Milling Force and Machining Deformation in Mirror Milling of Aircraft Skin

Abstract

Machining the aircraft skin, using CNC milling to replace the traditional chemical milling, is a trend owning to the great pollution of the chemical milling to the environment. Based on the instantaneous rigidity force hypothesis, a milling force model for mirror milling of aircraft skin was proposed, which was validated by the milling force measurement during mirror milling experiments. A FEM model was established to calculate the deformation of the aluminum plate in mirror milling. The effects of the supporting position on the deformation was analyzed.

Optimization of support location in mirror-milling of aircraft skins

“…When the array suction cups or the surrounding holders, as flexible fixtures, are used to fix the periphery of the workpiece, which is far away from the work region, the distance between the fixed point and the support point is much larger than that between the cutting force point and the support point. 17,18 Thus, in the finite element simulation, some system assumptions are set as follows:…”

Investigation of Machining Parameters in Thin-Walled Plate Milling Using a Fixture with Cylindrical Support Heads

“…Fei et al [8] suggested a new method of deformation suppression that involves supporting a fixture element on the back surface of the workpiece at the projection area of the tool-workpiece contact zone; they demonstrated that the method used reduces machining error, improves surface quality, and thus reduces the deformation of low-rigidity workpieces during machining. Bao et al [9] validated the measurements of milling force for the mirror milling of aircraft skin with the proposed milling force model. They have also developed a finite element m˝SPEEethod (FEM) model to calculate the deformation in the mirror milling of an aluminium plate; they also analysed the position of support heads' locations used in the mirror milling process.…”

Vacuum preloading hydrostatic support technology for mirror milling of thin-walled parts

“…Mirror milling as one of the most effective methods to improve the quality of thin-walled parts machining [4], developing rapidly in recent years. Mirror milling system (MMS) consists of a flexible fixture and two five-axis machine tools with synchronized mirror motion, where two spindle heads are located on each side of the workpiece, one spindle head is used for milling machining and the other is used for support [5]. Both of them always move in the same normal vector direction during the machining process, and the machining thickness can be adjusted by controlling the distance between the machine spindle head and the supporting head [6].…”