Micromilling strategies impact on thin walls geometrical quality

Micromilling is one of the most versatile tooling processes: three-dimensional features can be effectively manufactured on moulds and dies achieving good accuracy performance. Typical and challenging features for these microcomponents are high aspect ratio thin walls. Once defined the flatness and the average thickness as key performance indicators, the present study has been focused on studying the effects of milling strategy, tool path and wall thickness on the geometrical profile of micromilled thin walls, carried out on C40 steel, in terms of indicators deviation from nominal values. An experimental campaign has been designed in order to statistically analyse the selected geometrical responses and a proper technique (ANCOVA) has been applied to remove the tool wear effect. Final target of the presented research is to improve the current thin walls micromilling accuracy by suggesting the correct parameters combination.