Fundamental Investigations Into Burr Formation and Damage Mechanisms in the Micro-Milling of a Biomedical Grade Polymer

The demand for micro-machined polymer components has been rapidly growing for a number of years in various diverse applications. These polymer components often require high surface finishes and excellent dimensional accuracies, meeting these specifications requires a deeper understanding of material behavior and cutting performance during micro-machining. A lack of published literature relating to polymer machining increases the production challenge as cutting strategies employed are often based on trial and error with heuristic solutions developed. This work explains material behavior and machining outcomes by focusing on the study of the various damage mechanisms encountered during the micro-machining of a biomedical grade polymer. The importance of the material removal mechanism is highlighted with up-milling shown to produce a superior surface finish on average. The role of speed and feed in the generation of machined surfaces is examined with suboptimal settings shown to produce unwanted thermal influences and significant material deformations.