Development of a simplified machine for measuring geometric parameters of end mills

A simplified machine for measuring tool geometry of end mills is presented in this paper. The images of the cutting tools were captured by a CCD camera and converted to digital signals through a software compression device, and then shown on a monitor. In addition, two linear scales were mounted on the X-Y table for the positioning and measuring purposes. The C++ Builder software was used for designing the human machine interfaces of the measuring system of end mills. Finally, a well-known tool measuring and inspection machine was utilized for measuring standard. This study makes a comparison between the measuring results employing the inspection machine and the proposed measuring system. Experimental results show that the percent of measuring error is acceptable for some geometric parameters of the square or the ball nose end mills. Thus the results demonstrate the proposed method is effective in measuring the parameters of end mills.