High-speed End Milling of Extruded Aluminum Alloys Using Articulated Robot

This study describes the end milling operation using an articulated robot that is the new machining for extruded aluminum alloys. The most important characteristic of this operation is using the small diameter of endmill and the high-speed spindle in order to reduce a cutting force and improve the low stiffness of an articulated robot. However, the behavior of end milling with super-fast spindle speed for extruded aluminum alloys was still unclear. In this paper, in order to clear it, the basic end milling experiments and structural analysis were done. Consquently, it was proved that the high frequency vibration proper to high-speed end milling had a close relation to the stiffness (natural frequency) of machine tools or work piece, and great affected the cutting force and the cutting surface. On the other hand, it was confirmed that the articulated robot had few effects on the high frequency vibration of end milling because of low stiffness, and that the cutting force was 50 to 70% down compared with the fluting machine. Therefore, it is thought that the end milling using an articulated robot is effective for the improvement of high-speed end milling performance.