The burr on micro part has harmful effect on the dimensional accuracy and service performance. The original control of exit burr formation during micro milling is desirable and advisable. In this paper, the formation mechanism of exit burr was studied based on the varying cutting direction during micro milling. Three exit burr control strategies were concluded, the material properties embrittlement, the support stiffness increasing and machining parameter optimizing operations. Then, micro milling experiments were carried out to investigate the exit burr morphology and size. It was found that the exit burr formation was attributed to the change of material flowing path at the exit surface, which was caused by the negative shear deformation zone that was induced by the discontinuous shape features. Different exit burr morphologies were classified; the triangle exit burr type was caused by the varying exit burr growing direction along the exit surface. The optimal machining parameters in micro milling to obtain a small exit burr were suggested.
Keywords: burr shape; burr width; exit burr formation; micro milling.