Identification and Elimination of Blade-Root Fillet Overcutting Interference for Integral Impeller Plunge Milling

As a prominent high-efficiency metal cutting process, plunge milling has found increasing applications in the rough machining of integral impellers. However, challenges arise due to the time-consuming process of avoiding interference-induced overcutting at the blade-root fillet, leading to excessive residual material. Consequently, the full potential of plunge milling’s high-efficiency advantages is constrained. To address these issues, a method to avoid overcutting caused by cutter interference at the blade-root fillet in integral impeller plunge milling is proposed. First, a parameterized model of the blade-root fillet is established using a rolling ball model. Second, a semi-analytical model for identifying cutter interference at the blade-root fillet is established through micro-element discretization. Lastly, the cutter position is adjusted along the direction of the vertical cutter axis vector to avoid overcutting. The modeling error of the blade-root fillet remains within 0.1%, ensuring high accuracy in overcut detection. Furthermore, the identification process is completed in less than 1s, demonstrating its computational efficiency. Compared with the conventional depth-reduction method, the proposed interference elimination strategy reduces the excessive residual material volume by 66% while avoiding overcutting, with only a 26% increase in plunge roughing time. Simulation and experimental validation on an 820 mm diameter impeller confirm the method’s effectiveness in balancing interference avoidance and material removal efficiency.