The main objective of this research is to develop an empirical model-based control mechanism to maintain a fine surface finish quality by maintaining on-line cutting force values. The proposed model has been developed to present the control model constraints, by varying the machining parameters to control the force output to be constant. To relate the surface finish and the cutting force in the end milling machining process, a design of experiment has been conducted to determine the effect of two different materials (aluminium and steel) and the machining parameters (feed rate, spindle speed) at a predefined depth of cut.

Regression model has been applied to derive an empirical relationship of the surface finish and the cutting force versus the machining parameters for the two mentioned materials. These relationships have been applied to develop the proposed mathematical simulation model, in which the cutting force is adjusted to improve the required surface finish for the end milling operation process.

The results provide means of greater efficiency by improving the surface quality, minimizing the effect of the process variablity and reducing the error cost in finishing operations.