Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26

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Computer-Aided Design
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cad

A mathematical model for simulating and manufacturing ball end mill

Hien Nguyen, Sung-Lim Ko ∗
Department of Mechanical Design & Production Engineering, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, 143-701, South Korea

highlights
• A new mathematical model for grinding the ball end mill is proposed.
• The rake face of ball end mill is modeled as a developable surface.
• The conditions of engagement between wheel and the rake face are established.
• The configuration of the flute surface was directly computed.

article info abstract

Article history: The performance of ball end mill cutters in cutting operations is influenced by the configuration of the
Received 7 January 2013 rake and clearance faces in the ball component. From the mathematical design of a cutting edge curve,
Accepted 12 January 2014 the rake face can be defined by the rake angle and the width of the rake face at each cross section along
the cutting edge. We propose the fundamental conditions that must govern the engagement between the
Keywords: grinding wheel and the designed rake face in order to avoid interference while machining a ball end mill.
Modeling
As a result, a new mathematical model for determining the wheel location and a software program for
Ball end mill
CNC grinding
simulating the generation of the rake face of a ball end mill are proposed. In addition, methods for grinding
Rake face the clearance face in both concave and flat-shapes are introduced. The flute surface generated by a disk
Cutting simulation wheel during the grinding process is determined on the basis of a tangency condition. The results of the
experiment and the simulation are compared to validate the proposed model.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The helical flute, which located in both the cylindrical part and
the ball part of a ball end mill, plays an important role in machining
a sculptured surface. Many mathematical models have been devel-
oped to machine different kinds of end mills.
For a cylindrical end mill, two basic approaches for determin-
ing the wheel location and profile were developed to achieve a de-
sired end mill. In the first approach, a CAD model and an algorithm
were proposed to determine the relative positions of the wheel the
workpiece to grind an end mill according to certain design factors
such as the rake angle and the core radius [1–3]. The second ap-
proach aims to generate a wheel profile for a prescribed workpiece
cross-section on the basis of the fundamental condition of engage-
ment between the wheel and the helical groove [4,5].
The basic geometrical components of the ball part of a ball
end mill are depicted in workpiece coordinates, OXYZ, as shown
in Fig. 1(a). The ball part is machined using a grinding wheel, as
shown in Fig. 1(b) and (c). The rake face and the flute surface are
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 450 3465.
E-mail address: slko@konkuk.ac.kr (S.-L. Ko).
0010-4485/$ – see front matter © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cad.2014.01.002
generated by the side face and the revolution surface of the grind-
ing wheel, respectively (Fig. 1(b)). The cutting edge is the inter-
section curve between the rake face and the clearance face; the
bottom curve is the intersection curve between the rake face
and the flute surface. The spiral rake face with a constant lead
and rake angle is usually required to improve the cutting perfor-
mance. This requirement complicates the ball end mill machining
process. To machine a ball end mill, the equation of the cutting
edge is derived first, and then the wheel location is determined
along the cutting edge. Several optimal cutting edges were pre-
sented [6,7]. The second approach mentioned above [4,5] was used
in combination with a cutting edge equation to generate a grinding
wheel profile for a given cross-section of the ball end mill [8–10].
Namely, the grinding wheel was predicted to grind a ball end mill
with a constant helix angle cutting edge [8], circular-arc ball end
mill [9], and concave-arc ball end mill [10]. However, researchers
demonstrated that the resulting manufactured grinding wheels
still generate residual surfaces on the workpiece and produce a side
cutting edge strip [8,9]. The rake face of a taper ball end mill
was produced using special grinding wheels such as those with a
toroidal or spherical shape [11,12]; this method produces a smooth
cutting edge and maintains a normal rake angle along the cutting
edge. However, the wheel location was chosen to grind a maxi-
mum cutting depth without using the tangency condition between
 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26 17

Fig. 1. Ball end mill and grinding wheel geometry: (a) Geometry of the ball part of ball end mill, (b) Wheel for grinding rake face, (c) Wheel for grinding clearance face.

