Modeling and analysis of helical groove grinding in end mill machining

Helical groove geometry has important influence on the performance of end mills. It is the hardest and most time-consuming grinding process in end mill manufacture. This paper reports a graphical analysis method to obtain the structure parameters and geometric shapes of helical grooves with the known wheel geometry and position. Mathematical models are presented to describe the wheel geometry and position (including orientation and location) in space. A family of wheel surfaces is calculated and a scattered point set in the cross section plane is deduced according to the grinding path. Finally, an original algorithm for the cross sectional outline profile identification is given using graphical method. To verify this method, a calculation program programmed using MATLAB programming is developed. This study provides a fundamental understanding for the groove grinding process, based on this, the influence of different grinding process parameters on groove geometry (including radial rake angle, groove width and core radius) is discussed.