouge, rear gouge, and global collision) can be
identified. Weinert et al. [3] purposed an algorithm based on an evolutionary algorithm (EA)
which works on a wavelet transformation of the lead and tilt angles and optimizes the
coefficients of the wavelet functions. This approach is carried out under the constraint that
the generated tool path should be technologically well suited, free of collisions and leads to
smooth and jerk free-paths which improves the surface quality for a given workpiece. Claire
Lartigue et al. [4] introduced a model to optimize the tool orientation in 5-axis trajectories in
the context of high-speed machining. Their model generates tool paths suited to high speed
follow-up during machining in order to respect cutting conditions, while ensuring the
geometrical conformity of the machined part. For this purpose, the optimization of the tool
axis orientations is performed using a surface model for the tool path, which allows
integrating kinematical limits of the machine tool as well as classical geometrical constraints.
In of the few studies that have been considered the mechanics and dynamics of the process,
Ozturk et al. [5] proposed that the effects of lead and tilt angles on the process can be
predicted in terms of cutting forces, form errors and chatter stability. They showed the effects
of those parameters on process geometry, mechanics and dynamics of the process by
simulations and experiments. Lazoglu and Liang [6] introduced a closed form analytical force
model including cutter axis inclinations. Their model involves the kinematic reasoning of
cutting edge geometry, local helix angle, and average chip thickness followed by the analysis
of effects of axis inclination in the contact zone between cutter and workpiece.

Due to the lack of a model describing the relationship between tool orientation and the
mechanics of the process, this study is trying to give some clarifications on this issue. In this
paper the engagement between ball-end mill tool and workpiece is modeled in a solid
modeler that is introduced in previous works [7]. Then the cutting forces and cutting torque is
simulated based on a mechanistic model that is described in the earlier study [8]. Using this
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

model, the cutting force and cutting torque are simulated for different lead and tilt angles to
find the optimum tool orientation in order to consume less energy. Besides, using this model
it is possible to find optimized lead and tilt angles in order to decrease the cutting forces and
tool deflection that in turn leads to have better surface quality. Although it is tried to keep the
volume of removal material constant for each cutting case, but the cutting force and torque is
normalized based on the removal volume in order to purely consider the effect of the lead
and tilt angles. Finally, to validate the model some tests have been carried out and it will be
shown that there is a good agreement between the theoretical model and experimental
results.

2. KINEMATICS OF THE PROCESS

Despite of 3-axis milling, in five-axis milling, tool axis can have an inclination with respect to
the perpendicular vector to the XY plane of the workpiece. This inclination can be
represented by tilt and lead angles. If XwYwZw is the workpiece coordinate frame, the
inclination of the tool axis Zt with respect to the Zw is representing the lead and tilt angles.
According to the Figure 1 the angle between tool axis Zt and Zw in the ZwXw plane is called
lead angle and the angle between tool axis Zt and Zw in the ZwYw is called tilt angle.

Figure 1: Definition of Lead and Tilt Angles

In order to find the lead and tilt angles in each cutter location point, the position and
orientation of the cutter is extracted from CAM program in text format. In the text file the X, Y,
and Z component of the tool tip and the I, j, and k components, which are describing the tool
orientation, are listed. Having that information, the lead ( ) and tilt ( ) angles can be
calculated as follows:
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

2 , (1)
2 , (2)

Figure 2 represents the simulated tool orientation using the data extracted from CAM
software for 20 ° and 10°.

10
Z [mm]

0
-130.5 190
-131 200
-131.5 210
X[mm] Y[mm]
-132 220

Figure 2: Tool Orientation and Toolpath in Machine Coordinate System

The geometry of the setup and the toolpath for machining an airfoil shape surface is
presented in Figure 3. Each level of machining contains 6 toolpathes and in each toolpath
there are 10 cutter location points. In order to simulate cutting forces and cutting torque, the
engagement domain of tool and workpiece should be defined precisely. The engagement
map and the start and exit cutting angles on each axial element of the tool are determined
using a solid modeler kernel. The methodology and theory of engagement modeling is
explained in previous studies [7]. Figure 4 shows the modeled engagement and variation of
start and exit angle in each cutter location point. In this simulation the tool is a two fluted ball-
end mill with the diameter of 12 mm.
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

Figure 3: Machining Setup

Figure 4: Modeled Engagement for Each Cutter Location Point for (a) Lead = 0° and Tilt =
10° and (b) Lead = 30° and Tilt = 0°.

