Machining free-form shaped surfaces is a widespread task. Aerospace, automotive, mould
making and many other sectors are challenged by ever increasing demands for precision
and economy. In ball-end milling, the constantly changing cutting conditions affect
the shape and volume of the chip, as well as the tool load and the quality of the
resulting surface. It is important to know the cutting force for a given surface characteristic,
because this makes it easier to plan the machining process. The prediction of cutting
forces is very important for optimising machining strategies and parameters to achieve
the required accuracy. In the experiments, the forces on the tool and the surface
geometric accuracy were measured by milling test surfaces of 42CrMo4 with different
cutting parameters. Based on the measured values, the average cutting force was determined,
the variance of the force variation was investigated and the force momentum, which
takes into account the machining time. The aim of this paper is to investigate and
compare the cutting force and the surface profile error of the resulting surface during
finishing milling with a ball-end milling cutter.
