Optimal stock removal to reduce chatter and deflection errors for five-axis ball-end milling of thin-walled blades
Behnam Karimi, Yusuf Altıntaş
Abstract
Highly flexible and costly gas turbine and compressor blades, machined with ball-ended mills from thermally resistant alloys on five-axis CNC machines, face challenges like chatter and deflection marks during machining. This paper introduces an algorithm to automatically segment stock removal, considering tool flexibility and position-dependent blade dynamics. Employing variable thickness but constant feed and spindle speed in an optimally planned tool path reduces chatter, minimizing machining time and dimensional and surface finish errors. The algorithm is experimentally validated in the five-axis machining of blades, and its effectiveness over conventional toolpath generation with a uniform stock removal strategy is demonstrated.