the surface of the wheel and the defined rake face. Therefore, for
this case, the maximum depth of the cut differs from the designed
depth. In addition, the unconventional shape of the wheels (torus
or sphere) prevents widespread application in industry.
The limitations of previous works were due to their exclusive
focus on the cutting edge design and dynamic behavior analysis
[6,7]. Additionally, to obtain a precise rake angle, the rake face was
machined with specific wheel shapes (torus or sphere) [11,12]. The
rake face and flute were produced with a predicted wheel using the
second approach [8–10], but still there is a deviation between the
designed and the produced ball end mill.
In this paper, a new mathematical model for manufacturing the
ball part of a ball end mill, including the rake and clearance faces,
will be presented in continuation of the studies on the cylindri-
cal part [1,2]. The rake face is modeled as a developable surface
using a cutting edge equation and a proposed bottom curve, as
shown in Fig. 1(a). The rake face can thus be generated by using
the side face (flat face) of the grinding wheel shown in Fig. 1(b).
A cutting edge with a constant lead and normal rake angle is em-
ployed in the proposed model. First, the equation for the cutting
edge curve is derived in Section 2. In Section 3.1.1, we propose the Fig. 2. Cutting edge curve of the ball part of a ball end mill.
bottom curve of the rake face, which is obtained by determining
the width of the rake face for each cross-section where the normal
general position vector of a point Ci , along the cutting edge is
rake angle is measured. On the basis of the suggested fundamental
presented in the workpiece coordinate system OXYZ as follows:
conditions for avoiding interference between the grinding wheel
with the designed rake face, the location of the wheel center and    
the orientation of the wheel axis are determined in Section 3.1.2. r = x, R2 − x2 sin ϕ, R2 − x2 cos ϕ (1)
Section 3.2 presents the two designs for grinding the clearance
face: concave and flat. The rake face is ground by the side face of the where R is the radius of the ball head and ϕ is the lag angle between
grinding wheel, whereas the flute surface is generated by the revo- the tool tip (x = R) and the current point Ci on the cutting edge.
lution surface of the grinding wheel (Fig. 1(b)). This flute surface is The definition of a helix angle is the angle between the tangent
determined in Section 4 by using the tangency condition between vector of the helix, T̂i , and the tangent vector of the longitudinal
the wheel and flute surfaces. Finally, in Section 5, the results of the axis, T̂i′ . The angles β and βb are defined as the helix angles in the
model will be verified on the basis of both simulation and experi- cylindrical and in the ball parts, respectively.
mental results. A mathematical model of the cutting edge with a constant
lead or a constant helix was previously published [7]. Our model
2. Mathematical model of cutting edge curve considers the case of the cutting edge with a constant lead, which
is preferred by the cutter grinders to save the material during the
The geometrical accuracy of the cutting edge determines the regrinding operation. Eq. (2) can be applied to both the ball and
precision of the product that is machined by a ball end milling cylindrical parts to obtain a constant lead cutting edge curve:
cutter. For this reason, the cutting edge must be precisely designed
tan β
and machined. The aim of this section is to establish the equation dϕ = − dx. (2)
of a constant lead helix cutting edge for a ball end mill. R
The cutting edge of a ball end mill is located in both the ball In addition, the lag angle is zero at the tool tip (ϕ = 0, at x = R);
and cylindrical parts. A coordinate system, OXYZ, is applied to a therefore, the lag angle can be determined along the cutting edge
workpiece in which the origin O is placed at ball center and the as follows:
OX-axis coincides with the longitudinal axis of the workpiece. In
this paper all derivations are carried out in this coordinate system tan β
ϕ=− (x − R). (3)
(OXYZ). The cutting edge in the ball part is modeled in Fig. 2. A R
18 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26

The tangent vector of the cutting edge T̂i , the normal vector of
the ball surface N̂i , and vector B̂i that is the cross product of the vec-
tors N̂i and T̂i at a point Ci in the cutting edge curve are described in
Fig. 3. Considering the position vector r = [x, y, z ] of a point along
the cutting edge, the vectors T̂i , N̂i , and B̂i are expressed by Eq. (6):
 ṙ
T̂i = ∥ṙ ∥ = [Txi , Tyi , Tzi ]



r
N̂i = = [Nxi , Nyi , Nzi ] (6)


 ∥ r∥
B̂i = N̂i × T̂i = [Bxi , Byi , Bzi ].


The normal rake angle, γ , is measured in the so-called normal

plane Pn , which is normal to the elementary cutting edge. The rake
face is modeled as a developable surface, with a cross-section at
the normal plane that consists of the line segment Ci Ki , as shown
in Fig. 3. Corresponding to a point on the cutting edge, the radial
Fig. 3. Modeling of the rake face.
depth ∥Ci Ki ∥ = hi is given; this depth is zero at the tip and in-
creases in the negative direction of the X -axis. The dotted curve in
The variable helix angle along the cutting edge curve in the ball Fig. 3 represents the bottom curve of the rake face. In this paper,
part can be represented as follows: the following equation of radial depth was utilized for the results

R 2 − x2
 of the simulation and the experiment:
βb = tan −1
tan β . (4) 
R2 ∥Ci Ki ∥ = hi = (c1 + c2 x/R) R2 − x2 (7)
The equation of the cutting edge in the ball part is obtained by sub- where 0 ≤ x ≤ R. The two coefficients c1 and c2 can be adjusted
stituting Eq. (3) into Eq. (1): to yield a suitable bottom curve. For instance, the rake faces are
illustrated in Fig. 4 using the cutting edge described in Eq. (5) for
ϕ
 
ball radius of R = 6 mm, a helix angle of β = 25°, a rake angle of

x = R 1 −
tan β γ = 0° and coefficients of radial depth of c1 = 0.25, c2 = 0.15 and




c1 = 0.4, c2 = 0 for Fig. 4(a) and (b), respectively.

