A 5-axis coordinated CNC grinding method for the flank of a non-coaxial helical micro-drill with the cylinder grinding wheel

Micro-drilling become more widely used from precision mechanics to electronics. Nowadays, the main commercial tools are planar point micro-drills. However, that geometry often causes a high thrust force, high temperature, and rapid wear during micro-drilling. Furthermore, it is difficult to adjust the four flank surfaces to accurately intersect at one point, particularly when the drill diameter becomes smaller. To solve this problem, non-coaxial helical drills points have been proposed by some researchers, and is characterized by a continuous helical flank instead of the piecewise planar flank. Its drilling performance is improved compared with planar drill point. This study presents a 5-axis coordinated CNC grinding method of the non-coaxial helical drill flank. Mathematical models of the drill flank and its engagement line between cylinder grinding wheel and drill tool are established, and then the path of the grinding wheel with respect to the drill tool is obtained. In order to verify the availability of the proposed methods, three dimension (3D) grinding simulation of non-coaxial helical drills with diameter 0.5mm was carried out using the CAD software, and then were fabricated on a 6-axis Makino CNC tool grinder. The ground micro-drills examined by 3D laser scanning microscope show good identity with the simulated result. These indicate that the manufacturing model presented in this paper provides a practical and efficient method to grind the flank of a non-coaxial helical micro-drill.