Ball-end milling is one of the most common manufacturing processes for the parts with sculptured surface. However, the conventional roughness model is not suitable for the evaluation of surface texture and roughness under highly efficient machining conditions. Therefore, a different approach is needed for the accurate evaluation of machined surface. In this study, a new method, named 'Ridge method', is proposed for the effective prediction of the geometrical roughness and the surface topology in ball-end milling. Theoretical analysis of a machined surface texture was performed considering the actual trochoidal trajectories of cutting edge. The characteristic lines of cut remainder are defined as three-types of 'Ridges' and their mathematical equations are derived from the surface generation mechanism of ball-end milling process. The predicted results are compared with the results of conventional method. The agreement between the results predicted by the proposed method and the values calculated by the simulation method shows that the analytic equations presented in this paper are useful for evaluating a geometrical surface roughness of ball-end milling process.