 

ϕ

  2
y=R 1− 1− sin ϕ (5)

 tan β 3.1.1. Construction of equation for bottom curve of rake face
Our goal is to precisely machine the rake face of a ball end mill

 
ϕ

  2
cos ϕ. with a constant normal rake angle and a designed cut depth. There-

z =R 1− 1−


tan β fore, the equation of the bottom curve, which is formed by the
designed cut depth in normal plane, is required to determine the
wheel location. Moreover, both the principal normal vector of the
3. Mathematical model for machining ball end mill bottom curve and normal vector of the rake face along the line seg-
ment in normal plane are derived in this section. These derivations
3.1. Mathematical model for grinding rake face in ball part are used in the next section to ensure that the condition of engage-
ment sufficiently avoids interference.
The position vector of point Ki on the bottom curve to the point
In this section, the tangent and normal vectors to the spherical
Ci on the cutting edge is described in Fig. 3. It is calculated in the
surface along the cutting edge are introduced as the basic
OXYZ coordinate system as follows:
components of the cutting edge. On the basis of these components
and the designed depth of the cut in the normal plane of the rake rOKi = rOCi + Ci Ki = [xki , yki , zki ] (8)
face, a bottom curve of the rake face is proposed, which is the key where,
point for determining the wheel location along the cutting edge in
Section 3.1.2. Ci Ki = −hi cos γ N̂i − hi sin γ B̂i . (9)

a 7 b7
6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Fig. 4. Rake face configuration: (a) bottom curve with c1 = 0.25, c2 = 0.15, (b) bottom curve with c1 = 0.4, c2 = 0.
 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26
Fig. 5. Relative wheel location and workpiece to avoid interference with bottom
curve.
The bottom curve of the rake face is defined uniquely in Eq. (8), and
it can be parameterized as follows:
rOKi = rOK (ϕ) = [xk (ϕ), yk (ϕ), zk (ϕ)].
Eq. (11) represents the principal normal vector of the bottom curve
of the rake face, N̂Ki at point Ki , which will be used in the next
section:
2
drOK /dϕ 2
N̂Ki =  i
 = [NKxi , NKyi , NKzi ].
drOKi /dϕ 2 
 2 
The parameterized equation of the rake face can be determined
using the cutting edge and bottom curves as follows:
SR (ϕ, v) = (1 − v)rOCi + v rOKi = rOCi − v hi (cos γ N̂i + sin γ B̂i )
with 0 ≤ v ≤ 1.
The modeled rake face has an important property: the normal
vector to the rake face is constant (free from the variable v ) along
the line segment Ci Ki . Later, this property will be implemented
in the tangency condition between the side face of the grinding
wheel and the rake face. To prove this property exists, a point Li
is assumed to lie on the segment Ci Ki such that ∥Ci Li ∥ = v ∥Ci Ki ∥
with 0 ≤ v ≤ 1. The normal of the rake face at point Li is given in
Box I.
3.1.2. Wheel location and conditions of engagement to avoid
interference with rake face
In this section, the conditions of engagement between the
grinding wheel and the rake face are proposed, which allows pre-
cise machining of the rake face using the side face of the grinding
wheel. As a consequence, the wheel center location and the ori-
entation of wheel axis are determined along the cutting edge to
machine the rake face.
The rake face is machined by grinding each line, Ci Ki , using the
side face of the grinding wheel with a radius of Rw , as shown in
Figs. 1(b) and 5. The side face of the grinding wheel with center
position of Gi is the outer face of the wheel and perpendicular
to wheel’s axis. To grind the segment Ci Ki on the rake face
without interfering with the defined cutting edge, the side face
of the grinding wheel must contain the tangent vector, T̂i , of the
cutting edge curve at the current grinding point Ci . Many potential
locations of the wheel exist that allow the line Ci Ki to be ground
without interference with the cutting edge, as shown in Fig. 5;
however, the grinding wheel at the location-2 exhibits interference
19
(10)
Fig. 6. Model for determination of wheel location in grinding rake face.
(11)
with the defined bottom curve of the rake face. Therefore, only
location-1 of the grinding wheel can grind the defined rake face
without interference. Thus, to avoid interference between the
grinding wheel and the defined bottom curve, the direction of the
vector, N̂K′ i , must pass through the center of the wheel’s side face,
(12) Gi . The vector N̂K′ i is the projection of the principal normal vector
of the bottom curve, N̂Ki , at point Ki into the plane of the wheel’s
side-face. The fundamental conditions to avoid interference while
grinding the rake face are summarized as follows:
Condition 1: The side face of the grinding wheel must pass
through the line Ci Ki and contain the tangent vector of the cutting
edge, T̂i , at the current grinding point Ci .
Condition 2: The center of the wheel’s side face, Gi , must be
contained in the projection of the normal vector of the bottom
curve to the side-face of the grinding wheel, N̂K′ i .
Note that the principle normal vector of the bottom curve, N̂Ki ,
intersects the wheel axis, Îi , as shown in Fig. 6 when conditions
1 and 2 are satisfied. This characteristic will be utilized for the
calculation of the location of the wheel center.
On the basis of the condition 1, the wheel axis, Ii , can be
represented by Eq. (14):
T̂i × Ki Ci
Îi =   = cos γ B̂i − sin γ N̂i . (14)
T̂i × Ki Ci 
 