Figure 5 shows that how the 2D map of engagement is changing by change in lead and tilt
angles.
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

Figure 5: The Change in Engagement for Different Lead and Tilt Angles

3. MECHANICS OF THE PROCESS

In order to simulate the cutting forces and cutting torque, a discretized mechanistic cutting
force model, which is developed in previous studies [8], is used. Since the cutting forces is
collected using a rotary dynamometer, the cutting forces should be transformed to the tool
coordinate frame. The geometry of the cutting flute and force components acting on each
axial element is illustrated in Figure 6. As it is obvious from the figure, the only component
that generates the cutting torque around tool axis is .

Figure 6: Illustration of Force Components and Cutting Flute

In previous sections the engagement angles for each disk element along the cutter axis was
found. The other parameter that is necessary to calculate the cutting forces is instantaneous
chip thickness. In free-form surface machining the distance and the rotation angle between
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

two CL points are relatively small, therefore the effect of rotational velocities of the tool is
negligible. On the other hand, the effect of the lead and tilt angles on the cut geometry, and
horizontal and vertical feed components has to be considered. For ball-end mill tool,
instantaneous undeformed chip thickness is obtained as follows;

sin sin cos cos sin (3)

where is the chip thickness, is the feed per tooth, is the immersion angle of the
cutting point, is the cutting element position angle, and is the feed inclination angle
measured with respect to horizontal feed direction. The immersion angle of a discrete cutting
point on the flute of the cutter is given as:

Ω 2 1 ⁄ (4)

Where is the immersion angle for flute , represents the number of discrete point on a
cutting edge, Ω is the cutting edge rotation angle, is the total number of flutes and is
the lag angle due to helix angle of the cutter in the respective kth disk.

The instantaneous infinitesimal chip load is written as follows:

(5)

For a differential chip load in the engagement domain, the differential cutting forces in
radial, axial, and tangential directions ( , , ) is written as follows;

(6)

Where , and are radial, axial and tangential cutting force coefficients and ,
and are cutting edge coefficients respectively. Cutting force and edge coefficients are
determined by mechanistic calibration procedure where these coefficients vary along tool
axis direction.

In order to obtain the transformation from the coordinate frame to feed coordinate
frame transformation matrix can be written as,

sin sin cos sin cos

sin cos cos cos sin (7)
cos sin 0

Transformation matrix from the feed coordinate system to rotating dynamometer coordinate
frame can be written as,

cos Ω sin Ω 0
sin Ω cos Ω 0 (8)
0 0 1
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

Finally, cutting forces in rotating coordinate frame can be obtained as,

(9)

4. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENRAL RESULTS

In this simulation, the workpiece material is Aluminum 7050 which is common in aerospace
industry. For all of the cases spindle speed is 1500 [rpm] and feedrate is set to be 250
[mm/min]. As it mentioned before, the tool is a two fluted 12 mm ball-end mill with 60° of helix
angle.
The simulation is carried out for several combination of lead and tilt angles from 0° to 30°.
Figure 7 and Figure 8 are representing the simulated cutting forces for two cases.
Simultaneously, for the sake of validation, the experimental results are presented for each
case. The experimental data is collected using a rotary type of dynamometer with the sample
frequency of 3000 Hz.

