Study on Development and Cutting Performance of Elliptic Ball-End-Mill

In this paper, the elliptic ball-end-mill, whose characteristics are that the re-grinding operation is simple and that the same cutting edge shape is obtained by the re-grinding operation, is proposed. The elliptic ball-end-mill is formed by cutting an elliptic column at the suitable’angle, and the cutting edge consists of the first cutting edge which has an elliptic surface as a rake face and the second cutting edge which has a cross section of an elliptic column as rake face. And, the forming method of the cutting edge shape is established. Then, the most suitable cutting edge shape of the elliptic ball-end-mill to minimize the cutting force is that the part of 40% of the tool radius from the top of the tool is composed by the first cutting edge, that the rest is composed by the second cutting edge, and that the cutting angle of the elliptic column is about 50 degrees.