Workpiece surface flatness improvement by tool length compensation in micromilling

Micromilling quality improvement requires an accurate management of all the involved resources (machine tool, tool, fixture, workpiece). Specific attention has to be paid, comparing to macro operations, also to machining strategies and tool and workpiece measuring strategies. The extreme workpiece accuracy requires to reinterpret some procedures, already applied in the macro world, with the purpose to minimize errors. It is the case of the tool length compensation, which plays a strong role on the micromilling overall performance. In order to demonstrate the importance of factors affecting tool length, as machine spindle thermal transients and tool wear assessment, the present paper takes the workpiece flatness deviation as a case study and presents a manufacturing and measuring strategy able to meet a challenging flatness constraint.