As it can be inferred from those figures, the simulated cutting forces and cutting torque are in
a good agreement with experimental results in terms of trend and magnitude. It should be
mention that by increasing the resolution of engagement model and number of cutter location
points in each toolpath, the simulation would be much closer to the experimental results.
However, increasing the number of cutter location points leads to growing the computation
time that is unnecessary for the current research.
In order to better show the agreement between experimental and simulation results, a
zoomed view of estimated and measured cutting torque are illustrated in Figure 9.
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

Figure 7: Simulated and Measured Cutting Force and Torque for L = 30° and T = 0°
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

Figure 8: Simulated and Measured Cutting Force and Torque for L = 0° and T = 10°

Cutting Torque ( L=0[deg] and T=10[deg] ) Cutting Torque ( L=30[deg] and T=0[deg] )
Measured Measured
0.6 0.8 Simulated
Simulated
Torque [N.m]

Torque [N.m]

0.6
0.4
0.4
0.2 0.2

0 0
1.8 1.85 1.9 1.95 2 1.75 1.8 1.85 1.9 1.95 2
Time[sec] Time[sec]

Figure 9: Zoomed Views of Simulated and Measured Cutting Torque

 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

In order to investigate the effect of lead and tilt angles on the resultant cutting forces and
cutting torque, several test is carried out for different combination of lead and tilt angles.
Figure 10 shows the experimental setup which is used in this research. The test was
performed on Mori Seiki NMV 5000 DCG 5-axis machine and the cutting forces and torque
were measured using a rotary dynamometer.

Figure 10: Dynamometer and Workpiece Setup

Figure 11 illustrates the envelope of measured resultant force for different lead and tilt
angles. As it is obvious from the figure, the maximum resultant cutting force occurs when L =
30° and T = 5°. On the other hand, the minimum resultant force takes place while L = 0° and
T = 10°. These two cases are represented with circular and diamond markers in the Figure
11. According to this figure, for the same volume of removed material, the maximum
resultant cutting force can be reduced up to 22% just by selecting an appropriate lead and tilt
angle.
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

400 L=5 T=0

22% difference between L=10 T=0
L=20 T=0
300 maximum and minimum
L=30 T=0
L=0 T=5

Force[N]
L=5 T=5
200 L=10 T=5
L=20 T=5
L=30 T=5
L=0 T=10
100 L=5 T=10
L=10 T=10
L=20 T=10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Time[sec]
Figure 11: Measured resultant cutting forces

In order to have a comprehensive figure of relationship between resultant cutting forces and
lead and tilt angles, a surface is fitted to the maximum of resultant cutting forces in the Figure
12. In order to make sure that the represented cutting forces is for same material removal
rate, the volume of removed chip is calculated in each cutter location point and the maximum
resultant cutting force is normalized based on them.
Normalized Force [N/mm3]

4 3.6

3.4
3.5

3.2
3
3

2.5 30
20 2.8
30 20 10
10 0 0
Tilt Angle [deg] Lead Angle [deg]

Figure 12: Maximum Resultant Cutting Force (Normalized Based on the Volume of Removed
Material)

Figure 13 is showing envelop of the measured cutting torque for different combination of the
lead and tilt angles. Like resultant cutting force, the maximum and minimum of the cutting
torque is happening in (L=30°, T=5°) and (L=0°, T=10°), respectively. Those cases are
indicated with circular and diamond markers. Figure 14, demonstrates the fitted surface to
the maximum of normalized cutting torques in each case.
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

2 L=5 T=0
34% difference L=10 T=0
between maximum L=20 T=0
1.5

Torque [N.m]
and minimum L=30 T=0
L=0 T=5
L=5 T=5
L=10 T=5
1 L=20 T=5
L=30 T=5
L=0 T=10
0.5 L=5 T=10
L=10 T=10
L=20 T=10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Time[sec]
Figure 13: Measured Cutting Torque
Normalized Torque [N.m/mm3]

0.018 0.017

0.016
0.016
0.015
0.014
0.014

0.012 30
30 20 20
10 10
0 0
TiltAngle [deg] LeadAngle [deg]
Figure 14: Maximum Resultant Cutting Torque (Normalized Based on the Volume of
Removed Material)

As it is obvious from Figure 13 and Figure 14 that maximum cutting torque acting on the
spindle axis can be reduced up to 34% by selecting the lead and tilt angles smartly.

