Minimization of Surface Roughness and Machining Deformation in Milling of Al Alloy Thin-Walled Parts

This study focused on investigating the surface roughness in the feed direction ( R a -Fd ), surface roughness in the transverse direction ( R a -Td ), and thin-walled parts deformation (TWD) during milling of Al alloy 5083. The response surface method (RSM) was used to conduct experiments and establish the models of R a -Fd , R a -Td , and TWD under various cutting parameters. The significance of cutting parameters on R a -Fd , R a -Td , and TWD was analyzed by analysis of variance. It was observed that the R a -Fd and R a -Td are mainly influenced by the spindle speed, depth of cut, transverse size and feed rate, while the TWD is mainly influenced by the depth of cut. A comparison of RSM-optimum function and artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm optimum programming was conducted to obtain the best cutting conditions leading to minimum R a -Fd , R a -Td and TWD simultaneously. From the presented results, ABC algorithm was able to obtain the better cutting strategy. Finally, the performance of the proposed cutting strategy was verified by confirmation experiments.