Process Force Prediction in Orbital Drilling of TiAl6V4.

Orbital drilling is a machining process where an end mill moves on a helical path into the workpiece to generate holes. In comparison to conventional drilling operations this process often leads to lower burr formation in metals and less fiber delamination in composites. Hence orbital drilling is used in aircraft industry for cutting composites and composite-metal compounds. A common problem in orbital drilling are hole diameter deviations due to tool deflection caused by the machining forces. This paper deals with the force prediction in orbital drilling operations. Therefore the process has been divided into two analogy processes, which describe the drilling and milling part. Both analogy processes are simulated with two different force models, which use a set of milling and drilling trials to gain the specific cutting force coefficients. The superposition of both models result in the prediction of the force components in orbital drilling.