To investigate the effect of lead and tilt angles on cutting power and consumed energy,
power of cutting is calculated for measured cutting torque using the following equation:

(10)

In this equation, is cutting torque and is spindle speed in radian per second. Figure 15
represents the cutting power for (L=30°, T=5°) and (L=0°, T=10°) in which torque is
maximum and minimum, respectively.
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

Figure 15: Cutting Power and Saved Energy for (L=30°, T=5°) and (L=0°, T=10°)

For each case, the consumed energy can be found from the area beneath the cutting power.
In this case, the consumed energy for (L=30°, T=5°) is 492 [J]. For (L=0°, T=10°) case the
cutting energy is 398 [J] which is 23% less.

5. CONCLUSIONS
The effect of lead and tilt angles on cutting forces, torque, and cutting energy was studied in
this paper. Airfoil surfaces were machined with different lead and tilt angles, and for the same
volume of removed material, cutting force and torque were simulated. In addition, cutting
force and torque were measured using a rotary type of dynamometer and it was shown that
there is a good agreement between simulated and measured cutting forces.
Besides, It was shown that the maximum resultant force acting on the tool can be reduced up
to 22% just by appropriate selection of lead and tilt angles. And this, in turn, provides the less
tool deflection and better surface quality. Moreover, by a proper set of lead and tilt angle it is
possible to reduce the maximum cutting torque on the spindle up to 34%. It is also shown
that cutting energy can be reduced up to 23% in each toolpath that means a remarkable
save in consumed energy.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors acknowledge the Machine Tool Technologies Research Foundation (MTTRF),
the Mori Seiki Co., and the DP Technology Corp for the Mori Seiki NMV 5000DCG CNC
Machining Center and Esprit CAM software supports. The authors also acknowledge
Sandvik Coromant Company for providing cutting tools for this research.

REFERENCES

1. Lauwers B., Dejonghe P. and Kruth J.P., (2003), " Optimal and collision free tool
posture in five-axis machining through the tight integration of tool path generation and
machine simulation ", Computer-Aided Design, Vol.35, No.5, pp 421-432.
 The 15th International Conference on Machine Design and Production
June 19– 22, 2012, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

2. Chiou John C. J. and Lee Y. S., (2005), ” Optimal Tool Orientation for Five-Axis Tool-
End Machining by Swept Envelope Approach”, Journal of Manufacturing Science and
Engineering, Vol.127, No.4, pp 810-819.
3. Weinert K., Zabel A., Muller H. and Kersting P., (2006), “Optimizing of NC tool paths
for five-axis milling using evolutionary algorithms on wavelets”, 8th annual conference on
Genetic and evolutionary computation” Seattle, WA, USA, pp. 1809-1816.
4. Lavernhea S., Tourniera C. and Lartigue C., (2008), “Optimization of 5-axis high-speed
machining using a surface based approach”, Computer-Aided Design, Vol.40, No.10-11,
pp 1015-1023.
5. Ozturk E., Taner Tunc L. and Budak E., (2009), “Investigation of lead and tilt angle
effects in 5-axis ball-end milling processes”, International Journal of Machine Tools and
Manufacture, Vol. 40, No.14, pp 1053-1062.
6. Lazoglu, I. and Liang, S.Y., (1997), “Analytical Modeling of Ball-End Milling Forces”, An
International Journal of Machining Science and Technology, Marcel-Dekker Inc., 1/2, pp
219-234
7. Boz Y., Layegh Khavidaki S. E., Erdim H. and Lazoglu I., (2012), “Machining of
Complex Sculptured Surfaces, Chapter3, High Performance 5-Axis Milling of Complex
Sculptured Surfaces, Springer”, Springer, London, pp. 67-125.
8. Boz, Y., Erdim, H. and Lazoglu, I., (2011), “, Modeling Cutting Forces for Five Axes
Milling of Sculptured Surfaces”, Advanced Materials Research, Vol.233, pp 701-712

View publication stats