No abstract

Micromachining comprises manufacturing processes that are in the forefront of contemporary industry. The need for high efficiency, high precision, better quality and lower cost makes the study of these processes and the phenomena of the micro regime that accompany, e.g. the size effect, of great importance. The quite popular for modeling manufacturing processes Finite Element Method is applicable in micromachining, too. However, assumptions and simplifications need to be made in order to provide a realistic simulation. In the present paper a numerical simulation using the Third Wave AdvantEdge® software is presented. A FEM model of micromachining of AISI 1045 is used for a parametric analysis of the simulation of micro-cutting. The effect of cutting conditions and tool geometry are investigated and size-effect theories are tested with the aid of the numerical model. From the analysis several useful conclusions are drawn.