Using the condition 1 and condition 2 regarding the proposed en-
gagement, the position of the wheel center in workpiece coordi-
nates is determined by Eq. (15):
rOGi = rOKi + N̂K′ i Rw . (15)
Eq. (15) guarantees having only one common point, Ki , between the
grinding wheel and the bottom curve of rake face. In addition, from
the condition 2 vectors Îi , N̂Ki are intersected, therefore the three
20 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26

∂ SR (ϕ,v)
∂ϕ
× ∂ SR∂v
(ϕ,v)
N̂Li =  
 ∂ SR (ϕ,v) ∂ SR (ϕ,v) 
 ∂ϕ × ∂v 
    
∥ṙ ∥ T̂i − v hi R cos γ T̂i + kn sin γ (N̂i × N̂Fi ) × −hi (cos γ N̂i + sin γ B̂i )
∥ṙ ∥

=   
 ∥ṙ ∥ − v hi R cos γ + kn sin γ sin ψ  hi
 ∥ṙ ∥ 

= cos γ B̂i − sin γ N̂i (13)

in which N̂Fi , kn and ψ are the principal normal vector, normal curvature and the angle between the principal normal vector N̂Fi and
the normal of the sphere N̂i at point Ci on the cutting edge, respectively.
Box I.

Fig. 7. Model for grinding concave-shaped clearance face: (a) wheel location in the normal plane, (b) wheel location in OXYZ coordinate system.

vectors Îi , N̂K′ i , N̂Ki are coplanar. Thus, the vector N̂K′ i in Eq. (15) can
be determined as:
(Îi × N̂Ki ) × Îi
N̂K′ i = . (16)
∥(Îi × N̂Ki ) × Îi ∥
The normal of the rake face is proven to be constant along the line
segment Ci Ki , as indicated by Eq. (13). Therefore when the side face
of the grinding wheel contains the line segment Ci Ki , the wheel
axis orientation is assigned to be equivalent to the normal of the
rake face at point Ci . Then the contact line between the designed
rake face and the side face of the grinding wheel is this line seg-
ment (Ci Ki ). The position of the wheel center and the orientation of
wheel axis that are required for precise machining of the rake face
are determined by Eqs. (14) and (15), respectively.
orientation in order to generate a concave-shaped clearance face
with a constant clearance angle along the cutting edge.
The model for grinding a concave-shaped clearance face is
shown in Fig. 7. Here, the clearance face formed in grinding process
is represented by the segment Ci Di , which is a segment on the
outer circle of the grinding wheel along the cutting edge. To
grind a clearance face with clearance angle α0 , the vector Ci Gi ,
must make the angle α0 with the normal vector N̂i , as shown in
Fig. 7(a). Therefore, the relative position of the wheel center to
the workpiece and the orientation of wheel axis are determined
as follows:
rOGi = rOCi + Ci Gi (17)
where,

3.2. Mathematical model for grinding clearance face in ball part
In the case of machining, the clearance angle of a ball end mill
directly affects the cutting performance and the tool life. The shape
of the clearance face is also an important factor for a cutter, and it
varies depending on the grinding method. In this paper, models for
grinding the clearance face of a ball end mill into flat and concave
shapes will be introduced.
The clearance angle, α0 , is defined as the angle between the
tangent vector at point Ci and the extension of the vector B̂i in the
normal plane. The clearance face is formed by the outer circle of
the cup wheel in the concave method and by the side face of the
cup wheel in the flat method; the outer circle of the cup wheel has
a radius of Rc , as shown in Fig. 1(c).
3.2.1. Grinding of concave clearance face
In this section, the cutting edge and its basic components are
used to determine the wheel center location and the wheel axis
Ci Gi = Rc cos α0 N̂i − Rc sin α0 B̂i . (18)
The orientation of the wheel axis can be obtained as follows:
Îi = B̂i × N̂i = T̂i . (19)
3.2.2. Grinding of flat clearance face
In this section, the cutting edge and its basic components are
used to determine the wheel center location and the wheel axis
orientation in order to generate a flat-shaped clearance face with
a constant clearance angle along the cutting edge.
The model for grinding a flat-shaped clearance face is shown in
Fig. 8. The clearance face is formed by the side-face of the cup wheel
when the wheel moves along the cutting edge. In this model, the
formed clearance face is a developable surface and its cross-section
in the normal plane is a straight line Ci Di , as shown in Fig. 8(a). The
clearance angle is defined as the angle between the vector Ci Di and
the extension of the vector B̂i . The outer circle of the side face is
 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26 21

