Geometric modeling and validation of twist drills with a generic point profile

Traditionally, twist drills with a few specific point geometry, such as planar, conical, cylindrical, ellipsoidal or hyperboloidal, have been designed and adapted for specific applications. Using CAD, the point geometry can be given a generic definition which will enhance the freedom to design drills with different point profiles and optimize them for multiple objectives. Such a definition can also be used for several downstream applications. This paper presents a methodology to model the twist drills with generic point geometry using NURBS. To begin with, a detailed basic model for a fluted twist drill with sectional geometry made up of arcs and straight lines has been presented in terms of bi-parametric surface patches. The coordinates of cutting lips and chisel edge of the drill have been obtained as solution to a surface-curve intersection problem using optimization algorithm. Subsequently, the model has been generalized by employing NURBS to represent the curves whereby the cutting edges and angles can be altered simply by changing the control points or their respective weights. Using this methodology, the generic definitions of the conventional angles on the drill point have been derived and presented. The proposed model has been illustrated in MATLAB environment and validated experimentally for a conical and an arbitrary point geometry. The experiments show a good conformity with the theoretical evaluations.