Int. J. Machining and Machinability of Materials, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2012 137 Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Cutting force prediction depending on process parameters by response surface methodology in milling P.S. Sivasakthivel* Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore – 641 049, Tamil Nadu, India Fax: 91-422-2669406 E-mail: sakthi_2011@yahoo.co.in *Corresponding author V. Vel Murugan Sree Sakthi Engineering College, Coimbatore – 641 104, Tamil Nadu, India Fax: 91-425-4272495 E-mail: velgoudham_v@yahoo.com R. Sudhakaran Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore – 641 049, Tamil Nadu, India Fax: 91-422-2669406 E-mail: absudha@yahoo.com Abstract: Cutting forces should be kept in minimum to reduce tool deflection, vibration and tool wear. Mathematical model has been developed to predict the cutting forces in terms of process parameters such as helix angle of cutting tool, spindle speed, feed rate, axial and radial depth of cut. Response surface methodology was employed to create a mathematical model and the adequacy of the model was verified using analysis of variance. The experiments were conducted on aluminium Al 6063 by high speed steel end mill cutter and the cutting forces were measured using milling tool dynamometer. The direct and interaction effect of the process parameter with cutting forces were analysed, which helped to select process parameter in order to keep cutting forces minimum, which ensures the stability of end milling process. Keywords: response surface; cutting force; analysis of variance; mathematical model. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Sivasakthivel, P.S., Vel Murugan, V. and Sudhakaran, R. (2012) ‘Cutting force prediction depending on process parameters by response surface methodology in milling’, Int. J. Machining and Machinability of Materials, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp.137–153.