Fig. 8. Model for grinding a flat-shaped clearance face: (a) wheel location in the normal plane, (b) wheel location in top view.

positioned to pass through points Ci and Di . The side face of the

cup wheel is perpendicular to the normal plane; therefore, it will
contain the vector Ci Di and the tangent vector of the cutting edge
T̂i as shown in the model in Fig. 8. Thus, the position of the wheel
center is calculated as follows:

rOGi = rOCi + Ci Gi

Ci Gi = −Rsin α0 (sin α0 N̂i + cos α0 B̂i ) (20)
− R2 − (R sin α0 )2 T̂i .


c

The orientation of the wheel axis is calculated as follows:

Îi = T̂i × (sin α0 N̂i + cos α0 B̂i ). (21)

The NC-code is generated from the position of the wheel center,
rGi , and its axis orientation, Ii . This NC code is used for a 5-axis
CNC grinder for fabricating the rake and clearance face of ball end
mill [11].

4. Determining flute surface of ball part

When the cutting edge equation, normal rake angle and de-
signed cut depth are given, the rake face can be modeled. Addi-
tionally, the wheel center location and the wheel axis orientation
to machine this rake face can be determined, as explained in the
previous section. However, the generated surface also consists of
a flute surface, which is ground by the revolution surface of the
grinding wheel when the wheel moves along the cutting edge. The
aim of this section is to calculate the generated surface for the pur-
pose of visualization and simulation. The generated flute surface of
a ball end mill will be calculated by using the tangency condition
at any point of the wheel surface.
It is important to determine the flute surface (Fig. 1(a)) of a ball
end mill because the flute of the ball component determines the
stiffness and the chip evacuation capability of the cutter. It is help-
ful to calculate and optimize the grinding wheel profile to obtain
a suitable flute. Although the flute surface can be obtained by car-
rying out a simulation with commercial software, this paper will
instead present a direct calculation for the points of the flute sur-
face. For a designed rake face and a given grinding wheel geometry,
the formation of the flute surface during the grinding process for
the rake face of a ball end mill will be presented.
The flute surface of the ball part is determined by enveloping
the surface generated by the grinding wheel’s movement along the
cutting edge, and it is limited by the ball surface of the workpiece.
This flute surface consists of three components (1) rear surface of
Fig. 9. Generated surface formed by moving wheel: (1) rear surface, (2) swept
surface and (3) front surface.
the grinding wheel at the initial position, (2) swept surface gen-
erated during the motion of the grinding wheel and (3) the front
surface of the grinding wheel at the final position as shown in
Fig. 9.
The points on the swept surface (2) are determined on the ba-
sis of the key idea that, the grinding wheel is tangent at all times
to the swept envelope along a sweeping profile, as shown in Fig. 9.
Therefore, at any point P along the swept surface (2), the unit nor-
mal vector, N (P ), is parallel to the vector normal to the swept sur-
face at that instant. In addition, the velocity vector, V (P ), of point P
must be tangent to the swept surface. Therefore, the swept surface
(2) can be determined based on the tangency condition [13,14]:
N (P ) · V (P ) = 0. (22)
However, the rear surface (1) is a part of the wheel surface,
which is limited by the ball surface of the workpiece at the initial
position, and satisfies N (P ) · V (P ) < 0. The front surface (3) is
a part of the wheel surface at the final position, which satisfies
N (P ) · V (P ) > 0.
The location of the wheel center and the unit vector (∥I ∥ = 1)
of the wheel axis orientation in Eqs. (14) and (15)in workpiece
22 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26

Fig. 10. Notation for calculating flute surface: (a) wheel profile, (b) local coordinate system setting.

