DESIGN OF PENCIL-TYPE MILLING CUTTERS FOR WORM SURFACE GENERATION

Abstract

The generation mechanism for a milling cutter and worm is designed as follows: (i) the worm cylinder performs a screw motion; and (ii) the cutter rotates about an axis perpendicular to the axis of the screw motion. In this paper, a mathematical model of a worm surface is developed. The profiles of pencil-type milling cutters used to generate one side and two symmetric sides of worm surfaces are investigated. Constraints on the dimensions of pencil-type milling cutters are studied and considered in the mathematical model. The mathematical model of the cutter presented here is helpful in the design and manufacture of high precision cutters for the generation of worm tooth surfaces. Possible applications of the proposed mathematical models to the design of cutters are presented. Computer graphs of the cutters are presented also. The method proposed here can be applied also to the design of pencil-type milling cutters for generation of other screw surfaces.