Elastomer end-milling is attracting attention for its role in the small-lot production of elastomeric parts. In order to apply end-milling to the production of elastomeric parts, it is important that the workpiece be held stably to avoid deformation. To evaluate the stability of workholding, it is necessary to predict cutting forces in elastomer end-milling. Cutting force prediction for metal workpiece end-milling has been investigated for many years, and many process models for end-milling have been proposed. However, the applicability of these models to elastomer end-milling has not been discussed. In this paper, the characteristics of the cutting force in elastomer end-milling are evaluated experimentally. A standard cutting force model and its parameter identification method are introduced. By using this cutting force model, measured cutting forces are compared against the calculated results. The comparison makes it clear that the standard cutting force model for metal end-milling can be applied to down milling for a rough evaluation.

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