∂ SW (u,θ ,t ) ∂ SW (u,θ ,t )
coordinates can be parameterized as follows: ∂θ
× ∂u
N (P ) =  
 ∂ SW (u,θ ,t ) ∂ SW (u,θ ,t ) 
rG (t ) = (rOGix , rOGiy , rOGiz ) (23)  ∂θ × ∂u 

Î (t ) = (Iix , Iiy , Iiz ). (24) cos θ X̂L + sin θ ŶL − ṙ (u)ẐL

= . (29)
1 + ṙ 2 (u)

The movement of the grinding wheel can be defined using the
trajectory of the wheel center, rG (t ), and the tool axis orientation, By applying V (P ) · N (P ) = 0 to Eqs. (28) and (29) we obtain the
I (t ), as shown in Fig. 10(b). A local coordinate system XL YL ZL is following:
located at the wheel center, and it is established as follows:
(ṙG · X̂L + ∥İ ∥r (u)ṙ (u) + ∥İ ∥u) cos θ + ṙG · ŶL sin θ
ẐL = Î
− ṙ (u)ṙG · ẐL = 0. (30)
X̂L = İ /∥İ ∥ (25)
ŶL = ẐL × X̂L . By solving Eq. (30), the contact line between the wheel surface
and the swept surface is obtained. The points on the generated
The axial cross-section of the grinding wheel with the width, surface (2) in Fig. 9 are determined by θ (u, t ), which is obtained
L, in the XL ZL plane of the local coordinate system is modeled, as from Eq. (30). The generated surface types (1) and (3) made by the
in Fig. 10(a). The parametric equations of the revolution surface of moving wheel when it moves from the initial position (t = 0) to
the wheel can be obtained by rotating a curve along the ZL -axis, as the final position (t = tf ) can be easily calculated. The generated
described in Eq. (26): surface (1) is a part of the wheel surface that satisfies
V (P ) · N (P ) < 0. (31)
SW (u, θ, t ) = rG (t ) + r (u) cos θ X̂L + r (u) sin θ ŶL + uẐL . (26)
For type (3), it satisfies
Eq. (22) was written for the general case [12]. Finding the
V (P ) · N (P ) > 0. (32)
expression of V (P ) and N (P ) is difficult, as previously stated [13].
However, the expressions of V (P ) and N (P ) in Eq. (22) can be The flute surface generated by moving wheel in Eq. (31) can be
determined by following the procedures given below. determined through the results of Eqs. (30)–(32). Moreover, this
In the cross section of the wheel surface that is normal to the surface is limited by the ball surface in the positive direction of the
wheel axis I, offset from the wheel center a distance u in the ZL X -axis in workpiece coordinates; thus, Eqs. (33)(b) and (c) must be
axis, taking a point P in that cross-section at an angle, θ , measured added to determine the points in the generated surface of a ball
from the axis XL as shown in Fig. 10(a). The velocity of point P and end mill.
the normal of wheel surface at point P are determined in workpiece 
coordinates as follows:
r (θ , u, t ) = rG (t ) + uẐL + r (u)(X̂L cos θ + ŶL sin θ ) (a)
∥r (θ , u, t )∥ ≤ R (b) (33)
V (P ) = V (G) + ΩG × rGP rx (θ , u, t ) ≥ 0. (c)


= ṙG + ∥İ ∥ŶL × (r (u) cos θ X̂L + r (u) sin θ ŶL + uẐL )
where, ΩG = ∥I I×∥İ2 = ∥İ ∥ŶL , is the instantaneous angular velocity
of the wheel about point G. Thus:
V (P ) = ṙG + u∥İ ∥X̂L − ∥İ ∥r (u) cos θ ẐL .
The normal of the wheel surface at point P can be calculated as
follows:
(27) In addition, the rake face is designed to be a developable surface
with a constant normal vector along the line segment Ci Ki as
established in Eq. (13) and a wheel location determined by Eqs.
(14) and (15). Then, the contact line of the side face of the wheel
is always the line segment Ci Ki as shown in Appendix A. There is
(28) also one portion of the contact line that lies in the edge part of the
grinding wheel. In this paper, we will consider only the contact line
in the edge of the side face that directly generates the rake face
because the width of the wheel (L) is chosen to be large enough so
 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26 23

a b c d
5
4
3 6
2 5
1 4
0 3
-1 2
-2 1
-3
0 4
-4
-1 2
-5 0 1 0
2 3 -2
4 5 6 -4
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Fig. 11. Generation of flute surface: (a) cutting edge, (b) wheel profile, (c) flute surface generated by VERICUT, (d) flute surface calculated from the proposed model.

Fig. 12. Results of simulation of the grinding of ball end mill (R = 6 mm, γn = 0°, β = 25° and αo = 11°).

that only the edge part of the side face is involved in the material
removal process. This portion of the contact line is the transition
contact line between the side face and the revolution surface. The
ends of this portion of the contact line are Ki at the bottom line and
Ki1 which can be obtained from Eq. (30) at u = 0.
5. Verification of model via simulation and experiment
To verify the model of ball end mill manufacturing, a simulation
of the grinding process to fabricate the ball part of a ball end mill
was performed. Additionally, a ball end mill was manufactured
under the same conditions as those used in the simulation, thus
enabling a comparison between the two. A target ball end mill was
made with a radius of R = 6 mm, a normal rake angle of γn = 0°,
a helix angle of β = 25°, clearance angle, α0 = 11°. The cutting
edge was determined by Eq. (5) and it is shown in Fig. 11(a). The
equation of the bottom curve is described by Eq. (34) (c1 = 0.25,
c2 = 0.15):

Ci Ki = (0.25 + 0.15x/R) R2 − x2 where, 0 ≤ x ≤ R.
Fig. 11(c) and (d) show simulation results of the generated
helical flute of the ball part with a given wheel profile, which is
described in the XL ZL plane via wheel coordinates, as shown in
Fig. 11(b). Fig. 11(c) was generated using the commercial software
VERICUT for rake face generation and Fig. 11(d) is the result of the
calculation of the flute surface using Eqs. (30)–(33).
Fig. 11(d) was created using the simulation program that
was implemented using MATLAB version 7.9; the program was
executed on a PC with the following components: processor:
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo; CPU: 2.2 GHz; and 2 GB of RAM equipped
with an Intel graphics card of 256 MB. First, the cutting edge and
grinding wheel are divided into 180 points each (Ci in Fig. 11(d))
and 100 points along the wheel profile (∆u = L/100). Then, the
contact lines are calculated and depicted as a black line for the
revolution part and a pink line for the side face. The transition
contact line along the edge of the side face of the grinding wheel is
also calculated. The contact lines are shown at points Ci (i = 30, 60,
90, 120, 150) in Fig. 11(d), in which the two end points Ki and Ki1 of
the transition contact line are too close to be observed distinctly in
the figure. The generated flute surface (Fig. 11(d)) is rendered by
tiling the contact lines with the Patch-Function in MATLAB to be
compared with Fig. 11(c). The computation time of our program
is approximately 4 s, and the computation time of VERICUT is
approximately 4 s for the lowest resolution and 12 s for the highest
resolution; however, the computation time depends heavily on the
number of divided points in the cutting edge and wheel profile.
The simulation results in Fig. 11(c) and (d) are well matched which
means that carrying out analytical calculation is faster and more
economical than using commercial software (VERICUT).
To validate the mathematical analysis developed in the previ-
ous sections, simulations were performed with the designed ball
end mill using VERICUT as shown in Fig. 12. The ball end mill was
manufactured with a 5-axis CNC grinding machine on the basis of
(34)
the model developed in this paper, as shown in Fig. 13.
To simulate the grinding process, the machine parameters of
the 5-axis CNC grinding machine are measured. The parameters of
the wheel geometry and the value of the machine setup are given
as inputs. The wheel locations are calculated and transformed into
NC code to be used in VERICUT and the 5-axis CNC grinding ma-
chine. The geometry of the ball end mill generated by the math-
ematical model shown in Fig. 13 agrees well with the simulation
result shown in Fig. 12. Detailed comparisons of the results from
experiments and simulations show that the rake and clearance
faces of the designed ball end mill were reasonably fabricated on
the basis of the results of the experiment, simulation, and design, as
shown in Figs. 14 and 15. In this section, all the figures are attached
with grids to show the matching between Figs. 11–14. With this
24 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26

Fig. 13. Ball end mill produced by the NC code from the manufacturing model (R = 6 mm, γn = 0°, β = 25° and αo = 11°).

Fig. 14. Comparison of the performance for the rake face: (a) by experiment, (b) by simulation (VERICUT), (c) design.

Fig. 15. Measurement of designed parameters at the normal plane.

grid, the results of experiment and simulation can be compared
quantitatively.
The rake face is designed according to the geometry of the
cutting edge and bottom curves, which are given by Eqs. (5) and
(33)(b), respectively, as shown in Fig. 14(c). The machined rake face
(Fig. 14(a)) agrees well with the simulated (Fig. 14(b)) and designed
(Fig. 14(c)) rake face. The direct measurement of the generated
sample that is shown in Fig. 13 is complicated; thus, a cross section
of the simulation result that is perpendicular to the cutting edge
at the connection point between the ball and the cylinder parts is
analyzed. The result shows that the measured design factors such
as the rake angle, clearance angle, radial depth of the rake face, and
the width of the clearance match well with the designed one, as
shown in Fig. 15.
In the experiment, CNC grinder (Maker: TIC) that consists of
5-axes with two rotational motions (A, W) and three linear motions
(X, Y, Z) is used, as shown in Fig. 16. The wheel center location
and the wheel axis orientation required for grinding the ball part
of a ball end mill are calculated in the workpiece coordinate
system using Eqs. (14) and (15). Then, the inverse kinematic
problem for the CNC grinder is solved to convert this data into
an NC program on the basis of the method that was presented in
previous study [11]. The machine measurements, wheel positions
in workpiece coordinates and the corresponding NC program in
 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26 25

Fig. 16. 5-axis CNC grinder: (a) External view, (b) Machine structure.

absolute mode (G90) for grinding the rake face are provided in a where r is position vector of the points that lie in the side face, and
supplemental file. Î (ϕ) is wheel axis orientation and is the normal vector of the side
face.
6. Conclusion The envelope S of the family U (ϕ) is found by intersecting the
plane U (ϕ)with the first derivative planes U̇ (ϕ) [15,16]:
A new mathematical model for grinding the ball part of a ball
U (ϕ) : Î (ϕ) · (r − rC (ϕ) ) = 0

end mill is proposed. The complete process for manufacturing a
S : d[Î (ϕ) · (r − rC (ϕ) )] (A.2)
ball end mill is formulated, including processes such as modeling U̇ (ϕ) : = 0.
the rake and clearance faces. The helical flute surface of the ball end dϕ
mill is analytically calculated and verified by means of simulation The equation of plane U̇ (ϕ) is simplified as follows:
and experiment. The study is summarized as follows:
1. The rake face is modeled by using cutting edge and bottom d[Î (ϕ) · (r − rC (ϕ) )]
U̇ (ϕ) :
curve equations as a developable surface, which allows the rake dϕ
face to be generated by using the side face of the grinding wheel. = İ (ϕ) · (r − rC (ϕ) ) − ṙC (ϕ)  Î (ϕ) · T̂ (ϕ)
 
Models for grinding the clearance face with both flat and concave
shapes are suggested. = İ (ϕ) · (r − rC (ϕ) ) = 0. (A.3)
2. On the basis of the cutting edge and the suggested bottom At certain ϕ , this yields a straight line r (ϕ). Hence, the envelope
curve, we propose the conditions for engagement between the surface S is a ruled surface which is tangent along each ruling r (ϕ)
wheel surface and the designed rake face, such that interference to a single plane (namely U (ϕ)). It is well known in differential ge-
between the two is avoided. Consequently, the wheel location ometry that this characterizes the surface as developable surface.
along the cutting edge is determined to machine the rake face and The next step is to show the intersecting line, r (ϕ), is the line
the clearance with reasonable precision. Ci Ki . Note that Eq. (A.3) is equation of the plane with normal, İ (ϕ),
3. The configuration of the flute surface is computed directly which has the same direction with tangent vector of the cutting
from the designed rake face and the given wheel profile without edge as shown as follows:
using commercial software for simulation, which not only offers
dÎ (ϕ) (cos γ d(N̂ × T̂ ) − sin γ dN̂ )
more convenience, but also lowers the cost of the process. İ (ϕ) = =
dϕ dϕ
 
Acknowledgments ∥ṙ ∥ dT̂ ∥ṙ ∥
= cos γ T̂ × T̂ + N̂ × − sin γ T̂
R dϕ R
This research was supported by the Leading Foreign Research
Institute Recruitment Program through the National Research ∥ṙ ∥
= kn cos γ N̂ × N̂F − sin γ T̂
Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, R
Science and Technology (MEST, 2011-00260), the Industrial 
∥ṙ ∥

Core Technology Development Project through the Ministry = kn cos γ sin ψ − sin γ T̂ (A.4)
of Knowledge Economy (Grant number:10035641) and Konkuk R
University. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers for their where N̂F , kn and ψ are the principal normal vector, normal curva-
suggestions for improving this paper. ture and the angle between the principal normal vector N̂F and the
normal of the sphere N̂ at point C on the cutting edge, respectively.
Appendix A It is obvious that from Eq. (A.4) the plane U̇ (ϕ) passes through
point C, and its normal vector, İ (ϕ), is the same direction with tan-
In this appendix the required derivations to show that the gent vector of cutting edge as shown in Eq. (A.4). Thus, it can be
contact line in the side face of the grinding wheel is the Ci Ki are concluded that the contact line is the intersecting line between
given. U (ϕ) and U̇ (ϕ), it is also the line Ci Ki as shown in Fig. A.1.
As grinding wheel moves along the cutting edge, the side face
of grinding wheel generates a one-parameter family of planes. This Appendix B. Supplementary data
one-parameter family of planes is represented as:
Supplementary material related to this article can be found
U (ϕ) : Î (ϕ) · (r − rC (ϕ) ) = 0 (A.1) online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cad.2014.01.002.
26 H. Nguyen, S.-L. Ko / Computer-Aided Design 50 (2014) 16–26
Fig. A.1. The contact line the side face of the grinding wheel.
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